Theology
Friendship with Christ A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Account John A. Vissers Foreword by Hans Boersma Friendship has the capacity to elevate our lives and make us better people. It plays an important role in our moral development, spiritual growth, and personal flourishing. This is true of friendship between humans, and it is also true of friendship with God in Christ. What did friendship with Christ mean for Christians in ages past, and what can it mean for us today? In Friendship with Christ , John Vissers offers a robust biblical, historical, and theological study of friendship with God in Christ. Rooted in the “friendship teaching” of John 15, this book draws on the threefold office of Christ as prophet, priest, and king to develop a theology of divine friendship against the backdrop of the bibli - cal record and historical tradition. Friendship with Christ, Vissers argues, is a theological truth and experience that continues to provide consolation and hope in a secular age and a suffering world. This book shows that friendship with Christ has been central to the experience of the providential love of God throughout the church’s history and that it still matters today. Friendship with Christ will appeal to professors and students of theology, Christology, and spiritual formation, as well as to pastors and church leaders. “A rich text that incorporates the appropriate corpus of works that speak to the subject at hand. This promises to be an important book, especially in our current anxious world where we are primed to see the other and even ourselves as enemies to our well-being. A return to friendship with God and the virtues that will emanate from the spiritual practices that Vissers proposes might return Christians to a joy-filled, peaceful life that can infect the rest of the world for good and God.” —Esther E. Acolatse, clinical fellow, ACPE; Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
APRIL 2026 • 224 pp. • $27.99p • 9781540969781
John A. Vissers (ThD, University of Toronto) is professor of systematic theology at Knox College, Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto, where he previously served as principal. He is an ordained minister and has served as the pastor of three congre - gations in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. He is also the author of The Neo-Orthodox Theology of W. W. Bryden .
CONTENTS
Foreword by Hans Boersma Introduction: A Sure Pledge of God’s Love
1. The Biblical Doctrine of Friendship with Christ 2. Friendship with Christ in the Christian Tradition 3. Friendship with Christ in His Threefold Office
4. The Prophetic Friendship of Christ 5. The Priestly Friendship of Christ 6. The Royal Friendship of Christ 7. Practicing Friendship with Christ
Conclusion: “A Wonderful Consolation” Index
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