Friendship
摘要
This chapter will argue that the role of the revelation of the Holy Spirit is not only to learn about the gifts of the Spirit that someone can bring to the community but also to become friends with one another, including persons with atypical bodies and intellectual disabilities. Friendship, in this case, is not about who someone is in their fallen state but about falling in love with the hidden dimension of their being in Christ, revealed through the radiance of the Spirit. To make this argument, the chapter will begin with an overview of the main definitions of friendship in disability theology and their attempt at circumventing the notion of reciprocity. Then, the chapter will discuss the works and writings of Pavel Florensky, for whom friendship is more than an act of reciprocity, it is falling in love unexpectedly with a person. The last section will claim that the reason we are falling in love with the other as a friend inside the church is because after having cleansed our senses through ascesis, we can perceive and experience her in the light of her place in the body of Christ.