Theological Friendship

607736 EXT0010.1177/0014524615607736The Expository Times research-article2015 And Finally… Theological Friendship A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. —Prov. 17:17; 18:24 The theological life is impossible without the grace administered through sanctifying, uplifting, stimulating, challenging, and—above all—faithful friendships. We need brothers and sisters around us who share a kinship of what they believe about God, the world, and the reason they exist. Not univocal, monotonous agreement, but enough to go to war together, and with enough disagreement to get the sharpening sparks flying (Prov. 27:17). We see this modelled in any theologian worth their salt. We think of Karl Barth’s five-mile treks across the Swiss fields just to talk with Eduard Thurneysen. Or Bonhoeffer’s relentless correspondence of prison letters to Eberhard Bethge. Or even more foundationally, those great biblical friendships: David and Jonathan, Paul and Timothy, Jesus and the twelve. We also remember great movements like the Reformation evoking the close fellowship of those who fought their costly fights together, despite tribal squabbles. For the most part, the mission and theology of the Church advance via the impact of fortified, The Expository Times 2015, Vol. 127(3) 156 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: uk.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0014524615607736 ext.sagepub.com sustaining friendships in the Name of Jesus. This is what the Church essentially is. One of the vital ways (theological) friendship is forged is through the art of conversation. In this digital age, we think of “talk” as a waste of time, the enemy of “action” and “productivity”. Even a Skype conversation costing us nothing can seem difficult to fit in to our busy worlds of surfing, tweeting, and skimming our way through countless pages and screens. It has become something of a cliché that, although we have more communicative options at our fingertips than any epoch in human history, we’re less in contact than ever before. We have all sat in coffee shops with friends who—almost without realising—have drifted onto their phone’s email account, as though we had suddenly disappeared. To fight for our friendships is not only a social necessity (if the Proverbs are to be believed), it is actually a fight for our theology, which will be greatly impoverished without the crowd of living witnesses to supplement the dead ones we love to read. After all, Calvin and Barth can’t answer you back anymore, so it’s hardly a fair conversation. Downloaded from ext.sagepub.com at Library - Periodicals Dept on December 1, 2015 AARON EDWARDS University of Aberdeen