Overview
"A rare and wonderful theological book that turns something ordinary--being a friend--into an expression of God's greatness."--Jeremiah Rood, Foreword (starred review)
In this vibrant theological reflection on the meaning of friendship, experienced pastor and leading Christian ethicist Victor Lee Austin argues that friendship is the medium through which God shares grace with his creatures. Mixing personal reflection and theological commentary, Austin provides a fresh reading of classical writers and biblical texts; shows how a robust theology of friendship addresses contemporary controversies in the areas of marriage, celibacy, and homosexuality; and draws on cultural examples of the desire for true friendship. Ultimately, Austin helps readers understand the strange yet real possibility of friendship with God.
About the Series
Pastors are called to help people navigate the profound mysteries of being human, from birth to death and everything in between. This series, edited by leading pastoral theologian Jason Byassee, provides pastors and pastors-in-training with rich theological reflection on the various seasons that make up a human life, helping them minister with greater wisdom and joy.
In this vibrant theological reflection on the meaning of friendship, experienced pastor and leading Christian ethicist Victor Lee Austin argues that friendship is the medium through which God shares grace with his creatures. Mixing personal reflection and theological commentary, Austin provides a fresh reading of classical writers and biblical texts; shows how a robust theology of friendship addresses contemporary controversies in the areas of marriage, celibacy, and homosexuality; and draws on cultural examples of the desire for true friendship. Ultimately, Austin helps readers understand the strange yet real possibility of friendship with God.
About the Series
Pastors are called to help people navigate the profound mysteries of being human, from birth to death and everything in between. This series, edited by leading pastoral theologian Jason Byassee, provides pastors and pastors-in-training with rich theological reflection on the various seasons that make up a human life, helping them minister with greater wisdom and joy.
Table of Contents
Contents
Series Preface
Invocation
Introduction: An Invitation to Friendship
1. The Limits of Marriage
2. The Confusions of Friendship
3. Friendship as Success at Being Human
4. Friendship and Beauty
5. The Weirdness of Divine Love
6. Biblical Friendships
7. Christian Friendship and Christian Love
8. Unapologetic Celibacy
9. Is There Friendship in the Trinity?
10. Examples of Friendship
11. All Together Now
Postscript: Concrete Practices
Series Preface
Invocation
Introduction: An Invitation to Friendship
1. The Limits of Marriage
2. The Confusions of Friendship
3. Friendship as Success at Being Human
4. Friendship and Beauty
5. The Weirdness of Divine Love
6. Biblical Friendships
7. Christian Friendship and Christian Love
8. Unapologetic Celibacy
9. Is There Friendship in the Trinity?
10. Examples of Friendship
11. All Together Now
Postscript: Concrete Practices
Endorsements
"I have long admired Victor Austin: his preaching, his writing, his persona, his faith. Here is a most unusual volume, grounded in wide learning as well as deep understanding of human nature. The breadth of knowledge on display is recommendation in itself, but more important still, the reader will be enlarged and strengthened by these writings from a Christian disciple who has looked into the depths and returned. He helps us to know how to love one another as the Son of God has loved us."
Fleming Rutledge, author of The Crucifixion and Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ
"In the course of writing my own book on friendship, I read dozens of good books on the theme. But none of them quite matches the biblical richness, theological depth, subtlety of observation and judgment, and artful prose found in this one. Its discussion of friendship with God is a particularly rich highlight. This is the best book on friendship by a Christian writer I have ever read."
Wesley Hill, author of Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian
"No one who has read this wonderful book will ever be able to hear those famous minimizing words, 'we're just friends,' in the same way. In a learned and deeply meditative study of his subject, enriched by personal and pastoral experience, Victor Lee Austin claims for friendship a more exalted status than even that of marriage and calls it 'the highest human thing.' And he makes a powerful case for that bold assertion. Many readers will come away from this wise book convinced that Austin is right and convinced that they should henceforth place the cultivation of friendship at the very center of their lives."
Wilfred M. McClay, G. T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty, University of Oklahoma
"Austin is one of our most sensitive pastoral theologians. His account of friendship in this new book will surely become the gold standard for a Christian understanding. Austin presents a concept of friendship that is both intimate and challenging. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that Friendship: The Heart of Being Human will take its place alongside Aristotle's account of friendship in the Nicomachean Ethics and that it will be read for the same reason: to uncover the true significance of this deepest form of human relationship."
Jeremy Waldron, New York University School of Law
"Austin takes us on a gentle, erudite, and judicious exploration of friendship from a Christian perspective. Humanely winsome, Austin is also, in his words, a 'missionary' into this realm, willing to search, risk, encounter, proclaim, and be transformed by the reality of God's love in Christ as it is shared most fundamentally in friendships. Sex and marriage are profoundly reframed in this light, and Austin's arguments will challenge both the confused and the complacent. Filled with lucid readings of classical philosophers and theologians, enlivening examples from contemporary literature and art, and sometimes daring scriptural exegesis, including a moving discussion of Job, this is a persuasive, bracing, and wise book by a penetrating soul. I hope it is widely read and shared."
Ephraim Radner, professor of historical theology, Wycliffe College
Author
Victor Lee Austin
Victor Lee Austin (PhD, Fordham University), an Episcopal priest, is theologian-in-residence for the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas and Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas. He has taught in various academic settings and is the author of several books, including Losing Susan, Christian Ethics: A Guide for the Perplexed, and Up with Authority. He previously served as theologian-in-residence at the historic St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City.