Community Formation through Friendship: Diverse Religious Approaches

Spiritual and religious traditions offer culturally diverse ways of facilitating friendships. This theme emerges in our recent co-edited volume, Multireligious Reflections on Friendship. Examples include the emphasis Indigenous communities place on reciprocity and the land, ways in which Jewish traditions encourage respect for study partners, Buddhist advocacy for discernment in befriending, and Christian texts that speak of fostering divine love within community. We will discuss these examples against the backdrop of the volume’s larger goal: to explore the place of friendship in six global religious traditions, and understand the positive effects of friendship, including coexistence, sustainable living, healing, social action, and connection with the divine.