“It is intriguing to me that when Jesus points to the centrality of love, he also invokes a metaphor which is not familial (e.g.. ‘brother’ or ‘friend’) or ethnic (e.g. ‘your people’), but almost geographical: we are to love the neighbor — the one next to us, who happens (by providence) to be in proximity. The neighbor could be a friend or an enemy, a foreigner or a brother. The call to love the neighbor is a call to love all of them–that is why all of Jesus’ injunctions to love are taken up in the call to love the neighbor.”
James K. A. Smith, The Devil Reads Derrida and Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009, page 32.
Gary Chorpenning's Notebooks 