Joan Chittister: The Friendship of Women: The Hidden Tradition of the Bible

by Donna Freitas, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 5/3/2006

Sister Joan Chittister is a renowned lecturer, the executive director of Benetvision: A Resource and Research Center for Contemporary Spirituality, and the author of thirty books including her latest, The Friendship of Women: The Hidden Tradition of the Bible (Bluebridge, April), currently number 5 on the Catholic Bestsellers list.

RBL: Why did you decide to do a book on women’s friendships?

Chittister: I consider friendship to be a social sacrament, a sacred act far above and beyond ‘connections,’ acquaintanceship, or the neighborliness of social contacts. The ability to create and sustain friendships is a factor in mental health, in personal development, and in emotional survival. While male friendships had been the subject of inquiry and analysis for centuries, only recently has the notion of female friendship even become a discussible subject, let alone the subject of academic or psychological study.

RBL: How did you discern what quality each biblical woman best represented?

Chittister: The very fact that the biblical sketch of each woman is so brief actually makes it easier to define their purposes and personalities. These women are not presented as complex figures. They are agents of change, thinkers, social catalysts who make things different around them. So it’s possible to see each of them as simple but true types of what we see women looking for in friends.

RBL: How were you able to read so much wisdom from figures like Lydia and Phoebe who have only a few biblical verses dedicated to them?

Chittister: I looked at the situation in which each found themselves and asked myself what determining quality drove her behavior or accounted for the effect she had on others. Lydia, for instance, is a model of strong-mindedness. She’s a business woman. No husband is even mentioned. She herself evaluates the social situation in which she lives, and she “constrained” the apostle Paul to stay in the area until a community could take root there. She is a thinking woman from whom we all might learn something. After all, St. Paul did.

RBL: Of all the women you discussed, in which figure do you see your own greatest “friendship” strength, and in which your greatest struggle?

Chittister: My greatest strength is reflected in Ruth’s ability to risk for the sake of a greater good. I find it easy—and important—to support others in their sometimes inchoate but always sincere attempts to make life better, both for themselves and for others. My greatest struggle is actually the opposite of Ruth’s willingness to risk. It is Anne’s willingness to nurture—the patient, daily support and security that long-term presence brings. My own life is more like the social situation that I describe in the book: highly mobile and multi-faceted. My answer is to try and be totally present where I am and completely attentive to the people I’m with. What friendships today lack in time, they must provide in depth and continuing contact.