Christian Friendship in the Fourth Century

This study presents the evidence for theories of Christian friendship as they were developed by the leading fourth-century Church Fathers.

Carolinne White (Author)

9780521892490, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 April 2002

292 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.7 cm, 0.37 kg

"...interesting and scholarly....White offers her readers a balanced, scholarly, and interesting overview of her topic." Roland J. Teske, Theological Studies

Friendship was a quality valued highly in ancient Greece and Rome, and was also regarded as highly significant in nascent Christianity. Carolinne White's aim in this study is to describe and compare the ideas about friendship developed by the Christians, whose culture was in many ways dependent upon its pagan background, and thus to develop a coherent picture of how the concept of friendship was understood in the fourth century. The Christian writers discussed are considered against the background of their personal lives and their relations with one another. All of the writers considered had a profound influence on later ages as well as on their own period, which means that the survey provided should be of wide interest both to ancient historians and theologians.

1. Introduction
2. Classical Theories of Friendship
3. Some Problems of Christian Friendship
4. Friendship in the lives and thought of Basil and of Gregory of Nazianzus
5. John Chrysostom and Olympias
6. Synesius of Cyrene
7. Ambrose of Milan - Ciceronian or Christian friendship?
8. St. Jerome
9. Paulinus of Nola
10. Monasticism and friendship
11. St. Augustine.

Subject Areas: The Early Church [HRCC1]