Friendship: Exploring Its Implications For the Church in Postmodernity

This book seeks to outline the implications of friendship for a postmodern ecclesiology. It seeks to do so by demonstrating that thinking of the Church as a community of friends has a long historical pedigree, with origins in the statement of Jesus to his disciples, as presented in St. John's gospel 'You are my friends'. Taking this as a starting point and then offering a description of the Church's context in postmodern society, the importance of a complete understanding of friendship is established. This understanding is provided by an historical overview of friendship and a description of how this has been developed by theology. By tracing the development of the human self in friendship, a picture of community relationships is portrayed. ??The book culminates by offering a description of what a friendship based ecclesiology might look like when oriented around the Eucharistic celebration. The central theme of the book is that the human person is relational and that the Church has a particular model of relationality in Trinitarian koinonia. The Church offers a context in which community can be demonstrated. The possibilities for friendship to express this nature of this community are explored by demonstrating the theological legacy advocating such an approach, and by developing an ecclesiology whose Eucharistic focus is realized within a framework of friendship. The postmodern cultural climate offers an opportunity for such an ecclesiology to flourish as a challenge to the restricted understanding of friendship that is offered but recognized as being incomplete
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