Our relationships with friends shape and define us, and many thinkers have seen friendship as the glue holding societies together. But what makes a friendship good or bad? What should we look for in a friend? And can friendships form our relationships with higher entities, like our society or even God? 

From stealing pears as a teenager to his retreat at Cassiciacum, Augustine  recounts how friendships affected his moral and spiritual life for both good and ill. Centuries later, the English abbot Aelred of Rievaulx wove together Augustine and Cicero to create Spiritual Friendship, the first great treatise on friendship after the classical era. In this seminar, we will read excerpts from Augustine and Aelred and consider how friendships can form us morally and spiritually.

This series is co-sponsored by Columbia’s Earl Hall Center for Religious Life.  Sessions will meet in the Dodge Room of Earl Hall.