Community and Fellowship: Augustine on Friendship in Christ

Augustine valued friendship deeply and saw it as a school of divine love. In the Confessions, he mourned the death of a beloved friend: "My heart was darkened with sorrow, and whatever I looked upon was death." But Augustine learned that human friendship, however precious, must be rooted in God to endure. "Blessed is the man who loves You, and his friend in You, and his enemy for You.…