Ternura y emociones: Una propuesta teológica en diálogo con el giro afectivo contemporáneo

Abstract

In recent decades, the so-called affective turn has significantly reshaped the way human sciences understand experience, knowledge, and social life. This article offers a theological dialogue with this contemporary sensibility through an emerging category: tenderness. From a fundamental theological perspective, it examines the cognitive value of emotions, traces the presence of tenderness in Sacred Scripture, explores its theological implications in the work of Carlo Rocchetta, and highlights its central role in Pope Francis’ pastoral vision. Far from reducing tenderness to a fleeting or decorative feeling, this paper presents it as an embodied form of love, a hermeneutical key to understanding God’s action, and a concrete path for spiritual and social transformation.