A theology of friendship - who knows where to start?

Radical Believer asked in his comment about a theology of friendship. My own study and thought has tended to explore the wider range of human experiences gathered under the multi-referential term love. Friendship is one expression of human love, and the classic exposition of love, friendship, affection and eros is C S Lewis, The Four Loves. Lewis's book suffers from the qualities and limitations of all Lewis's work. It is sexist, partial and at times infuriatingly condescending, with the tone of the University Common room of the mid-20th Century. But it is also written by a man who had married late, out of compassion which had grown from intellectual companionship to a love the intensity of which makes A Grief Observed one of the most genuine documents ever written on human love and loss. As well as which, Lewis is a moral writer, not moralistic, but ethically alert to those inner mechanisms of motive, human relationships, intellectual and emotional intelligence. So his book is still my starting point - and I've just used it again as a way into a quite significant theological exploration of love as self-giving. The scanned picture is of my hardback First Edition :))

A theology of friendship has been explored recently in several interesting contexts. One in particular is of significant interest to me. Friendship has become a major theme in developing an adequate theology of disability. Receiving the Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological Anthropology and Ethics by Hans Reinders is a substantial exploration of what it means to be human. The relation between our humanity and our capacity for friendship is the context within which Reinders explores the theological significance, and ethical implications of what it means to be a friend. In the background are two of the most important figures in the past 60 years, so far as our understanding of humanity and friendship are concerned. Jean Vanier and Henri Nouwen live the theology of friendship, and friendship is defined in the actions and dispositions we inhabit as we love and accompany others in life together.

But radical believer is looking for starting points. Can readers of this blog suggest some of these in the comments? Who knows what to read, where to look for theological reflection on friendship? And you poets out there - poems on friendship?
 

Comments

[Sean]

Hi Jim

You did ask. Here is what Endnote threw up for me
Burrell, David B., Friendship and Ways to Truth (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000).

Carmichael, E. D. H., Friendship: Interpreting Christian Love (London / New York: T & T Clark International, 2004).

Derrida, Jacques, Politics of Friendship, trans. George Collins (London / New York: Verso, 1997).

Fowl, Stephen E., Philippians (Two Horizons New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids / Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2005).

Friedman, Marilyn, What Are Friends For?: Feminist Perspectives on Personal Relationships and Moral Theory (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1993).

Hauerwas, Stanley, ''The Friend': Reflections on Friendship and Freedom', in Bernd Wannenwetsch (ed.), Who Am I?: Bonhoeffer's Theology Through His Poetry (London: T & T Clark, 2009), 91-113.

Hauerwas, Stanley and Yordy, Laura, 'Captured in Time: Friendship and Aging', in A Better Hope: Resources for a Church Confronting Capitalism, Democracy and Postmodernity (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2000), 173-187.

Lapsley, Jacqueline C., 'Friends with God?: Moses and the Possibility of Covenantal Friendship,' Interpretation, 58 (2004), 117-129.

Meilander, Gilbert C., Friendship: A Study in Theological Ethics (Revisions; Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981).

Moltmann-Wendel, Elizabeth, Rediscovering Friendship, trans. John Bowden (London: SCM, 2000).

Swinton, John (ed.), Critical Reflections on Satnley Hauerwas' Theology of Disability: Disabling Society, Enabling Theology (Binghampton NY: Haworth Pastoral, 2004).

Vernon, Mark, The Philosophy of Friendship (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).

Wadell, Paul J., Becoming Friends: Worship, Justice and the Practice of Christian Friendship (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2002).

Perhaps I could also add my contribution to the forthcoming volume on Baptist Hermeneutic:
Winter, Sean F., 'Reading with Friends: Persuasive Testimony in Baptist Interpretative Communities', in Simon P. Woodman and Helen Dare (eds.), The 'Plainly Revealed' Word of God: Baptist Hermeneutics in Theory and Practice (Macon GA: Mercer University Press, forthcoming 2011).

[catriona]

Without checking my bookshelves (and I'm in the wrong location at the moment) I can't be precise, but there are lots of bits on friendship in some of the better works on theologies of singleness. I think, but may be wrong, that Nicola Slee has done some work in this area. I also recall that Sean Winter has done some thinking on friendship and has some unpublished work on theological-Biblical perspectives.

[James Faddes]

Hi Jim,

Just passing by and noticed your request.
One of the little chapters I oft return to on this is Jurgen Moltmann in his hard-to-comeby title 'The Open Church', 1978. In particular
Ch4. Open Friendship
(i)"Someone who likes you", (ii)The Friendship of Jesus, (iii)Friends of God, and (iv)Open Friendship.
Its excellent stuff.

If you like I'll bring it in and you can borrow it.

[Jim Gordon]

Thanks James. I have this book and thanks for recalling that chapter. Likemost else Moltmann writes, the combination of theology, pastoral intent and humane reflection on the contemporary world makes him an essential voicein the conversation.

[Brodie]

Jim - A friend has recently finished his PhD at Oxford on a theology of friendship. I'll ask him and see what he comes up with.