This book brings together the scholarship on the topic of Friendship during the Medieval period. It offers an extensive review of the literature that covers discussions on friendship and sometimes love in the three Abrahamic religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism, as well as the Secular writings. Aimed at an academic readership, it assembles and analyses the literature that is scattered across various disciplines, approaches, and fields of studies into one volume so that scholars have a useful reference to the topic of friendship relevant to one historical period. This enables an appreciation of the inter-connected influences that ushered in the Renaissance period, rather than a narrow focus that deals with particular writers, religions or cultures in isolation from each other.

Dr. Heather Devere applies her interests in friendship and politics, ethics, gender and peace and justice studies to explore friendship in the Medieval period.  Her publications include monograph Making Connections: Friendship and Politics (2024), edited volumes Friendship, Peace and Social Justice (2023) and The Challenge to Friendship in Modernity (with Preston King), and she is joint founding editor of AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies (with Graham M. Smith and Preston King). Based in Aotearoa New Zealand, Heather has taught and supervised doctoral students in peace and conflict studies, indigenous rights, and political philosophy and was until recently Director of Practice for the postgraduate programme at Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa/National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago.