“The challenge Christians today face is that we were taught to love our neighbors in a world profoundly shaped by neoliberal ideas.”
In making that statement, Joe Blosser identified the problem he believes distorts the faith and actions of many American Christians today, especially those of the White mainline Protestant variety. His recent book, To Love Our Neighbors: Radical Practices in Solidarity, Sufficiency, and Sustainability, is a clarion call to recognize the way our context deforms how we practice the Christian life and to identify different, radical, and better ways to follow Jesus.
“By neighbor love within another context — the context of God’s Kingdom — Christians can be pushed outside of the neoliberal worldview, allowing us to see that our current practice of neighbor love has been warped in our churches, communities, politics, and government,” Blosser explained.
Before going any further, we need to define “neoliberal.” It’s a word that is often confused and abused in arguments. Conventionally, it’s best understood as the introduction of market thinking into government and other non-economic aspects of our lives. More specifically, Blosser focuses on how neoliberal thinking 1) emphasizes individualism, 2) promotes consumerism as a defining goal of the good human life, and 3) prioritizes short-term horizons. These three factors are all problematic when considered in light of some basic Christian ideas.
Indeed, Blosser structures his book around three competing claims. Let’s consider each in turn.
First, loving our neighbors requires solidarity. So much of the charity we practice is self-interested. Such efforts are undertaken to look good or alleviate guilt. There’s little understanding and consideration of people’s experiences and real needs, let alone collaboration in relieving suffering and resisting oppressing. We need deeper connection with others or we’re likely to do more harm than good. This book is a call to build relationships locally — with our actual neighbors — but not to stop there. Because true solidarity involves learning and naming how larger, structural issues harm our neighbors and working together to change them.
Second, loving our neighbors means building an economy of sufficiency. This might be the most challenging idea of the book. Many middle-to-upper class American Christians are used to a certain standard of living. The goal is to help others mired in poverty, both in the United States and globally, to achieve that same level of prosperity. That’s practically impossible in a consumerist society where some get a lot because so many are encouraged to spend what little they have. Rather than idealizing luxury, there’s a need to redefine wealth in terms broader than material goods and attend to those social factors — like substandard education — that are holding so many back from experiencing a richer life.
Third, loving our neighbor prioritizes sustainability. There’s a clear link here with Blosser’s discussion of sufficiency. The limitations of the earth’s natural resources means that our planet can’t support everyone living like upper class Americans. Advances in prolonging our lives invite difficult conversations around how what’s used by one generation impacts the generations to come. Justice involves not just some people getting more but all of us working to determine what can be sustained in the future rather than just benefitting those in the present.
These three principles are radical in nature. They threaten to upend the status quo and confront the powers that be. Yet, Blosser doesn’t write as someone wanting to burn everything down. Instead, he unpacks these ideas in conversation with common Christian teachings that leave you thinking, “Why haven’t we made more progress on this already?” And he expertly describes the economic, political, and racial motivations that have been such fierce obstacles that serve as the answer to that question.
(Derick McKinney/Unsplash)
I read To Love Our Neighbors as an intrigued and curious pastor. There’s a lot here that I can draw on in my congregational context to help those I shepherd think and act in new ways.
But I also picked up the book as someone who calls Blosser a colleague and friend. We attended divinity school at the same time (he was working on his doctorate, while I was completing my Master of Divinity) and we lived in an intentional Christian community together. So we shared many conversations back then about theology, economics, and politics. His faith and intellect were always impressive.
I’m thrilled to see that some of the ideas he was chewing on back then have not only been more broadly expressed in this book but also informed by his experiences as a scholar and community leader that bring them out of the ivory tower and make them more suitable to embody in our communities. This book will challenge you to be a better Christian because it takes seriously the idea that the only way to love God well is to love our neighbors more by re-evaluating how much we’ve fallen in love with ourselves.
Joe Blosser has agreed to sign a copy of To Love Our Neighbors: Radical Practices in Solidarity, Sufficiency & Sustainability for a lucky paid reader of A Public Witness. To be eligible for that drawing, hurry up and upgrade your subscription today. You can also learn more about the book by listening to his recent interview with Brian Kaylor on Dangerous Dogma.
As a public witness,
Beau Underwood
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