Berkley Center

There are many classic writings on true friendship. “What is a friend?” asks Aristotle. “A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” C.S. Lewis writes that friendship is God’s tool for “creating and revealing.” Aelred of Reivaulx believed that it is most especially through friendship, rather than solitude, that we abide in God and God in us. But friendship is no longer a subject people talk about. We all have friends, of course, but friendship is largely taken for granted, and we have lost our understanding of friendship as a path to God. What is spiritual friendship? How can storytelling, the natural language of friendship, open a way of pilgrimage? And ultimately, how can the office of friendship bring one closer to God?

Amy Andrews drew on her recent memoir Love & Salt: A Spiritual Friendship Shared in Letters, co-written with Jessica Mesman Griffith, and on the twelfth century classic Spiritual Friendship by Aelred of Rivaulx to probe these questions and bring alive the rich tradition and potential of spiritual friendship in our time. 

This event was sponsored by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown Campus Ministry, and the Program on Justice and Peace.