The Company We Keep: True Friendship and Why It Matters

＂＂＂No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.＂＂ - John 15:13 What does it mean to live friendship as a Christian? In a culture of fleeting connections and digital noise, The Company We Keep offers a compelling return to the wisdom of Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, the Gospel, and Christian tradition to rediscover the lost art and meaning of true friendship as a vital part of holiness and disicpleship. Catholic philosopher Michael Pakaluk invites readers to see friendship not as optional, but essential: a moral, spiritual, and deeply human bond that reflects our highest calling. With clarity and warmth, he explores the kinds of friendship that shape our lives-- from casual camaraderie to the deep, sacrificial love between spouses, parents, and children. Whether you seek richer relationships, deeper community, or a more meaningful life of faith, this book will challenge and inspire you to choose your company wisely-- and to become the kind of friend that is crucial and indispensable in the lives of your loved ones. It is a book about community, growing in love, and following Christ more closely-- together. ＂

Michael Pakaluk is Ordinary Professor of Political Economy at the Busch School of Business in The Catholic University of America, and an Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011. He is the author of Other Selves: Philosophers on Friendship (Hackett); Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics: An Introduction (Cambridge), and the Clarendon volume: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, books VIII and IX, Translation with Commentary (Oxford). His most recent book is Be Good Bankers: The Economic Interpretation of Matthew’s Gospel (Regnery Gateway).