Christian Friendship in the Fourth Century (review)

The desire for companionship may be a universal human trait, but "friendship" itself, like sexual behavior, is culturally constructed and historically conditioned. Contemporary Western society, Carolinne White immediately reminds her readers, does not share the Greco-Roman preoccupation with the ethics and rules of friendship. Indeed, the upper levels of a steeply stratified late Roman society were laced through with networks of philia or amicitia that served an astonishing range of theological and ecclesiastical, as well as political and emotional ends; and late Roman men and women inherited a body of literature and philosophy saturated with allusions to or discussions of friendship's protocols. But while Christian Friendship in the Fourth Century acknowledges friendship's pervasion of the late antique mentality, its author relies largely upon the evidence preserved in explicit pronouncements, much to the exclusion of social praxis. Although White avows an interest in the "personal lives" and social relations of her subjects, she has in fact produced a study whose foremost aim is "to consider friendship primarily from a theoretical point of view rather than from the perspective of biography, social history, or politics . . ." (pp. 1-2).

Three introductory chapters and a brief conclusion frame eight chapters (4-11) devoted to several fourth-century Christian authors and to monasticism. Chapter 1 locates the topic of fourth-century Christian friendship broadly within such contemporary developments as the post-Constantinian triumph of Christianity, the conversion of the aristocracy, and the growth of the ascetic movement. Chapters 2 and 3 establish the community of earlier texts and ideas that influenced fourth-century thought. The former chapter "aims at pointing out the main developments and continuities" (p. 13) in classical theories of friendship and catalogues a vast array of Greek and Roman sentiments from Homer through Plotinus and Iamblichus. Decidedly nonhistoricist, this account nonetheless confirms the rich variety of literary, philosophical, and popular pronouncements transmitted to later periods from earlier antiquity. Similarly, chapter 3 surveys the (scant) Biblical evidence relevant to the subject, with particular attention to passages frequently cited by fourth-century writers (e.g., John 15.12-15; Acts 2.44-45)

Chapter 3 also unveils a fundamental concern and direction of this study. The ideals of reciprocity, equality, partiality, and merit characteristic of traditionally conceived philia or amicitia could jar harshly with the inclusive, nonjudgmental attitudes demanded by altruistic neighborly love and Christian agape. Although the impact of this potential conflict upon earlier Christian social relations remains unclear, White's forecasting of the dilemma's solution adumbrates a primary theme of the book: "the Church Fathers . . . appreciated that philia could enrich the Christian view of love. . . . the best in Classical friendship was transformed and found a secure purpose in Christianity" (p. 56).

Chapters 4-11 (except chapter 10 on monasticism) pursue this theme through the lives and writings of Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Chrysostom and Olympias, Synesius, Ambrose, Jerome, Paulinus of Nola, and Augustine. Brief biographical sketches precede the consideration of texts or passages deemed representative of personal views and attitudes. Organization of the study around individuals yields repetition, but highlights the contrasts that, in the author's view, illustrate the classical and Christian dialectic: Synesius, Ambrose, and Jerome, for example, who "remained dominated by pagan thought on the subject," only superficially accommodated their ideas to a Christian context; Augustine and Basil, however, "transformed their knowledge of the Classical views of friendship . . . to work out an orthodox theological framework for their ideas" (p. 111). Such analysis only partially satisfies; the insistent dependence upon voiced claims and textual heritage facilitates arguably monolithic categories. Moreover, not all the subjects of these chapters, as the author admits, cared equally to articulate a coherent theory of Christian friendship. Perhaps not surprisingly, Synesius is elusive and at Milan Ambrose produced a Christian De Officiis, while it was Augustine who wrote the Confessions.

Indeed, White's preference for a philosophical perspective and explicit ancient statements may explain why the chapter on Augustine is the most engaging of a book initially provoked...