HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Becoming Friends: Worship, Justice, and the Practice of Christian Friendship

by Paul J. Wadell

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
831321,686 (4)2
How do Christians understand friendship and intimacy? How does worship form Christians into a community of the friends of God? What virtues does God call us to incorporate into our lives? In Becoming Friends, Paul Wadell explores the connections between worship, justice, friendship, and the life we are called to live. This engaging and accessible book offers a fresh viewpoint from which to explore the nature of Christian friendship. Such friendship, Wadell contends, is more than a bonding of people with similar interests, a "ritual of hopeless consolation." True Christian friendship summons us to love all of our neighbors. Wadell examines obstacles to and characteristics of true friendship and, drawing from the works of Augustine, Aelred of Rievaulx, and other Christian exemplars, contends that we are called to serve God through friendship and that this calling requires us to cultivate certain virtues--especially hope, justice, and forgiveness. Becoming Friends offers a provocative look into the nature and importance of true Christian friendship. Anyone looking to reflect on the indispensable role of good friendships in the Christian life will find this a hopeful and encouraging book.… (more)
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 2 mentions

From Publishers Weekly
While this book and its chapter titles promise challenging insights about the nature of Christian friendship, Wadell only occasionally gets beyond platitudes and statements of the obvious. Everything he says rings true, and a few of his observations provoke thought and self-examination, but he almost never moves from stating evident truths (e.g., "friendship should not be self-serving") to providing strategies for living these truths. He begins by challenging readers to worship authentically, thereby risking true friendship with God. This could be a provocative idea, but it doesn't go anywhere. Instead, Wadell gets bogged down in restatement of this thesis. This unfortunately happens in other chapters, such as those about the goodness of friendship and the importance of justice. Some chapters promise analysis and exegesis of the work of other authors, such as Aelred of Rievaulx and Augustine, but in these Wadell does little more than summarize. These shortcomings are regrettable, because he correctly identifies many of the barriers to intimacy that we have constructed in contemporary society, such as our addiction to busyness and unwillingness to be troubled by the needs of others. Such flaws obviously grieve him, and he wants the church (he writes to all Christians, but most specifically to his fellow Catholics) to create a radical counterculture in which true love and friendship abound. This book would have been well served by generous helpings of detailed stories of Christian friendship in action, but contains only a few brief and superficial illustrations.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
  kaulsu | Mar 27, 2007 |
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

How do Christians understand friendship and intimacy? How does worship form Christians into a community of the friends of God? What virtues does God call us to incorporate into our lives? In Becoming Friends, Paul Wadell explores the connections between worship, justice, friendship, and the life we are called to live. This engaging and accessible book offers a fresh viewpoint from which to explore the nature of Christian friendship. Such friendship, Wadell contends, is more than a bonding of people with similar interests, a "ritual of hopeless consolation." True Christian friendship summons us to love all of our neighbors. Wadell examines obstacles to and characteristics of true friendship and, drawing from the works of Augustine, Aelred of Rievaulx, and other Christian exemplars, contends that we are called to serve God through friendship and that this calling requires us to cultivate certain virtues--especially hope, justice, and forgiveness. Becoming Friends offers a provocative look into the nature and importance of true Christian friendship. Anyone looking to reflect on the indispensable role of good friendships in the Christian life will find this a hopeful and encouraging book.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5 1
4 2
4.5 1
5

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,242,966 books! | Top bar: Always visible