“I have called you friends” (John 15:15). I’m pretty sure I have read over a thousand books quoting Jesus calling his disciples “friends.”
It’s in leadership books. Psychology books. Sociology books. Philosophy books. Theology books. Commentaries. Books authored by pastors. Books about politics. Books for men. Books for women. Books about prayer. Books about the church.
And, marriage books!
And, of course, books about Christian friendship.
How many books have I read by women devoted to a deep theological reflection on friendship and ecclesial leadership? I think I can count them on one hand.
By an evangelical woman?
Zero.
Dr. Chloe Lynch has dared to step into the void.
I joyfully applaud Lynch’s daring risk to provoke all Christians to think theologically about ecclesial leadership through friendship. In my first post I tried to communicate the sense of fullness I experienced after reading her book.
I believe her book stands out with other great theological academic books like David Bentley Hart’s The Beauty of the Infinite, or After Our Likeness, by Miroslav Volf, or The Resurrection and the Son of God, by N.T. Wright.
And I’m not hiding my admiration for the book when staking its claim in among other great Christian academic books because she is the first female scholar to make a solid theological case for leadership-friendship. Western egalitarian theology will never be the same because of Lynch’s bold contribution.
To say Lynch is actively seeking a voice into masculine space in this book is an understatement. Just how extraordinary is it for a female theologian to reflect on church leadership? Take a look at her bibliography—overwhelmingly male authors.
And to theologically reflect on Christian friendship? There have been quite a few popular books about female friendship. But the number of female scholars writing a deep theology of Christian friendship is a paltry figure. In the Christian tradition theologies of friendship have been profoundly masculine, too.
After finishing her book, I would say I have been waiting for egalitarian theology to come forth with something like this ever since I turned egalitarian eleven or so years ago. I have been disappointed with some of the theologies of friendship I have read. Mary Hunt’s Fierce Tenderness: A Feminist Theology of Friendship was quite thought-provoking. I’m glad I read it. But I felt she blurred the lines between sex and friendship too much and never did give friendship good theological boundaries.
When Steve Summer’s Friendship came out in 2011, I was eager to read it. Even though it turned out to be good I was disappointed with it. Same goes for Brian Edgar’s God is Friendship. I’m glad he wrote it, but I had a deep sense that we needed something more in a theology of Christian friendship.
But Lynch truly goes where no female scholar has gone before.
Just a mini-refresher on this. Author Marianne Legault rightly observes, “From Aristotle to Nietzsche, the most prominent moralists or philosophers who have pondered the question of friendship have essentially robbed women of this intimate experience that men value so much themselves.”
Joan Chittister on friendship and the image of God, “In the manner of just about everything else in life, friendship has been a male preserve . . .this image of the superior male and a male God had been taught in male institution after male institution for centuries.”
Marylin Yalom observes, “Moreover, women were notoriously “weaker” than men and were considered constitutionally unsuited for friendship at the highest level.”
“Though this process feels personal to each woman, it is in fact deeply cultural. A male-centered world tells women who they are or who they should be, especially in intimate relationships” Dana Jack and Alisha Ali
Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg notes, “Scholars have traditionally perceived ‘real’ or ‘true’ friendship as a singularly male experience. . .Scholars have generally seen women as totally subsumed by their families with little need or time for the cultivation of external bonds or friendships.”
Although this has been changing outside church leadership, I believe Lynch breaks new ground with a deep theological reflection on ecclesial leadership through friendship.
But she doesn’t do this in a vacuum. She wonderfully culls a wide range of theological, sociological, philosophical, and psychological perspectives to argue her case.
More to come.
