Becoming Neighbors: The Common Good Made Local

In Becoming Neighbors, Amar D. Peterman explores how the common good can be cultivated through the practice of neighbor love. And he encourages Christians to join their neighbors at what he calls “the shared table”—a space where communities gather across differences to work towards the flourishing of the whole. Within every neighborhood, people have daily opportunities to show up for each other and share the best of their traditions, cultures, and beliefs. But too often, Christians keep to themselves—and when they do show up, many spend more time talking than listening. Peterman encourages Christians to adopt a different posture: to sit side by side with their neighbors at the community table, share a meal, engage in mutual listening and learning, and actively commit to each other’s flourishing.
Peterman illuminates the faith-based insights that Christians can bring to the table, such as the biblical call to love others, to seek goodness, and to build communities of belonging. And he offers tangible practices of neighbor love—including compassion, resonance, lamentation, and accompaniment—that translate across diverse populations. Peterman also demonstrates how Christ’s example as prophet, priest, and king serves as a guide for how Christians might live faithfully in their communities today.
At the heart of this book is a simple but critical question: How will we live? Amid our differences and disagreements, through the strife and terror of our world, through the reality of death and the hope of resurrection, the answer for Christians is clear: We live as neighbors.
Select Projects

“A Study in Belonging: Particularity as a Gift in Acts 17,” in Awake, Emerging and Connected: Theologies of Justice from the Missing Generation (London: SCM Press, 2024).
"Bringing Religion to the Office" chapter contribution in Theology, Religion, and The Office: Beauty in Ordinary Things (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2024)
“We Gather at the Table,” co-authored with Nicholas Tangen in Hungry for Hope: Letters to the Church from Young Adults (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2025).
Drawn from the First Nations Bible Translation, which translates the “Kingdom of God” as the “Creator’s Good Road,” the “Good Road Network” provides a formative space for Christians to envision a more loving, hospitable, and generous faith practice in our world today. The Kingdom of God is deeply social; it is a visible cultural community embodying the moral virtues of the Christian life in the world. The GRN supports and connects Christians who want to live out this way of life well.
This learning laboratory includes experts and lay leaders in diverse fields including healthcare, law, business, theology, public policy, ethics, pastoral ministry, and social activism with the ambition to build bridges, seek justice, make peace, and educate the church. Participants range from advanced undergraduate students to post-doctoral fellows. All members have a demonstrated record of rich theological engagement, faithful and practical engagement, and innovative and compelling visions for Christian and public life.
The GRN is led by a core team of Good Road Fellows who lead topic-based cohorts for members of the GRN and help organize quarterly gatherings.