Towards Friendship-Shaped Communities: A Practical Theology of Friendship. Anne-Marie Ellithorpe

would be well to trust to their friendship rather than to great wisdom.” Merry tells Frodo: “You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin – to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours – closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo…” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954), 103. Friendships (characterized by loyalty, courage, honesty, and hospitality, along with shared insight, interests, and vision) also feature in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, originally published in the 1950s.

      49 49 Rutledge, Battle, 115.

      50 50 Texts focused on love of neighbor include Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 5:43, Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14, and James 2:8.

      51 51 Karl Barth, Ethics, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (New York: Seabury, 1981), 189.

      52 52 Barth, Ethics, 189, 190.

      53 53 Emil Brunner, The Divine Imperative: A Study in Christian Ethics, trans. Olive Wyon (London: Lutterworth, 1937), 517.

      54 54 Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros, trans. A.G. Hebert (London: SPCK, 1932), ch. 8.

      55 55 Nygren, Agape and Eros, 138.

      56 56 Alan Vincelette, “Introduction,” in The Problem of Love in the Middle Ages: A Historical Contribution, ed. Pierre Rousselot (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2001), 11.

      57 57 Nygren, Agape and Eros, ch. 8.

      58 58 See Martin Marty, “F is for Friendship: A Theological Dictionary,” The Christian Century, 24 February 2009.

      59 59 John Burnaby, Amor Dei: A Study of the Religion of St. Augustine (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1938), 311. Yet depicting God as a cozy and tolerant companion, thus trivializing what could otherwise be a transformative relationship, is identified as kitsch piety.

      60 60 Simone Weil, “Friendship,” in Waiting for God (New York: HarperCollins, 1951).

      61 61 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics [“Ethik”], trans. Neville Horton Smith (London: SCM, 1955), 253 n.1.

      62 62 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 3rd ed. (London: SCM, 1971), 192.

      63 63 Reformed understandings of the moral or ethical life focused on family, work, the state, and church. Liz Carmichael, Friendship: Interpreting Christian Love (London: T&T Clark, 2004), 160.

      64 64 Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 192–193.

      65 65 Carmichael, Friendship, 161.

      66 66 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 253 n.1.

      67 67 C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960), 69–70.

      68 68 Lewis, The Four Loves, 84.

      69 69 See Jason Lepojärvi, “Does Eros Seek Happiness? A Critical Analysis of C. S. Lewis’s Reply to Anders Nygren,” Neue Zeitschrift Für Systematische Theologie Und Religionsphilosophie 53, no. 2 (2011): 210.

      70 70 See Risto Saarinen, “Eros and Protestantism: From Nygren to Milbank,” in Gudstankens aktualitet: Bidrag om teologiens opgave og indhold og protestantismens indre spændinger, ed. E. Wiberg Pedersen (Copenhagen: Anis, 2010), 344–346.

      71 71 Jürgen Moltmann, The Source of Life: The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life (London: SCM, 1997), 1–9.

      72 72 Jürgen Moltmann, The Open Church: Invitation to a Messianic Lifestyle (London: SCM, 1978), 50–63. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit: A Contribution to Messianic Ecclesiology (New York: Harper & Row, 1977), 114–121.

      73 73 Moltmann, Church in the Power of the Spirit, 115.

      74 74 Moltmann, Church in the Power of the Spirit, 116.

      75 75 Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1995), 19.

      76 76 Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics, 20.

      77 77 Sallie McFague, Metaphorical Theology: Models of God in Religious Language (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982); Sallie McFague, Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987). In these earlier works Sallie McFague (1933-2019) focused on metaphorical theology. In her later works she focused on ecological theology. In her 2013 book she described herself as “a theologian who investigates the connections of religion with economics and ecology” and observed that “we live within our models and make decisions on the basis of them.” Sallie McFague, Blessed Are the Consumers: Climate Change and the Practice of Restraint (Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2013), ix, xii. Her final book is A New Climate for Christology: Kenosis, Climate Change, and Befriending Nature (Fortress Press, 2021).

      78 78 McFague, Models of God, 159.

      79 79 McFague, Models of God, 159.

      80 80 McFague, Models of God, 159.

      81 81 Paul J. Wadell, Friendship and the Moral Life (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1989), 120, 142.

      82 82 Paul J. Wadell, Becoming Friends: Worship, Justice and the Practice of Christian Friendship (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2002).

      83 83 Tobias Winright, “Thanks Be to God for Paul J. Wadell: Essays in Honor of a Friend and His Work,” Journal of Moral Theology 10, no. 1 (2021): 106–107.

      84 84 Paul D. O’Callaghan, The Feast of Friendship (Wichita: Eighth Day, 2002).

      85