SELF-DISCLOSURE AND CHRISTIAN FRIENDSHIP

During the third and fourth centuries AD, the Roman state endured as a central political authority controlling a vast empire that included Western and South-Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Near East up to the borders of Persia. The periphery of this territory and Italy itself were subject to invasions by warlike peoples that had been partly assimilated to Roman social life; destruction was at times massive, and regions periodically achieved varying degrees of local autonomy. Internally, class divisions hardened into statuses: laws prescribed different treatment for citizens according to rank, and the lowest stratum was reduced to a serf-like state of dependency (the “colonate”) that was often little different from slavery. At the same time, traditional civic institutions, or at least forms, exhibited a remarkable tenacity, and many cities preserved ancient offices and titles under radically changed conditions. Finally, Constantine's decision to grant religious freedom to all Christians in 313 confirmed the pre-eminence of the church, and created the conditions for vigorous campaigns of conversion as well as confrontations between rival Christian sects.

Within the church, attitudes toward friendship were conditioned both by theological or ethical principles and by organizational considerations. Monastic life, which took various forms in different parts of the empire, had a profound influence on Christian social thought. When the church fathers wrote about friendship, they were as often concerned with relations among monks, priests, or other devotees who lived together in religious communities as with forms of familiarity among lay people.