Table of Contents

Illustrations ix

Abbreviations x

Acknowledgments xii

Introduction 1

Part I The Current Reality 23

1 The Place of Friendship 25

2 Coexisting Friendship Worlds 47

Part II A Deep Remembering – Friendship, Community, Resistance 73

3 Friendship and First Testament Writings 75

4 Friendship and Second Testament Writings 94

5 Friendship in Classical and Christian Traditions 107

Bridge: Shifts in Vision 122

Part III Theology, Friendship, and the Social Imagination 137

6 Mutuality: God, Creation and Community 139

7 Open Friendship, Becoming Kin, and the Human Vocation 159

8 Love, Spirit-Shaped Friendships, and Friendship-Shaped Communities 171

Part IV Practicing Friendship 195

9 Friendship and Community: Ideals and Implementation 197

Conclusion 213

Appendix: A Correlational Approach to Theological Reflection 217

Glossary 227

Index 230

About the Author

Anne-Marie Ellithorpe is Research Associate at the Vancouver School of Theology. She is co-editor of Visions of the End Times: Revelations of Hope and Challenge, Co-Chair of the AAR seminar unit Religious Reflections on Friendship, and a member of the Society of Christian Ethics, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the International Academy of Practical Theology.