Fraternity (philosophy)

Fraternity (from "brother"), today also cross-gender fraternity, refers to the actual or aspired social and solidary behaviour in a group or community that is not based on kinship or marriage, but on a voluntary association of persons. Their equal relations with one another are created by a mutual "fraternization" that can take various forms. Although fraternity in the literal sense does not include women, even earlier the word referred in places to persons of both sexes. Sisterhood is also used in reference to women's solidarity. In almost all cultures of the world the ideal of brotherhood is known, in the broadest sense it includes the dignity and equality of all people, humanity, mercy, pacifism and also love of enemies (compare brother as a worldwide term for friendship).

The idea of brotherhood comes from the philosophy of the Stoa (from 300 BC) and from Judaism. It was also adopted into Christianity. The brotherhood is justified with the common descent from one father (patrilinearity). In contrast to the non-personal concept of God the Father of the Stoa, however, God the Father (YHWH) is presented as a personal counterpart who, for example, speaks to his chosen people. The fatherhood of God in Christianity becomes a fatherhood mediated in the incarnate Son Jesus Christ, which includes fraternal unity in the Son of God. Jesus of Nazareth himself taught brotherhood in the commandment to love one's neighbor.

Brotherhood of the Stoa

The concept of brotherhood in the Stoa is based on an original, mythological concept of nature. Heaven is seen as a world-creating force which, together with "Mother Earth", brings about all life in the world. In this sense, heaven can then be called the "father" of mankind. Plato sees in the eternal transcendent idea of the Good the Father and Lord, but its personhood remains doubtful. There can be no question of a personal relation to the creatures of the world. The doctrine of fatherhood is here a reinterpretation of the old myth of Zeus and Hera. The gods are merely the pinnacle of an exalted cosmos. There is no trace in the Stoa of a personal, wrathful, caring, forgiving father-god.

Christian brotherhood

Becoming one with Christ implies becoming one among Christians and thus the abolition of the natural and historical boundaries that separate them.

Thus the great main difference, which had hitherto divided the world insurmountably, becomes invalid. The difference between Israel and the Gentiles, between the clean and the unclean, between the elect and the non-elect. The Christian concept of brotherhood now prevails over all class-hierarchical orders of natural-historical boundaries.