'Frequently with groans & tears have I said before the Lord: 'O that I could meet with a friend as divinely inlightened and as faithfull as her I have lost, it would be worth going over red hot bars of iron to purchase, but tho' I know of some of the Excellent of the Earth... yet friendship is so immediately the gift of God, that we cannot form it when we will, there must be similitude of mind, a something which God alone can give...' Mary Bosanquet Fletcher, Autobiography.I am preparing a paper on the meanings of friendship in the autobiography of Mary Bosanquet Fletcher, a famous early Methodist preacher and pastor. Bosanquet Fletcher had a series of intense friendships with other Methodist women, which were incredibly important to her in practical, spiritual and emotional ways. While she worried about the dangers of such friendships becoming idolatrous, she also celebrated the importance and value of friendship in the life of the believer, as a gift of God. It has made me conscious that I haven't seen much theological work on 'friendship'. Can anyone recommend a book or two?
6 comments:
Hmm, I immediately thought of Epicurus (a non-theological source, though). A trusted circle or group of friends was one of his keys to a fulfilled and peaceful life (others including self-reflection and self-sufficiency of the individual or community).
For theological sources, then possibly Christine Pohl's work on hospitality might have something in it, as might theological reflections upon 'koinonia'.
(I'm sure there's quite a bit about friendship in Pohl's co-authored book 'Living on the boundaries').
There also might be something in Grenz' 'Created for Community' and here in L. Gregory Jones' article 'Friends'
http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=2166
Of course, in all your spare time post-PhD you could write a short book on it :-)
Yep, sounds like a good writing project to me!
Two books I've found helpful:
Gilbert Meilaender, Friendship: A Study in Theological Ethics (Notre Dame, 1985)
John W. Crossin, Friendship: The Key to Spiritual Growth (Paulist, 1997)
Two more on the philsophy of friendship:
Ray Pahl, On Friendship (Polity, 2000)
Graham Little, Friendship: Being Ourselves with Others (Text, 1993)
Also two journal editions devoted to the topic:
Radix 23/4
Interpretation 58/2
Thank you both very much - I'll follow up those suggestions. I have 'Living on the boundaries' and 'Created for Community', but the others are new to me!
Not a problem. Looking forward to your forthcoming book - "Spiritual Friendships Through the Ages" :-)
Brian Edgar, the Public Theology guy at EA (Evangelical Alliance) gave an intersting talk on Jesus' calling his disciples his "friends." It's an interestign piece of theological reflection on friendship as a model of discipleship. You can download it as a pdf file, from the Kingsley homepage under "Other" - "Downlods" - "Papers" - "Friends of God."
I'll definitely credit you if I use that title, Stephen!
Thanks for that link, Glen - the 'friendships of Jesus' issue is interesting. Did Jesus have favorites? (the disciple who Jesus loved, for example?) I worried about that as a child!
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