Book Review: True Friendship

Today's book review is one I was intrigued to get my hands on, because of Vaughan's involvement in 'Living Out'. The church today, and the world around it, needs all the help it can get in the area of healthy, biblical relationships. Vaughan's slim, readable and practical little book, 'True Friendship', is one which I think goes some way towards filling the void.

Before reviewing the book itself, it is worth noting (gladly!) that whilst this may be a new book, it is one that taps into something deep and old and true and beautiful. Written at a time when friendship and real genuine intimacy is desperately needed, Vaughan stands in a long tradition, from Old Testament times till now, of True Friendship.

One of the highlights of 'True Friendship' is the way, alluded to above, in which Vaughan draws together biblical themes and historical reflection, to give us a vision of genuine friendship. We have usage of Proverbs, and the story of David and Jonathan's friendship, quotations from Henri Nouwen, and a twelth century British monk called Aelred. This is not a rough idea of friendship that an Oxford pastor has plucked out of a few blogs, but a meaty, deep, real form of friendship. As an aside, this is the first book of this size in which John Frame's massive 'The Doctrine of the Christian Life' has been referenced. Kudos.

On a personal-academic note, it is refreshing to see Vaughan identifying so much of what he says with my favourite topic, our humanity as being the image of God. We read much in this little book of how relationships echo our relational God, and how redemption means restoration of both our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with each other. The vision of true friendship that Vaughan so ably spells out is well rooted, and resonates with what I think is one of the two key trajectories in the Image of God, our relationality. 

The final thing I want to pick out in this review - given that the book is inexpensive and reasonably short (95 pages!), I'd far rather you read it yourself - is the way in which the biblical and practical are so interwoven. Vaughan, as befits an expository preacher, is masterful in weaving scripture throughout his book, and at the same time this is an immensely practical, useful book. Each chapter ends with 'Questions for Reflection and Discussion', aiming to facilitate real friendships and genuine reflection on the ideas. 

As I said at the start of this review, there is nothing 'new' here, in a historical/biblical sense, but this is a very true book, a deep book, and one which deserves wide readership. It will be, I think, particularly useful for starting conversations and experiments in seeing the Church become a better family - I think particularly of those called to singleness, for whatever reason - but should cause all of us who have normal relationships and friendships to reconsider how we live those out in our lives. There is also, as one might expect, some engagement with social media, but this is quite helpful, recognising its utility and its limitations. I thoroughly recommend this slim little book, and look forward (At some point!) to follow up the footnotes...

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