Theological Perspectives on Reimagining Friendship and Disability

Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Context of Friendship: From Aristotle to Facebook
	Friendship Discourses in Antiquity: Aristotle
		The Assessment of Forms of Aristotle’s Friendship
		The Concept of Unequal Friendship and People with Disability
		The Meaning of Philia and the Concept of Happiness
		The Grammar of Philia
		The Meaning of Happiness
	New Testament Insights into Friendship
		The Concept, Terminology, and Context of a Christian (New Testament) Friendship
		Paul’s Rhetoric of Friendship
		The Context of Friendship and Its Terminology in the Gospel of John
		The Ethical Assessment of Paul’s and John’s Gospel’s Friendship
		Conclusion
	Modern and Contemporary Ideas on Friendship
		The Rationale of Modern and Contemporary Ideas of Friendship
		Academic Field of Philosophy
		Jacques Derrida: Friendship, Politics, and Difference
		Lawrence A. Blum: Friendship and Altruism
		Elisabeth Telfer: Significance of Woman Authors
		The Academic Field of Theology
		The Academic Field of Sociology
		The Outline into the Correlation of Themes Discussed
		Facebook (Meta) Friendship
		Facebook Friendship Network: Disembodied Human Relationship Lacking Historicity?
		What About Facebook and People with Disability?
		Concluding Remarks
	References
Chapter 2: Disability Studies and Disability Theology Perspectives on Disability and Friendship
	Disability Studies Academic Perspectives: The Contexts of Disability Discourses
		Medical and Social Models in Disability Studies
		Medical–Biomedical–Individual Model
		Social Model and Its Various Aspects
		Disability in Its Terminology and Definition
		Past and Present Perspectives On and Cultural Shifts in the Development of a Definition of Disability
		The Rationale for the Academic Field of Disability Studies
	Friendship with People with Disability: The Perspective of Disability Discourses
		Friendship Relationships Between People with (Intellectual) Disabilities Themselves
		Friendship Between People with and Without (Intellectual) Disabilities
		Discussion
	Disability Theology and Friendship: Context and Academic Perspectives
		Disability in the Perspective of Catholic Tradition
		The Theme of “Disability” in the Practice and Doctrine of Christian Theology: Past and Present Concerns and Interventions
		Theological Discourse on Disability: Why Does Theology Need a Conversation on Disability?
		What Type of Theology Is Disability Theology?
		Theological Themes
		Question on Definition: How Disability Theology Defines Disability
	Disability Theology: Perspectives on Friendship
	Hans Reinders’s Perspective on Friendship
		The Highlights of Receiving
		The Question of Equality and Symmetry
		The Question of Choice
		The Problem of the Contributory View
		The Dynamic of Receiving and Giving
		Being with and Not Hiding in Strength
	John Swinton’s Perspective on Friendship
		The “Social Model” of Friendship
		Relationality and Personhood
		Friendship in the Light of a Christlike Perspective
		Alternative Characteristics of Swinton’s Friendship
	Discussion on Comparison Between Reinders’s and Swinton’s Conceptions of Friendship
	Discussion on Comparison of the Academic Fields: Disability Studies and Disability Theology—Contrast and Complementarity
	The Comparison of the Fields’ Friendship Rationales
		Disability Studies
		Disability Theology
	The Proposal of the Field’s Definition of Disability and Friendship
		Disability as a Concept and Experience?
		The Definition of Friendship: Based on a Perspective of the Two Fields
	Notes
	References
Chapter 3: Reimagining of an Anthropology of Friendship: The Implication of the Notion of Vulnerability and Solicitude
	Vulnerability: Brief Outline of the Meaning
		The Perspectives of Academic Discourses
		Vulnerability as a Theologically Relevant Notion?
		What Vulnerability Is Not?
	Vulnerability in Its Implications for the Relationship of Friendship
		The Process of Friendship Facing the Anthropology of Vulnerability
		The Meaning of Knowing a Friend
		The Recognition of the Other as a Friend
	Rethinking the Friendship Through the Implication of Solicitude
		A Brief Assessment of the Notion of Care: Academic Context and Application
		The Meaning of Solicitude Amid Friendship
	Paul Ricoeur on Solicitude
		Friendship, Solicitude, and Dialectics Between Other and Another
		The Complexity of Views Regarding the Meaning of Solicitude in Relation to Philia and Agape
		What About Caring Friends?
		The Friendship’s Narrative
	The Reimagining of the Meaning of Friendship
		The Socio-anthropological View on Friendship
		Theo-anthropological View on Friendship
	References
Final Conclusion
Index