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Meet Amar

Amar (अमर) D. Peterman is an Indian American scholar working at the intersection of faith and public life. He is an author, sought-after speaker, and consultant for some of the leading faith-based organizations and institutions in the United States.  His first book, This Common Life: Seeking the Common Good Through Love of Neighbor is forthcoming with Eerdmans Publishing Co.

In all his writing, research, and scholarship, Amar seeks to equip the Christian church to engage faithfully, critically, and constructively in the complex issues of our religious and civic life today through beautiful and compelling theology that emphasizes the nuanced lived reality of Christians and is modeled after the concrete person of Jesus Christ.

Amar was adopted from northern India and raised in the cornfields of Northeast Wisconsin. He moved to downtown Chicago to attend Moody Bible Institute where he earned a degree in Theology. At MBI, Amar served as President of the Student Theological Society and Teaching Assistant to Dr. Ashish Varma.

After MBI, Amar moved to the East Coast, where he earned a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. Amar's program concentrated on public theology and American religious history under renowned historian, Heath W. Carter. There, he served as a Research and Teaching Assistant to Drs. Carter and Raimundo César Barreto, Vice-President of the seminary’s Asian Association, and Editor of Lived Theology in Asian America, a publication of the Center for Asian American Christianity. 

Before founding Scholarship for Religion and Society, LLC, Amar served as Assistant Director at Neighborly Faith and then Director of the Center for Empathy in Christian and Public Life at the Ideos Institute. He also was a Columnist at Sojourners Magazine from 2021-2023.

Today, Amar continues to write regularly to both online magazines like Sojourners and the Christian Century, as well as essay collections including Theology and the Office (Lexington Books), Emerging, Awake, and Connected (SCM Press).

Amar is also currently Assistant Director of Civic Networks at Interfaith America (formerly Interfaith Youth Core), the largest multifaith NGO in the United States. Following in the vision of the organization, in this role Amar works to inspire, equip, and connect leaders and institutions to unlock the potential of America’s religious diversity.

Amar and his wife Emīlija currently reside in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with their dog, Penny.

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This Common Life

Join Amar for weekly thoughts on Christian and public life — on this common life.