Friendship: Exploring its Implications for the Church in Postmodernity

'The church always exists in a tensive relationship with its surrounding culture. But the culture of postrnodernity, 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 Roger Haight S.J.