Friendship
The Christian lady preacher and the queer Jewish poet
If I could give every new pastor a gift in their first year of preaching, I’d give them a friend like Jessica Jacobs.
Virtuous friendship
Prudence and constancy might not sound like much fun, but they create the load-bearing relationships communities need to flourish.
My evangelical feminist friend Letha
There is no greater evidence of how much Letha Dawson Scanzoni valued relationships than her letters.
The grace of deep-bellied laughter
Does our theology have space for a Jesus who not only weeps but also laughs?
The women of midcentury moral philosophy
Two new books explore the intertwined scholarship and friendship of Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, and Mary Midgley.
The unexpected gift of missional friendship
I was a United Methodist pastor. He was a campus minister with Cru.
Pastors, friendship, and the limits of boundaries
What use are boundaries when you’re sitting with a friend who is about to die?
The gift of relying on others
Briallen Hopper develops an alternative to the twin American creeds of self-reliance and marriage.
Biblical friendship in an age of loneliness
Facebook tells me I have 633 friends. Sirach tells me how few of those are faithful friends.
Creating a feminist world
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie captures the complexity of gender—and suggests simple ways to negotiate it.
Discipleship through covenant friendship
Sarah Arthur and Erin Wasinger write about their experiment in radical faith, one small step at a time.
Run the Jewels and the burden of prophecy
What counts as truth in a post-truth world? Run the Jewels 3 makes the case that truth sounds like rap music.
Midlife happiness through the (narrow) lens of science
How can we live well after 40? asks Barbara Bradley Hagerty. She could have consulted the wisdom traditions.
Why can't we be friends?
A friend from seminary visited a couple of weeks ago. Her father-in-law was a pastor in the South, and she had been on a church staff for years before she became a pastor. She talked about how the male pastors of former generations would say that they were going to make visits, and they would spend the afternoon at the golf course.
Pastor, not friend
Jack served the church in countless ways. There's only one thing he wanted in return.
More than sorrow
As pastors, we spend a great deal of time sharing in the
ongoing lives and adventures of our congregants and community members. We are
also called, literally, to come to love and suffer with them when
disappointments, disasters or deaths occur.
Shared lives: The challenges of friendship
Christians think differently about friendship. Our understanding is rooted in a God who never writes us out of the story of divine love—whatever our failings.