Learn More:
"Peterman’s passionate vision for a more connected and harmonious society inspires."
—Publishers Weekly
It’s beautiful and potent... delightfully brainy...I hope Becoming Neighbors is discussed often, all over. — Hearts & Minds Bookstore
“In a digital age in which the entire world seems like our neighborhood, it is easy to overlook our own local, flesh-and-blood, brick-and-mortar communities. It is easy to want to change the whole world but not even know our own neighbors. Amar Peterman invites us to turn more toward the places where we dwell, to the people who live among us, and to the spaces where we can cultivate the common good in our own communities—in other words, to become more neighborly. Loving our neighbors with Christlike love is a process of our own becoming, and I’m grateful that upon reading these pages, I’m inspired and encouraged to participate more fully in that process of becoming.”
—Karen Swallow Prior, author of You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful
“Amar Peterman has written a book the church desperately needs. Becoming Neighbors is a beautiful vision of what happens when we move past fear and suspicion and begin to see one another as bearers of God’s image. It’s both deeply practical and profoundly hopeful—an invitation to create communities marked by love, justice, and belonging.”
—Zach W. Lambert, author of Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing
“Amar Peterman connects cosmic beliefs to concrete actions in this beautiful book about how faith calls us to build community, starting with the people who live next door.”
—Eboo Patel, author of We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy
“As Christians we are called to become neighbors—and that is not a metaphor! Amar Peterman’s reminder that love must be concrete is as invitational as it is insistent, and as visionary as it is provocatively practical.”
—Hanna Reichel, author of For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional
“If meals make neighbors, and neighbors make communities, then the table is far more than a place to eat. In Becoming Neighbors, Amar Peterman reminds us that the table is where we learn to linger, to see and be seen, and to be knit together—often against the grain of an age bent toward isolation, suspicion, and speed. Hospitality here is no small courtesy; it is a school of hope, where imagination is reawakened and the quiet miracle of God’s presence can still break in.”
—Anne Snyder, editor in chief, Comment
“Amar Peterman blends clarity, compassion, and depth in his call for Christians to take seriously the kind of generous hospitality that is possible at the intersection of faithful witness and love of neighbor. Reading this book is time well spent.”
—John Inazu, author of Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect
“Amar Peterman brings to the American church the ancient, precolonial values of peaceful pluralism embodied by our Indian ancestors, values the West desperately needs for its healing today. This book is a hope-filled, prophetic reimagination of what the church was always meant to be—good news for the poor and oppressed, working alongside the Spirit of God who is already present in all of humanity and creation. If you’re longing for a church that heals, hopes, and joins God’s liberating work in the world, read this book.”
—Joash P. Thomas, author of The Justice of Jesus: Reimagining Your Church’s Life Together to Pursue Liberation and Wholeness
“Rooted in the conviction that God’s purposes unfold in our neighborhoods, Amar Peterman calls readers to focus close to home, reminding us that faithful citizenship begins with knowing and serving our neighbors, especially across lines of difference, and that the common good is cultivated through incarnate engagement that reflects God’s care for the world.”
—Stephanie Summers, CEO of The Center for Public Justice
—Publishers Weekly
It’s beautiful and potent... delightfully brainy...I hope Becoming Neighbors is discussed often, all over. — Hearts & Minds Bookstore
“In a digital age in which the entire world seems like our neighborhood, it is easy to overlook our own local, flesh-and-blood, brick-and-mortar communities. It is easy to want to change the whole world but not even know our own neighbors. Amar Peterman invites us to turn more toward the places where we dwell, to the people who live among us, and to the spaces where we can cultivate the common good in our own communities—in other words, to become more neighborly. Loving our neighbors with Christlike love is a process of our own becoming, and I’m grateful that upon reading these pages, I’m inspired and encouraged to participate more fully in that process of becoming.”
—Karen Swallow Prior, author of You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful
“Amar Peterman has written a book the church desperately needs. Becoming Neighbors is a beautiful vision of what happens when we move past fear and suspicion and begin to see one another as bearers of God’s image. It’s both deeply practical and profoundly hopeful—an invitation to create communities marked by love, justice, and belonging.”
