Neighborliness : Poetics, Politics, and Practices of Neighbor-Love

The figure of the neighbor—whether in the guise of the Good Samaritan, an adversary, an injured person in desperate need of our help or kindness, or simply an indifferent everyman—embodies the relationship between the individual, community, and sovereignty. But who qualifies as a Neighbor? How do we relate to and interact with our neighbors? And what are we to make of the different conceptions of neighborly love and community across the boundaries of culture, ethics, and faith? These questions open up the epistemological horizon of this volume. Presenting a wide range of approaches that integrate concepts from Western philosophy and literary studies, phenomenology, theology, psychoanalysis, and political theory, the contributors respond, sometimes in quite unexpected ways, to the call for a critical examination of contemporary concepts of neighbor-love and the challenging practice of being and becoming neighbors.