ABSTRACT
Latter-day Saint theology is full of references to shared feeling—what contemporary discourse identifies as empathy. This chapter argues for the centrality of empathic experience in Latter-day Saint theology, understood as distinct from, though often connected to, compassion. It then applies contemporary philosophical theorizing about empathy to sketch an account of the nature and role of empathic experience in the Latter-day Saint tradition. It concludes that the tradition has a distinctive emphasis on divine and embodied empathic experience, and has the potential for rich contributions to discourse considering the sacred nature of shared feeling.
