The Faces of Friendship

by Isabel Anders

The Faces of Friendship is one woman's mapping of the interlocking dynamics of friendship that penetrate to the deepest roots within us--our innate sense of belonging both to God and to each other. Isabel Anders, author of personal reflections that ""reverberate with spiritual insight"" (Arthur Livingston in New Oxford Review)--Awaiting the Child, Soul Moments, and Seasons for the Soul--has collected here in one volume her insights on the various...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556358504
• ISBN13: 9781556358500
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.8" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Faces of Friendship

This wonderful and absorbing book, Faces of Friendship, is a first-person account of the spirituality of friendship. As I read the book, I was reminded of C. S. Lewis's famous treatise, The Four Loves and his idea that friends are absorbed in some common interest and often answer this question: "Do you see the same truth?" In Faces of Friendship, a vivid example of friends engaged in the art of writing is included in a chapter entitled "Mentors As Friends." It is a tribute to the famous author, Madeleine L'Engle, who became Isabel Anders' personal friend and remained a faithful one, nurturing and mentoring Isabel for many years. When Isabel wrote her classic about the season of Advent, Awaiting the Child, Madeleine L'Engle wrote an inspiring introduction praising Isabel's abilities as a spiritual writer. Madeleine and Isabel cultivated a friendship that lasted until Madeleine's death, and to me, the example of the friendship between the two authors that Isabel records in Faces of Friendship aptly answers Lewis's question "Do you see the same truth?" Deacon Diane M. Moore Author: Martin's Quest, Martin Finds his Totem, Nothing for Free, Grandma's "Good War," Flood on the Rio Teche, Kajun Kween http://revmoore.blogspot.com www.theborderpress.net

The Faces of Friendship

The Faces of Friendship By Robert Davis Hughes, III "www.robertdavishughes.com Many thanks to Wipf and Stock for bringing us a new edition of Isabel Anders' fine work on the place of friendship in the spiritual life of a Christian. Except for a new preface, the text is unchanged from the earlier edition. Anders, as is her pattern, writes with a deeply reflective but highly approachable style about friendship as a kind of bridge between love of God and love of neighbor. The book is a sustained theological reflection on many of her own experiences of friendship, from her family of origin, to her children, to her mentor, Madeline L'Engle, to God. In the process she shows how an acquaintance with scripture, classics such as Aelred of Rievaulx's Spiritual Friendship, contemporary theologies of friendship with God through Jesus, and a broad sampling of contemporary spiritual writers can deepen our own experience of the friendships that lead finally to the blessed community that is the Commonwealth of Heaven. Often deeply moving, the portraits Anders draws are also honest and fully fleshed out. The tragic realities of life, including death and the failure of relationship, receive their due. Underneath all, however, is Anders' own deep faith that, as Simone Weil taught us, these friendships are a kind of sacrament in which we experience God's friendship for us and grow in our friendship with God. I gladly recommend this book to readers who do not yet know it and would appreciate a very fine theological reflection on one of life's most practical and profound opportunities for spiritual growth. The Rev. Robert Davis Hughes, III, Ph.D. Norma and Olan Mills Professor of Divinity The School of Theology Sewanee: The University of the South Author, Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life (Continuum, 2008)