—Zach W. Lambert, author of Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing
“Amar Peterman connects cosmic beliefs to concrete actions in this beautiful book about how faith calls us to build community, starting with the people who live next door.”
—Eboo Patel, author of We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy
“As Christians we are called to become neighbors—and that is not a metaphor! Amar Peterman’s reminder that love must be concrete is as invitational as it is insistent, and as visionary as it is provocatively practical.”
—Hanna Reichel, author of For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional
“If meals make neighbors, and neighbors make communities, then the table is far more than a place to eat. In Becoming Neighbors, Amar Peterman reminds us that the table is where we learn to linger, to see and be seen, and to be knit together—often against the grain of an age bent toward isolation, suspicion, and speed. Hospitality here is no small courtesy; it is a school of hope, where imagination is reawakened and the quiet miracle of God’s presence can still break in.”
—Anne Snyder, editor in chief, Comment
“Amar Peterman blends clarity, compassion, and depth in his call for Christians to take seriously the kind of generous hospitality that is possible at the intersection of faithful witness and love of neighbor. Reading this book is time well spent.”
—John Inazu, author of Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect
“Amar Peterman brings to the American church the ancient, precolonial values of peaceful pluralism embodied by our Indian ancestors, values the West desperately needs for its healing today. This book is a hope-filled, prophetic reimagination of what the church was always meant to be—good news for the poor and oppressed, working alongside the Spirit of God who is already present in all of humanity and creation. If you’re longing for a church that heals, hopes, and joins God’s liberating work in the world, read this book.”
—Joash P. Thomas, author of The Justice of Jesus: Reimagining Your Church’s Life Together to Pursue Liberation and Wholeness
“Rooted in the conviction that God’s purposes unfold in our neighborhoods, Amar Peterman calls readers to focus close to home, reminding us that faithful citizenship begins with knowing and serving our neighbors, especially across lines of difference, and that the common good is cultivated through incarnate engagement that reflects God’s care for the world.”
—Stephanie Summers, CEO of The Center for Public Justice
Foreword by James K. A. Smith
Introduction
1. Coming to the Table
2. Joining God in the Neighborhood
3. The Practices of Neighbor Love
4. A Community of Builders
5. We Live as Neighbors
Acknowledgments
Works Cited
Index of Subjects
Index of Scripture
Introduction
1. Coming to the Table
2. Joining God in the Neighborhood
3. The Practices of Neighbor Love
4. A Community of Builders
5. We Live as Neighbors
Acknowledgments
Works Cited
Index of Subjects
Index of Scripture
Can you imagine a world where we become neighbors to one another? Amid our struggles and divisions, can you envision a shared, communal table where people are joined together across their differences? Can you close your eyes and picture who might be sitting to your left and right? Whose presence makes your heart skip a beat? What dishes do you smell? What languages do you hear? What will you contribute?
This book is about the pursuit of the common good through a faith formed by and toward love of neighbor. It has in mind what and who we will be to each other in this cultural moment and in the moments to come. At the heart of this work is a simple but critical question: How will we live?
Cultivating this shared vision of the common good is a deeply local task. The key to shared flourishing for our neighborhoods is not located beyond the stars—if only we could build ideological spaceships to capture it. Instead, communities thrive when we turn our gaze horizontally toward our neighbors and the world around us. Contained in every person is an endless galaxy of beliefs and experiences, of joys and sorrows, of fears and comforts. Any meaningful pursuit of a common good will require us to know our neighbors.
What will draw Christians toward common action toward the common good, though, is not only shared belief; it is also shared desire. We must become a people whose faith and desire are nurtured, formed, and cultivated by love for our neighbors. When we join with others in this common life, we are drawn into the vast expanse of their infinity just as they are drawn into ours. This neighbor-loving work not only changes what we believe about our neighbors; it also transforms how we relate to them. They are no longer enemies to fight; they are people to love. They are no longer social media handles or digital avatars; they are complex humans who are motivated by their deep values and their felt vulnerabilities. If we seek the shared flourishing of our community, we must desire right relationship with our neighbors.
