The Tender Gaze

By exploring the concept of the tender gaze in German film, theater, and literature, this volume's contributors illustrate how perspective-taking in works of art fosters empathy and prosocial behaviors.

The way I understand the gaze of God to have a defining influence on spiritual growth and development has, as its overarching image, the way a mother gazes at her infant at the breast: It is a gaze that is tender; all-absorbing; exclusive; filled with wonder and love; tranquil; and protective. Just as the mother’s gaze engages the infant in a dialogue without words and provokes a response, so too the gaze of God evokes a response from the human heart. Just as the mutual gaze of mother and infant sets up a relationship which becomes the basis of communication, so too the mutual gaze of God and the soul become the basis for prayer. The main insight of the book is that the movement into union with God is circular rather than linear; that it is not exclusively a movement into something new, something that has not previously occurred, but is also, and more importantly, a movement towards recapturing something which has already existed, namely, that relationship we enjoyed, albeit pre-consciously, at our mother’s breast when God looked upon us and saw that we were very good.