Ahyuwa, Maureen Ishaya. “Celibate Friendship in the Christian Tradition”, Boston College, 2023. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:109860.
Abstract
This thesis studies Celibate Friendship in the Christian Tradition from the perspectives of Aelred of Rievaulx and Teresa of Avila. Both of them taught and modelled celibate friendship in response to their vocation as religious, in their time and space. It is the desire to reclaim authentic Christian living through friendship as lived and taught by Aelred of Rievaulx and Teresa of Avila, that necessitate this study. I realized that Aelred and Teresa's doctrine on spritual friendship is basically Christ-centered. It begins with Christ, proceeds in Christ and ends in Christ. Aelredian and Teresian celibate friendship is essentially love for God and humanity. It is incarnational, communal, apostolic and scripture-based. It teaches authentic way of living the Gospel values of love, unity, justice, peace and joy in the contemporary world. Religious life as a charismatic gift to the Church, is a most appropriate vocation for Christian witnessing through celibate friendship as taught and modeled by Aelred of Rievaulx and Teresa of Avila. To live Aelredian and Teresian sprirituality of celibate friendship in the twenty-first century, religious men and women need to be versatile in knowledge, sustained by on-going formation on the subject matter.
