Friendship: Exploring its Implications for the Church in Postmodernity

Revd. Steve Summers is an Anglican parish priest in the Diocese of Portsmouth. He has a particular interest in how the Church engages with postmodern culture.

‘The church always exists in a tensive relationship with its surrounding culture. But the culture of postmodernity, with its fragmentation of knowledge and individualism, seems to challenge the church's very existence. Dr. Steve Summers responds by showing how the human phenomenon of friendship opens up a deeper understanding of the fundamental character of the church that meets the challenge. The church is not an assembly of likeminded people with the same beliefs, but a community of friends that actualize something close to spiritual organicity in the face of rootlessness and dispersion. They participate by invitation in the Eucharistic meal of friends in the Lord; they create an open space for receiving others; they live on the basis of a common friendship with God. This is not an essay on church organization, but a probing account of the ontological condition of friends of God in Christ. Multidisciplinary in it sources, this theology probes beneath the surface of the church to reveal in a profound way its nature. It is a major contribution to ecclesiology.' - Roger Haight, S. J., Union Theological Seminary, New York, USA

• INTRODUCTION Methodology Scholarship Structure SECTION ONE Chapter 1 - ‘YOU ARE MY FRIENDS' A textual survey Chapter 2 - FRIENDSHIP'S POSTMODERN CONTEXT SECTION TWO Chapter 3 - FRIENDSHIP IN THE CLASSICAL ERA AND BEYOND Chapter 4 - A THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF FRIENDSHIP Chapter 5 - FRIENDS - THE SELF AND THE OTHER SECTION THREE Chapter 6 - FRIENDSHIP'S PARTICULARITY Chapter 7 - THE CHURCH - A COMMUNITY OF FRIENDS CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY