Rediscovering Friendship: Awakening to the Power and Promise of Women's Friendships

"Friendship is a broad sphere which unites heaven and earth..."Less beholden to traditional models of family and to classical male ideals, a new generation is re-evaluating and transforming friendship, says Elizabeth Moltmann-Wendel.

Observing this phenomenon, particularly among women, she elaborates its biblical affinities and its potential for enriching an often-friendless culture. In an honest and meditative style, Moltmann-Wendel finds in friendship new dimensions of adventure, consolation, self-knowledge, love, and political relevance, as well as profound resonances with Jesus' friendships with women, especially Mary Magdalene, and with his friends at the Last Supper.

Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel is a theologian and journalist and author of Freedom, Equality, and Sisterhood (1978), The Women around Jesus (1982), A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey (1986), and I Am My Body (1995).