Towards Friendship-Shaped Communities: A Practical Theology of Friendship

6 Mutuality God, Creation and Community

How can we foster an imagination that promotes personal, social, and civic friendship? The contemporary imagination in many cultural contexts is impoverished, dominated by consumerism, competition, and in-group thinking. Yet theological resources exist that allow for the notion of friendship to be more deeply and broadly rooted. To image God, I will argue, is to embrace a befriending relationship with the whole of creation, both human and nonhuman, and to commit to building just communities.

Māori theologian Pā (Father) Hēnare Tate articulates the Indigenous awareness that three sets of dynamically interrelated relationships constitute who we are. If relationship with God is diminished, relationships with people and land are likewise negatively affected. Conversely, when relationship with God is enhanced, relationships with people and land are thereby also enhanced.¹ A holistic understanding of friendship acknowledges the interplay of these various dimensions of relationality.

Thus, this chapter begins with a consideration of God and of relationship with God, drawing on biblical texts, Aquinas, and contemporary theologians. These themes include the mutuality and relationality inherent within creation, the role of human beings within creation, and the need for healing and restoration within creation. These motifs provide the broad context within which certain questions and insights that have emerged from my descriptive and normative work ...