Seeking the common good through this local practice of neighbor love is messy and complicated work. It would be far easier to remain aloof and simply read about our “neighbors” in books and surveys or make assumptions about them based on their yard signs. However, cultivating a truly common good requires humble proximity where our beliefs and assumptions about one another are challenged by the lived experiences of our neighbors. Our shared flourishing is impossible unless we enter into a common life where we are formed by and toward one another. Throughout this book, I use a simple illustration to describe this space: the table.
The table where the common good is cultivated recognizes and honors the goodness of all who are seated around it. At the table, people of different faiths, cultures, traditions, and beliefs are valued as partners in the work of loving and joining. Shared flourishing is not a zero-sum game, and we are not competitors. As neighbors, we come bearing our community’s best “dishes,” eager to share our wisdom, liturgies, and practices with others. It is marked by a desire for conversation, not conversion, for shared action, not stubborn arguments. The table also reminds us that goodness is not hidden behind a locked church door. Our God is too generous to reserve goodness for any one people or keep it stored in one place. Our pursuit of the common good must recognize and honor the goodness present in those outside our tradition. We must acknowledge that this work of cultivating a common good has long been happening outside the church. At the table, we cannot eat only what we brought. Our plates must be filled with our neighbors’ dishes as well.
This book is about the pursuit of the common good through a faith formed by and toward love of neighbor. It has in mind what and who we will be to each other in this cultural moment and in the moments to come. At the heart of this work is a simple but critical question: How will we live?
Cultivating this shared vision of the common good is a deeply local task. The key to shared flourishing for our neighborhoods is not located beyond the stars—if only we could build ideological spaceships to capture it. Instead, communities thrive when we turn our gaze horizontally toward our neighbors and the world around us. Contained in every person is an endless galaxy of beliefs and experiences, of joys and sorrows, of fears and comforts. Any meaningful pursuit of a common good will require us to know our neighbors.
What will draw Christians toward common action toward the common good, though, is not only shared belief; it is also shared desire. We must become a people whose faith and desire are nurtured, formed, and cultivated by love for our neighbors. When we join with others in this common life, we are drawn into the vast expanse of their infinity just as they are drawn into ours. This neighbor-loving work not only changes what we believe about our neighbors; it also transforms how we relate to them. They are no longer enemies to fight; they are people to love. They are no longer social media handles or digital avatars; they are complex humans who are motivated by their deep values and their felt vulnerabilities. If we seek the shared flourishing of our community, we must desire right relationship with our neighbors.
Seeking the common good through this local practice of neighbor love is messy and complicated work. It would be far easier to remain aloof and simply read about our “neighbors” in books and surveys or make assumptions about them based on their yard signs. However, cultivating a truly common good requires humble proximity where our beliefs and assumptions about one another are challenged by the lived experiences of our neighbors. Our shared flourishing is impossible unless we enter into a common life where we are formed by and toward one another. Throughout this book, I use a simple illustration to describe this space: the table.
The table where the common good is cultivated recognizes and honors the goodness of all who are seated around it. At the table, people of different faiths, cultures, traditions, and beliefs are valued as partners in the work of loving and joining. Shared flourishing is not a zero-sum game, and we are not competitors. As neighbors, we come bearing our community’s best “dishes,” eager to share our wisdom, liturgies, and practices with others. It is marked by a desire for conversation, not conversion, for shared action, not stubborn arguments. The table also reminds us that goodness is not hidden behind a locked church door. Our God is too generous to reserve goodness for any one people or keep it stored in one place. Our pursuit of the common good must recognize and honor the goodness present in those outside our tradition. We must acknowledge that this work of cultivating a common good has long been happening outside the church. At the table, we cannot eat only what we brought. Our plates must be filled with our neighbors’ dishes as well.
