Friendship: Exploring Its Implications for the Church in Postmodernity

218 Pages·2009·1.335 MB·English

by  Steve Summers

Ecclesiological Investigations
Series Editor
Gerard Mannion
Volume 7
Friendship: Exploring its Implications
for the Church in Postmodernity
Other titles in the series:
Receiving ‘The Nature and Mission of the Church’
Christian Community Now
Comparative Ecclesiology: Critical Investigations
Church and Religious ‘Other’
Ecumenical Ecclesiology
Globalization and the Mission of the Church
Friendship: Exploring its
Implications for the Church
in Postmodernity
ECCLESIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS
Steve Summers
Published by T&T Clark
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Copyright # Steve Summers, 2009
Steve Summers has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group
ISBN: 978–0–567–49064–3 (Hardback)
Series Editor
GerardMannion,KatholiekeUniversiteitLeuven
Series Editorial Committee
MichaelAttridge,StMichael’sCollege, BradfordHinze,FordhamUniversity,New
UniversityofToronto York
PaulAvis,ChurchHouse,Westminster, PaulLakeland,FairfieldUniversity,
EditorofEcclesiology Connecticut,USA
MarkChapman,RiponTheological MaryMcClintockFulkerson,Duke
College,Cuddesdon,Oxfordshire University,USA
PaulCollins,UniversityofChichester PaulMurray,DurhamUniversity
PeterDeMey,KatholiekeUniversiteit GarethPowell,CardiffUniversity
Leuven AnthonyReddie,Queen’sFoundation,
MichaelFahey,BostonCollege,USA Birmingham,UK
FrKMGeorge,OldStJoseph’sSeminary, GemmaSimmonds,HeythropCollege,
Kottayam,India UniversityofLondon
KennethWilson,UniversityofChichester
Series Editorial Advisory Board
MichaelAttridge,StMichael’sCollege, MarkMason,UniversityofChichester
UniversityofToronto MichaelMontgomery,Chicago
PaulAvis,ChurchHouse,Westminster TheologicalSeminary
MarkChapman,RiponTheological PaulMurray,DurhamUniversity
College,Cuddesdon,Oxfordshire TimothyMuldoon,BostonCollege,USA
JulieClague,GlasgowUniversity JohnO’Brien,Lahore,Pakistan
PaulCollins,UniversityofChichester NeilOrmerod,AustralianCatholic
PeterDeMey,KatholiekeUniversiteit University,Sydney
Leuven PeterPhan,GeorgetownUniversity
MichaelFahey,BostonCollege,USA GarethPowell,CardiffUniversity
FrKMGeorge,OldStJoseph’sSeminary, PaulPulikkan,UniversityofCalicut
Kottayam,India AnthonyReddie,Queen’sFoundation,
JanetteGray,JesuitTheologicalCollege, Birmingham,UK
Parkville,Victoria,Australia HenkdeRoest,UniversityofLeiden
RogerHaight,UnionTheological GemmaSimmonds,HeythropCollege,
Seminary,NewYork UniversityofLondon
NicholasHealy,SanDiegoUniversity, JuttaSperber,ChurchofPeace,Bayreuth
California andtheUniversityofRostock,Germany
BradfordHinze,FordhamUniversity,New GesaThiessen,MilltownInstitute,Dublin
York OlaTjørhom,Stavanger,Norway
PaulLakeland,FairfieldUniversity, StevenShakespeare,LiverpoolHope
Connecticut,USA University,UK
MohanLarbeer,TamilnaduTheological SteveSummers,UniversityofChichester
Seminary(TTS),Madurai,India MichaelWalsh,HeythropCollege,
RichardLennan,WesternJesuit London,UK
TheologicalInstitute,BostonMA,USA KennethWilson,UniversityofChichester
GerardMannion,KatholiekeUniversiteit HenkWitte,UniversityofTilburg.
