Religious Reflections on Friendship Seminar

The purpose of this Seminar is to provide a broad forum in which the important but under-researched relationship of friendship can be studied, discussed, challenged, and ultimately enriched from a variety of religious perspectives. Friendship has personal, public, and political dimensions, and—from an Indigenous perspective— extends to ecological interconnectedness and is not exclusive of kinship relationships. In times characterized by division, conflict, and various forms of othering, we assert that friendship studies contribute towards furthering intercultural and religious understanding and dialogue. Friendship as a religious topic, broadly and creatively defined, touches on matters of faith, ecclesiology, anthropology, history, politics, philosophy, ethics, race, gender, sex, class, and economics, among others. We welcome papers that explore friendship from diverse disciplines and theological/religious perspectives and are open to a variety of methodological approaches. 

Multireligious Perspectives on Friendship: Becoming Ourselves in Community— the first volume emerging from this seminar—was published in 2023, in Lexington Books Religion and Borders Series. Seminar papers are eligible to be considered for inclusion in a subsequent published volume focused on interreligious perspectives.