How Many Friends Should I Have? ‘A Lot,’ says Thomas Aquinas | Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

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Summary

Fr. Guilbeau's handout can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/3vw4dp4e This lecture was delivered on December 6, 2021 at St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church for the DC Young Professionals Chapter of the Thomistic Institute. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: A native of Louisiana, Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P. entered the Province of St. Joseph in 2005. After several years of pastoral work in New York City, Fr. Guilbeau began doctoral studies in moral theology at the University of Fribourg, where he completed a dissertation in moral theology. His topic was Charles De Koninck’s doctrine of the common good. In addition to his teaching, Fr. Guilbeau is prior of the Dominican House of Studies.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This talk is brought to you by the Tamistic Institute.
0:03.3	For more talks like this, visit us at tamistic institute.org.
0:10.9	So the question that we'll try to answer tonight is, how many friends should I have?
0:18.8	One of the ironies that mark modern life is this.
0:23.6	As technology has multiplied for us the ways to communicate,
0:29.6	as media has defined itself as social,
0:34.6	more people report feeling alienated and isolated from others.
0:43.3	This wasn't supposed to happen, at least according to the media companies who make communication
0:49.3	easier. They have poured billions of dollars into putting tools of communication into every
0:56.6	office, into every home, and even into every pocket. It turns out, however, that multiplying
1:05.6	short, digital, and mostly anonymous communication does not suffice to create connection, much less affection
1:16.2	between human beings. As people communicate more, as they communicate all day, in fact,
1:25.5	and often into the night, they report having few or even no friends.
1:35.7	Truth to be told, friendship has suffered culturally for some time now.
1:41.2	In art, in the academy, in politics,
1:45.0	Friendship represents a forgotten topic.
1:50.0	Artists rarely depicted, scientists and intellectuals rarely study it,
1:57.0	politicians rarely promote it. Our culture has lost its taste for friendship, at least
2:07.2	according to how our grandparents and great-grandparents would have understood and lived it.
2:15.1	Friendship as a school of virtue has become old-fashioned.
2:19.3	The few types of friendship today that seem to catch the culture's eye are those that cloak vice,
2:26.3	especially of a sexual kind.
	...

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