Leuven
MaryMcClintockFulkerson,Duke
University,USA
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Part I
1 ‘You are my friends’ 9
2 Friendship’s Postmodern Context 27
Part II
3 Friendship in the Classical Era and Beyond 53
4 A Theological Understanding of Friendship 78
5 Friends – the Self and the Other 98
Part III
6 Friendship’s Particularity 125
7 The Church – a Community of Friends 156
Conclusion 192
Bibliography 195
Index 209
INTRODUCTION
Origins and intentions
This exploration of friendship’s implications has its roots in questions that
emerged duringachurchprojectprovidingsocialcarefortheinner-city homeless
on the south coast of England. Over a five-year period whilst employed by an
Anglicanchurchfrom1995to2000,Iranadrop-inprojectthatprovidedmeals,
basicmedicalcareandsupportedthoselookingforhousing.Ofequalimportance,
thisprojectprovidedhospitalityandanenvironmentofsocialinteractionforthose
who met there. Questions emerged for me concerning the nature of the
relationships that developed during the course of this project. Firstly, there were
the personal relationships that developed with those who could be considered
‘clients’.Inthefaceofobviouspersonaldifferencesandcircumstances,werethese
friendshipsthatwerebeing formed? Secondly, there wastherelationship between
thechurchcommunitythathostedtheprojectandthosewhoattendedthedrop-in
provision and shared the building: were these visitors considered (or treated as)
friends by the worshipping community in that place? In seeking to answer these
and other questions, it emerged that friendship in an ecclesial context, although
seemingtoofferthepotentialtoinvigoratecommunityandenhancerelationality,
alsosufferedfromlimitedacademicconsideration.Thisbookisareworkingofmy
doctoralthesiswhichsoughttoaddressthisperceiveddeficiency:itwasundertaken
whilst working as a parish priest and completed in 2008.
Myconcernhereistodevelopanecclesiologywithrootsinhumanrelationality
as influenced by the divine economy. It addresses the Church in its widest sense
and sees the Eucharist as central to ecclesial life. My hope is that the Church
discoversawayofthinkingaboutitselfthathasrelevanceinthelocal,nationaland
international situation in contemporary times: by this I mean addressing the
increasing individuation so evident in contemporary society despite (or perhaps
because of) rising social-networking technology. Manifested in apparent societal
indifference to organized religious structures, as steadily declining local church
attendance reveals, and in internal challenges such as the current drift towards
fragmentation in the Anglican Communion, the Church is in a pressured
situation, externally and within its own ranks.
Here, I will suggest that friendship offers a powerful way to address these
situations, offering a way for the Church to understand itself relationally.
Friendship is a robust relationship that embraces difference and, as I will show,
2 Friendship: Exploring its Implications for the Church in Postmodernity
requires ‘otherness’ to flourish: it seeks the good of the other, and at its best
becomes a virtuous relationship in mutually beneficial reciprocity. There are
different sorts of friendship, so that once the journey along this path has begun
therearemanypossibilitiesfortheChurchtodevelopanunderstandingofitselfas
beingfundamentallyinterconnected,ratherthanbeingagroupingofindividuated
persons with a common interest. This connection may be recognized within the
church community and developed with those as yet outside it. This may also
translate to the Church at the institutional level: there are profound interconnec-
tions which supersede individuation at the denominational and national church
levels.InthiswayIbelievethattheChurchcanmodelfriendshipinasocietythat
is struggling with the commitments and values of interpersonal relationality, and
that is distracted from appreciating friendship’s potential in postmodern social
flux. Friendship’s power to restore and encourage human flourishing may yet be
rediscovered.
Approach
Myapproachisunashamedlymultidisciplinary: ittakesatheologicalapproachto
friendshipandutilizes theinsightsofphilosophy,andtoalesserdegreesociology
and psychology, to help provide a comprehensive view of friendship, which is
employedinthedevelopmentofanecclesiology.Ihavefoundthisapproachtobe
necessaryinexploringfriendship’simplicationsfortheChurch.Friendshiphasan
historical legacy of theological reflection and application, it encompasses human
personhood and has implications for community engagement. The risk of a
multidisciplinary approach lies in not adequately addressing any one discipline;
however, recognizing this, and given the constraints of this book’s length, I have
still chosen this approach over the less adequate route of addressing only one of
friendship’s facets. I have been careful to mitigate the inherent risks, and will
highlight the extent of friendship’s reach, demonstrating its considerable
implications and potential for ecclesiology.
