Overview

Activists, community organizers, and church groups bring good intentions to “loving our neighbors” – yet often those well-intentioned actions result in profound harm to neighbors and communities. What we need is a way to better understand our motives, resources, and communities -- as well as how our society operates -- so the impacts of our love better align with our intentions.

In this book, Joe Blosser weaves together resources in theology, community development, economics, anti-racism, and environmental sustainability to help leaders, organizations, students, churches, and neighborhoods embrace community solidarity for change.

Offering new practices of neighbor love, Blosser guides us to live in solidarity with others across differences, exercise sufficiency in our economic lives, and care for the sustainability of our planet and communities. When we engage in these practices, we foster the shared sense of common good, mutual responsibility, and interconnectedness that Jesus intended. In a world where “neighbor” has become as meaningless as a “friend” or “follower” online, this book reminds us that true neighbor love is the long-term work of forming and maintaining more just communities.

Joe Blosser is a community builder and ethicist whose work drives at the intersections of faith, economics, and social change. He previously served as an associate professor of religion and philosophy and director of a university-based center for community engagement. Now he focuses on place-based social change and serves as the chief impact officer for a family foundation. He holds a PhD from the University of Chicago, an MDiv from Vanderbilt University, a BS from Texas Christian University, and is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

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