Pahl, On Friendship, 73.36 36 Pahl, On Friendship, 64.
37 37 Frank Bruni, “How Facebook Warps Our Worlds,” The New York Times, 21 May 2016.
38 38 Diane Jeske, Friendship and Social Media: A Philosophical Exploration (New York: Routledge, 2019), 133.
39 39 The widespread usage of smart phones and social media has had a further benefit, in that these forms of technology have enabled the capture and sharing of life-threatening (or life-ending) acts of injustice, allowing citizens to see racial disparities and police brutality with their own eyes and provoking citizens to engage in acts of solidarity. See Walker-Barnes, Voices of My People, 21. On the other hand, widespread sharing can also have a retraumatizing impact.
40 40 Mark Zuckerberg, “Is Connectivity a Human Right,” https://www.facebook.com/isconnectivityahumanright. Accessed 4 October, 2021.
41 41 “Facebook Investor Relations,” https://investor.fb.com/resources/default.aspx. Accessed 4 October 2021.
42 42 Jill Lepore, “Facebook’s Broken Vows: How the Company’s Pledge to bring the World Together Wound Up Pulling Us Apart,” New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/02/facebooks-broken-vows. Accessed 4 October 2021.
43 43 Lepore, “Facebook’s Broken Vows,” 4 October 2021.
44 44 See Jeske, Friendship and Social Media.
45 45 John Fitzgerald, “Christian Friendship: John, Paul, and the Philippians,” Interpretation 61, no. 3 (2007): 284.
46 46 Fleming Rutledge, The Battle for Middle-Earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 6, 30.
47 47 Rutledge, Battle, 78.
48 48 Rutledge, Battle, 115. “I think, Elrond, that in this matter it would be well to trust to their friendship rather than to great wisdom.” Merry tells Frodo: “You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin – to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours – closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo…” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954), 103. Friendships (characterized by loyalty, courage, honesty, and hospitality, along with shared insight, interests, and vision) also feature in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, originally published in the 1950s.
49 49 Rutledge, Battle, 115.
50 50 Texts focused on love of neighbor include Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 5:43, Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14, and James 2:8.
51 51 Karl Barth, Ethics, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (New York: Seabury, 1981), 189.
52 52 Barth, Ethics, 189, 190.
53 53 Emil Brunner, The Divine Imperative: A Study in Christian Ethics, trans. Olive Wyon (London: Lutterworth, 1937), 517.
54 54 Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros, trans. A.G. Hebert (London: SPCK, 1932), ch. 8.
55 55 Nygren, Agape and Eros, 138.
56 56 Alan Vincelette, “Introduction,” in The Problem of Love in the Middle Ages: A Historical Contribution, ed. Pierre Rousselot (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2001), 11.
57 57 Nygren, Agape and Eros, ch. 8.
58 58 See Martin Marty, “F is for Friendship: A Theological Dictionary,” The Christian Century, 24 February 2009.
59 59 John Burnaby, Amor Dei: A Study of the Religion of St. Augustine (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1938), 311. Yet depicting God as a cozy and tolerant companion, thus trivializing what could otherwise be a transformative relationship, is identified as kitsch piety.
60 60 Simone Weil, “Friendship,” in Waiting for God (New York: HarperCollins, 1951).
61 61 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics [“Ethik”], trans. Neville Horton Smith (London: SCM, 1955), 253 n.1.
62 62 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 3rd ed. (London: SCM, 1971), 192.
63 63 Reformed understandings of the moral or ethical life focused on family, work, the state, and church. Liz Carmichael, Friendship: Interpreting Christian Love (London: T&T Clark, 2004), 160.
64 64 Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 192–193.
65 65 Carmichael, Friendship, 161.
66 66 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 253 n.1.
67 67 C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960), 69–70.
68 68 Lewis, The Four Loves, 84.
69 69
