Review of <i>The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World</i>

An unmistakable irony, and perhaps some audacity is embedded in reviewing of a book called The War for Kindness in the Military Chaplaincy Review.How will a title that pairs the words "war" and "kindness" go over with an audience of people who minister to those who fight real wars?What might prompt them to push through the eye-rolling absurdity of this oxymoron on the cover, reach for the book and then actually read a few pages of the introduction?My answer is that Jamil Zaki's The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World is a book that encourages chaplains and other clergy to persevere in the very personal battle we fight to maintain and grow in empathy for those to whom we are called to minister.The great hazard in that work has not changed much since the time of the Old Testament prophets.We clergy keep proclaiming and the recipients of the message keep demonstrating their limited ability to hear.This fraught dynamic sows seeds of indifference and cynicism in us.Zaki's book is an invitation away from this well-trod path toward pastoral burnout.It is a scientific affirmation of a spiritual truth.Zaki provides encouragement to persevere in the work of inviting people to grow into a new mind.His book is a call to take note that the brain God made for us as humans has the capacity to grow new pathways that enable us as clergy to live transformed lives.