Better You, Better Friends

Better You, Better Friends

Author: Glenda D. Shaw

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-09-15

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 153815272X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Offers a unique approach to becoming a better friend to FIND better friendships We know that our friendships increase our happiness, our health, and our longevity, yet people in the U.S. have fewer close confidantes today than we did three decades ago. Even though there’s a huge amount of information in the media discussing these relationships, and our social media feeds run 24/7, most of us haven’t come up with a constructive approach to friendship. But learning to BE a better friend is the first step to acquiring and cultivating better, more rewarding friendships. At her own birthday celebration, Glenda Shaw found herself questioning the friends and the friendships there to help her. It dawned on her that she did not feel truly connected to most of them. Something felt terribly wrong. She realized that what she shared with her birthday guests was proximity: they worked together, they lived close to each other, they went to the same networking events and movies. There were, however, other friends with whom she shared more fundamental qualities: the disposition of being encouraging to people, an attitude of looking for purpose in life, a spirit of adventure. Those were the friendships that meant something, the ones that felt truly deep and real. Friendship is voluntary; it’s not legally binding; and it usually has no economic consequences. Yet, friendship, true friendship, is important and comes with challenges the can make or break a relationship. Each chapter of Better You, Better Friends: A Whole New Approach to Friendship explores and addresses a particular kind of challenge—envy, money, honesty—and discusses ways to overcome them or to know when to bow out of a relationship that brings more stress than happiness. Through expert input and personal stories, including her own, Shaw offers a new level of understanding of what makes a good friendship and a good friend.


Friendships in Childhood and Adolescence

Friendships in Childhood and Adolescence

Author: Catherine L. Bagwell

Publisher: Guilford Press

Published: 2013-01-10

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 1462509606

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Highly readable and comprehensive, this volume explores the significance of friendship for social, emotional, and cognitive development from early childhood through adolescence. The authors trace how friendships change as children age and what specific functions these relationships play in promoting adjustment and well-being. Compelling topics include the effects of individual differences on friendship quality, how friendship quality can be assessed, and ways in which certain friendships may promote negative outcomes. Examining what clinicians, educators, and parents can do to help children who struggle with making friends, the book reviews available interventions and identifies important directions for future work in the field.


Friendship Processes

Friendship Processes

Author: Beverley Fehr

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 0803945612

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"In this marvelous book, Beverly Fehr presents a comprehensive and richly detailed examination of what scholars have learned about the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of friendships. . . . Overall, a model of careful scholarship, clear writing, and good sense. For anyone studying friendships, there is no better place to start. This is perhaps the best book of its kind." --Choice Friends are an integral part of our lives--they sometimes replace family relationships and often form the basis for romantic relationships. Friendship Processes, new in the Sage Series on Close Relationships, examines exactly how friends give meaning to our lives and why we rely so heavily on them. Broad in its coverage, the book is process oriented and research based with each phase of the friendship process documented by empirical research. The result is a conceptual framework that illuminates the fascinating components of how we make friends, how we become close, how we maintain friends, and how friendships deteriorate and dissolve. Author Beverley Fehr equips the reader with valuable knowledge about the formations and continuations of the intriguing personal relationship called friendship. Friendship Processes also illustrates well the fact that, as a field of study, close relationships is maturing rapidly. Promising to be the definitive study of the subject for many years to come, this book will be of particular interest to professionals, academics, and students of social psychology, sociology, communication, family studies, and social work as well as any interested reader who is anxious to deepen his or her understanding and appreciation of a very engaging topic.


On Friendship

On Friendship

Author: Michel de Montaigne

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2005-09-06

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 1101651156

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the 100-part Penguin Great Ideas series comes a rumination on relationships, courtesy of one of the most influential French Renaissance philosophers. Michel de Montaigne was the originator of the modern essay form; in these diverse pieces he expresses his views on friendship, contemplates the idea that man is no different from any animal, argues that all cultures should be respected, and attempts, by an exploration of himself, to understand the nature of humanity. Penguin Great Ideas: Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves—and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war, and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked, and comforted. They have enriched lives—and destroyed them. Now Penguin Great Ideas brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals, and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are. Other titles in the series include Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, and Charles Darwin's On Natural Selection.


Friendship Matters

Friendship Matters

Author: William Rawlins

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 135151895X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this volume, Dr. Rawlins traces and investigates the varieties, tensions, and functions of friendship for males and females throughout the life course. Using both conceptual and illustrative chapters, the book portrays the degrees of involvement, choice, risk, ambivalence, and ambiguity within friendships, and explores the emotional texture of interactions among friends. A concluding section examines the prospects for friendship in the course of our post-modern blurring of public and private domains and discursive sites.


Homosexuality and the Christian

Homosexuality and the Christian

Author: Mark A. PsyD Yarhouse

Publisher: Bethany House

Published: 2010-09-01

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 1441213716

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mark Yarhouse gives honest and accurate answers to parents and pastors who have questions about homosexuality. Throughout the book, the author uses a new framework for understanding the issue, carefully separating the concept of "same sex attraction" from a "gay identity." In a clear and compassionate style, he explains the research regarding what causes same-sex attraction and whether or not it can be overcome. He also discusses what Christians can do when someone they know opens up to them about their homosexual attractions.