Appreciatingfriendship’simportancerequiresanunderstandingoftheselfwho
is in relationship and of the social context in which this self is embedded. The
historicalpedigreeoffriendship’svirtuousnatureindicatesthatithasconsistently
offered the potential for self-discovery. In contemporary society the shifting
ground beneath the ‘self in community’ challenges how friends are viewed and
prompts questions about their value and place: are they more than accessories to
one’schosenidentity?Thisbookhasasocialandculturalemphasis,itsfocusbeing
primarily on the UK Church as I engage with the implications of friendship for
ecclesiology:examplesbeyondthiscontextremainrelevantbybeingdrawnfroma
parallel cultural setting. Using this structure I will demonstrate that the
theological, personal and social insights gained by conceiving of the Church as a
‘communityoffriends’canbeusedtoconstructanecclesiologythatisrelevantand
intelligible to contemporary culture. Crucially, this thesis does not suggest a
restructuring of the Church in the face of decline, but offers the challenge to
rediscover its nature as a hospitable and relational community. By seeing itself
Introduction 3
primarilyas ‘friends of Christ’and thus friends with each other,theChurch may
discoveradynamic wayof being thatisorientedtowardsthefuture,sustainedby
God, and open to the stranger.
Methodology
The scope and nature of this volume
An interdisciplinary approach allows friendship’s implications for the Church in
postmodernity to be addressed from more than one stance, allowing a variety of
perspectives. This has the advantage of providing an understanding replete with
insightswhichinturnofferabreadthofpotentialapplicationswithinecclesiology.
I contend that such an approach is required by friendship’s nature rather than
being an artificial construct. The manner in which friendship’s influence and
effectsextendfromthetheologicaltothesocial,andfromthepersonalsphereinto
thepublic,meansthatnosingledisciplinecanencompassitsinfluence.Givenmy
wide-ranging approach, decisions about what to include and exclude were
necessary. In this regard, I have elected to take an efficient route and limit
foundation-building in each discipline – some background knowledge will
therefore be assumed, lest this book becomes an introduction to a variety of
disciplines at the expense of allowing friendship’s breadth to illuminate its
application. There is no pretence at providing exhaustive coverage of any one
discipline or thinker, with the resultant advantage of being able to offer an
overview that is relevant to my argument. The aforementioned constraints
determinethelimitstoexploringfriendship’simplicationswhich,asitwillemerge,
are wide ranging. In deciding which topics to address, I have restricted my
engagement to themes that expand on friendship’s place in a postmodern
ecclesiology. One example of this is hospitality: whilst this is a pivotal theme, I
addressitinanecclesialcontextasitrelatestothechurchcommunityandpersonal
hospitality within the remit of Christian discipleship. Its influence in the wider
political and social sphere, whilst compelling, cannot be pursued.
My approach is dialogical, taking the form of a conversation about friendship
withsomeofthosewhohavecontributedmosttoitsunderstandinginaChristian
andsecularsetting.Thebenefitofthisapproach,asIhaveindicated,isinthecross-
fertilizationofideas.Asahumanrelationship,singledoutforparticularattention
in thebiblical text Ihavechosen (John15.15), friendshipinitiatesaconversation
that rightly encompasses the gamut of human experience in order that as full an
understanding as possible is achieved. This breadth of exploration ensures that a
robust and comprehensive conclusion is possible. Those with whom I engage as
interlocutors are in part self-selecting, due to the limited number of scholars that
addressthissubjectmatter,particularlyintheareaofecclesiology.Alsorelevantto
theselectionprocessistheneedtoaddressthethemesthatconsistentlyemergein
literature concerning friendship and, as a result, those who write on these topics.
For example, in the classical tradition, Aristotle’s treatment of friendship has
proven to be foundational for later Western secular and religious considerations.