How do Christians understand friendship and intimacy? How does worship form Christians into a community of friends in God? What virtues does God call us to incorporate into our lives? In Becoming Friends, Paul Wadell explores the connections between worship, friendship and intimacy, and the life we are called to live.

This engaging and accessible book offers a fresh perspective from which to explore the nature of Christian friendship. Wadell contends that Christian friendship is more than a pairing of people with similar interests, a "ritual of hopeless consolation." True Christian friendship summons us to love all of our neighbors. Becoming Friends examines obstacles to, and characteristics of, true friendship and draws from the works of Augustine, Aelred of Rievaulx, and other Christian leaders. It shows that we are called to serve God through friendship and that this calling requires us to cultivate certain virtues -- specifically, hope, justice, and forgiveness.

In down-to-earth language, Becoming Friends offers a provocative look into the nature and importance of true Christian friendship. Anyone looking to reflect on the indispensable role of good friendships in the Christian life will find this a hopeful and encouraging book.

Friendship and the Moral Life is not simply a theoretical argument about how moral theology might be done if it took friendship more seriously. Rather, the book exhibits how without friendship, our lives are morally not worth living. The book begins with a consideration of why a new model of the moral life is needed. Wadell then examines the ethics of Aristotle, who viewed the moral life as based on a specific understanding of the purpose of being human, with friendship being an important factor in enabling people to acquire virtues necessary for achieving this purpose. Through the thought of Augustine, Aelred of Reivaulx, and Karl Barth, the question is raised whether friendship is at odds with Christian love or whether their relation depends on one's narrative account of friendship. Thomas Aquinas' understanding of charity as friendship with God is examined to clarify this relationship. By locating friendship within the story of God's redemption through Christ, Wadell helps us see why friendship properly understood is integral to the Christian life and not at odds with it. Such a friendship draws us to love all others who seek God and teaches us not to restrict our concern to a special few in preferential love. The book closes by investigating how friendship as a model for the moral life might work in everyday life.

Happiness and the Christian Moral Life introduces students to Christian ethics through the lens of happiness. The book suggests that the heart of ethics is not rules and obligations but our deep desire for happiness and fulfillment. We achieve that happiness when we become people who love the good and seek it in everything we do. The third edition of this reader-friendly text has been revised and updated throughout. It introduces Christian ethics with sensitivity towards readers who may not be Christian themselves. After an overview of basic concepts and key thinkers such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, subsequent chapters explore the importance of narrative in Christian ethics, the place of friendship and community in Christian moral life, the role of virtues in our quest for fulfillment, a Christian understanding of the person, a Christian theology of freedom, and false steps on the path to happiness. Final chapters discuss the role of conscience and prudence, love, and justice. The third edition has been re-structured to better meet teaching needs by moving the discussion of narrative earlier in the book. This edition features fresh, global examples; revised introductions to key thinkers; discussions of tough, contemporary topics such as hook-up culture; careful consideration of the words of Pope Francis on themes ranging from consumerism and freedom to love and the environment; and more.