PRELIMINARY COMMENTS
1. The Trinitarian Nature of Christian Friendship

Picture: The Trinity icon by Andrei Rublev; exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) since 1927.

At the most fundamental level, it is the trinitarian nature of God that undergirds the realities and dynamics of Christian friendship. It is apparent that in speaking of Christian friendship, there is a stark corresponding relation within the Trinity itself.

In this regard, Augustine’s conception of the Spirit as love which unites the Father and Son demands our attention. Augustine identifies the Son with “wisdom” (sapientia) and the Spirit with “love” (caritas). The Spirit “makes us dwell in God, and God in us."

The Trinity is community; it is friendship. God already exists in the kind of relation to which he wishes to bring us. Just as the Spirit is the bond of union between God and the believer, so he exercises a comparable role within the Trinity, binding the persons together. Likewise, he also exercises the similar role of binding the people of God together in the kind of intimate friendship in which God exists.

Augustine's identification of the Spirit as the basis of union between God and believers is important, as it points to the idea of the Spirit as the giver of community, and therefore the giver of friendship.