Bible, Improvisation, and New Community

I live in Albemarle, North Carolina, a small mill town that has lost most of its manufacturing base, has an aging population, with one of the largest opiod addiction problems in the state. It is probably one of the most racially divided places I have ever lived. Can Jesus' friendship notions address issues of racial division in the contemporary North American context? One of Jesus' most famous parables is that of the Good Samaritan, a story in which the Samaritan comes to the aid of a man who has been wounded and left for dead by robbers on a lonely wilderness road (Luke 10:25-37). The man was not aided by a Levite, or by a priest, who both pass him by. The text is typically interpreted to accentuate the virtue of the Samaritan who helped his neighbor, even though Samaritans were not generally friendly to the Jews. I have a different take about the meaning of the parable, but more about that on a later date... What would it take for us to befriend people who are different tha...

Today is my final day talking about friendship in Plato. Towards the end of the Lysis dialogue, Socrates comes up with his final definition of friendship, "that which is neither good nor bad is friends with the good." He arrives at this definition through logic. It is clear that those who are bad cannot be friends with one another. There is no honor or loyalty among thieves, as we say. Those who are truly good, according to his logic, are already self-sufficient, and have no need of friends or friendship. So the truly good folks don't really need friends. The ones who need friendship are therefore neither bad, nor entirely good. As a teacher, I really like this concept. Those who are forming their identities, forming their sense of self, and their characters, are the ones who seek out mentoring. So in a way, mentoring activity can be described as a kind of friendship. As we move towards advent, who do you think could benefit from your friendship, from your mentoring prese...