Two Views on Homosexuality, the Bible, and the Church

Two Views on Homosexuality, the Bible, and the Church

Author: Zondervan,

Publisher: Zondervan Academic

Published: 2016-11-29

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 031052864X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Unique among most debates on homosexuality, this book presents a constructive dialogue between people who disagree on significant ethical and theological matters, and yet maintain a respectful and humanizing posture toward one another. Few topics are more divisive today than homosexuality. Two Views on Homosexuality, the Bible, and the Church brings a fresh perspective to a well-worn debate. While Christian debates about homosexuality are most often dominated by biblical exegesis, this book seeks to give much-needed attention to the rich history of received Christian tradition, bringing the Bible into conversation with historical and systematic theology. To that end, both theologians and biblical scholars--well accomplished in their fields and conversant in issues of sexuality and gender--articulate and defend each of the two views: Affirming – represented by William Loader and Megan K. DeFranza Traditional – represented by Wesley Hill and Stephen R. Holmes The main essays are followed by insightful responses that interact with their fellow essayists with civility. Holding to a high view of Scripture, a commitment to the gospel and the church, and a love for people--especially those most affected by this topic--the contributors wrestle deeply with the Bible and theology, especially the prohibition texts, the role of procreation, gender complementarity, and pastoral accommodation. The book concludes with reflections from general editor Preston Sprinkle on the future of discussions on faith and sexuality. The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.


Friendship, a Study in Theological Ethics

Friendship, a Study in Theological Ethics

Author: Gilbert Meilaender

Publisher: Revisions

Published: 1981

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13: 9780268009564

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Certain relationships are of profound importance for the moral life. Gilbert C. Meilaender explores some of the tensions which Christian experience discovers in one such relationship, the bond of friendship. These tensions help to explain why friendship was a more important topic in the life and thought of the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome than it has unusually been within Christendom. The bond of friendship (philia) involves special preference; Christian love (agape) is thought to be like the love of the heavenly Father who makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Philia requires that love be returned; agape is to be shown even the enemy, who does not love in return. Friendships sometimes fade away; Christians are enjoined to be faithful in love. These tensions have permeated our lives and helped to shape our world. We think politics a more important sphere than the private friendship bond. We seek fulfillment in and identify ourselves with our vocations -- by which we now mean, work for pay -- not our friendships. And in a world where politics and vocation are all-important, lasting friendships become more difficult to sustain. Friendship examines the tension between philia and agape and probes its significance for Christian thought and experience.


True Friendship

True Friendship

Author: John Cuddeback, Ph.D.

Publisher: Ignatius Press

Published: 2021-01-22

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 1621643557

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

We all want true friends. But how many of us really know what friendship is, or where to find it? In these pages, philosopher John Cuddeback weaves together the timeless wisdom of Scripture, of the ancient Greeks, and the saints to map out the steep and beautiful path to man's greatest joy—true friendship. Following Aristotle's teachings on the unbreakable connection between happiness and virtuous living, Cuddeback sees friendship at the very center of the human drama. Although there are different kinds of friendship, the deepest kind can only be achieved through a life of virtue, and this is where the human person comes most fully alive. True Friendship offers simple yet rich advice on how to tap into this reality in our own lives. Such friendship demands much of us, but it gives us even more, as individuals and as a society. Both the Old and New Testaments place a premium on friendship. In the Christian vision, the philosophers' insights attain a broader supernatural perspective. Christ transforms human friendship and expands it. With help from the writings of Saints Thomas and Aelred, Cuddeback discovers what lies at the heart of the Christian life—the wondrous and unsurpassable reality of friendship with God in Jesus, the Divine Friend, who is at work in all our authentic friendships.


Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love

Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love

Author: Edward Sri

Publisher: Franciscan Media

Published: 2020-01-08

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 1632530813

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Fr. Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II’s name before he became the pontiff in 1978) published Love and Responsibility in 1960. It revealed his fully formed philosophy of marriage and sheds light on the dynamics between men and women. Some consider his analysis of the true meaning of human love as life changing and practical, shedding light on real issues between men and women. This updated and expanded edition of Edward Sri’s classic meditation on Pope John Paul II’s Love and Responsibility includes a new introduction, new chapters for single people and engaged couples, and maybe most importantly the stories of people whose lives have been transformed by Pope John Paul II’s foundational teaching on relationships. “Edward Sri is a gifted teacher and an equally talented writer. This book shows why. He breaks open Karol Wojtyla's great text, Love and Responsibility, in a way that's clear, engaging and very practical for the challenges of daily life.” – Charles J. Chaput, OFM, Archbishop of Philadelphia. In Men, Women and the Mystery of Love, Edward Sri breaks down the contents of John Paul’s epic work, making it more accessible to the reader. It isn’t a manual on sexual ethics, more so a no-nonsense discussion on issues we face as couples. He emphasizes the down-to-earth nature of Love and Responsibility, giving readers actionable advice on issues like: How to determine if a relationship is one of authentic love or is doomed to failure; The problem of pornography; The meaning of friendship; How to achieve greater intimacy in marriage; The difference between feeling “I’m in love” and love itself; and so many other valuable questions. While this book is a great personal resource, it also can be used in a variety of situations like small group studies, marriage preparation classes, and other parish settings. It offers valuable advice for just about everyone, from young single adults and engaged couples to newlyweds and couples celebrating their 35th anniversary. Study questions with each chapter make this a valuable resource not only for individual personal reading, but also for small group study.