In his new book, Br. David Couturier, director of the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University, goes beneath the surface of America’s political conflicts to raise a deeper question: Who is my neighbor?

In an age marked by rising nationalism, cultural division, and institutional distrust, disagreements are often framed as clashes over policy or ideology. Brother David argues that the deeper divide lies in how we see the world itself. Beneath every political position is a moral imagination—a way of perceiving others, assigning value, and defining who belongs.

This book brings two powerful moral visions into conversation: the contemporary nationalist imagination, and the Franciscan moral imagination rooted in encounter, humility, and fraternity. While one begins with loss and the desire for restoration, the other begins with disruption—moments that unsettle our assumptions and open us to transformation.

Drawing on theology, philosophy, and contemporary political analysis, Brother David shows how our deepest conflicts are not simply disagreements about what to do, but about what we see. At a time when public life is increasingly shaped by fear, fragmentation, and competing narratives of belonging, Who Is My Neighbor offers a way of seeing that expands the circle of the neighbor and reimagines the possibility of a shared moral life.

Who Is My Neighbor follows on last year’s title, A New Moral Imagination, which introduces the moral way of Francis and Clare in the context of classical, modern, and Judeo-Christian moral models. These and other books by Brother David are available at Franciscan Institute Publications.