Dan J. Brennan

Baylor Friendship Update 8

Notes on Nancy Sherman's paper on classical friendship

Happiness, Friendship and Christian Ethics 2

When I went to the concurrent session on the demand of friendship, I was sort of expecting something along the lines of the excerpt from below from Wadell's book.  Instead, I was disappointed that the lecture was something a bit different.  Below is a piece from Wadell's second chapter.  Something to think about concerning friendship and the moral life--this is where friendship is taken as a path of discipleship:

The Preliminary Choices....

Thursday 3:30-5 concurrent session: Love, Impartiality and Obligation in Friendship

Friday 8:30-10:00: Hard choice--probably Christian Friendships of Reconciliation and Sacrifice.

Friday 1:30-3:00: Hard choice but: Friendship in the Practice of the Church.

Saturday 8:30-10:00--hardest choice of them all: toss-up between The Contours of Christian Friendship and Friendship as a Source of Dialogue, Forgiveness and Christian Community.  If I can mix and match during sessions, no question I will do it here.

Saturday 1:30-3:00: Another hard choice but leaning towards Christian Friendship in Scripture and Literature, but also want Envisioning the Civic and Political through Friendship, or, Friendship and Rival Views of Human Nature. 

The plenary sessions look to be wonderful:

Friendship and the Moral Life
Faith and Friendship: Initial Findings from a New National Survey
Classical Friendship
Friendship with God
Befriending the Religious Other: Why Love is Easier Than Friendship--This is my title for churches and friendship--why community is easier than friendship).
The Distinctives of Christian Friendship
Friendship in Literature.

Friendship Conference: Jane Austen or?

So I am thinking of attending one of the sessions Saturday afternoon on Jane Austen--unlikely match, at leats this far into my story: Jane Austen and me. But I have had a couple of friends suggest this could be a good one for me. I am also interested from a philosophical standpoint the session on Kierkegaard. He's an interesting dude. But then there is "Friendship and the Foundation of Moral Philosophy" also, during that time, along with "More than Friends? Revisiting the Literary Classification of Philippians."

The Distinctives of Christian Friendship

 

I am looking forward next Saturday morning to this plenary session:
 

 

    The Distinctives of Christian Friendship —Barfield Drawing Room
Douglas Henry, Baylor University: session chair
Carolinne White, University of Oxford
C. Stephen Evans, Baylor University  

One of my conflicts:

One session is on:

    The Contours of Christian Friendship
• Michael Scaperlanda, University of Oklahoma College of Law: session chair
• Paul Martens, Baylor University: Friendship, Preference, and Protestant Paranoia: Or, Why is Agape Insufficient?
• Cynthia R. Nielsen, University of Dallas: A Glimpse at Christocentric Friendship in the Heartbeat of Hans Urs von Balthasar
• Shawn Floyd, Malone College: Friendship and the Preferential Nature of Divine Love

Concurrently with this session, is this one:

Friendship as a Source of Dialogue, Forgiveness, and Christian Community
• Clint Baldwin, George Fox University: session chair
• Klaus Issler, Biola University: Valuing Close Friendship Dyads: The Missing Ingredient to Deepening Christian Community
• Jesse Couenhoven, Villanova University: Forgiveness Among Friends: Some Suggestions on How to 'Keep No Record of Wrongs'
• A. Christian van Gorder, Baylor University: "Preferring Your Brother": Al-Ghazali's On the Duties of Brotherhood — A Source-Book for Considerations to Improve Muslim-Christian InteractionsA

And then also this one:

    Christian Friends of Uncommon Faith
• Keith D. Ray II, Furman University: session chair
• Guido de Graaff, Oxford University: Friendship as Common Judgment
• Derek C. Hatch, University of Dayton: Friendship and Difference: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Jean Vanier
• Thomas W. Jodziewicz, University of Dallas: Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin: Friends

Tough choice for wanting to go to one of those sessions and just soak in the presentations and dialogue.