This paper puts forward an argument for re-thinking the nature and function of English and English Education, especially the teaching of literature, and proposes a model of empathic intelligence, which helps to formulate how much re-shaping might occur. The paper states that English literacy educators have relied for far too long on a hybrid theory of English Education pedagogy, borrowing from allied disciplines, such as literary criticism, philosophy, psychology, sociology, linguistics, and other disciplines. For the paper, the focus is on enabling feelings such as enthusiasm, joy, awe, excitement, and at times, dread, to be managed, shaped, and transformed through reflective thought, through talk with others, and through various embodied, symbolic experiences. According to the paper, it is timely to reconsider priorities in the light of postmodernism and technological advances and to reaffirm what is fundamentally the core business of English teaching in contemporary contexts. The paper does not represent a call for a return to old orthodoxies, but a call to consider the worlds of current students and to attempt to hypothesize what skills, abilities, and attitudes they need to function effectively in a global, increasingly dynamic world. It argues for a call to re-energize the teaching of literature and multi-literacies by mobilizing a particular dynamic between thinking and feeling. (Contains 147 references.) (NKA)