This essay takes stock of current scholarship on neighbors in the Middle Ages to think through medieval understandings of the notion of neighborliness. When historians invoke the ideas of neighbors and neighborliness, they mean something beyond the people who lived in adjoining buildings or on adjacent plots of land. When medieval people called someone a “neighbor,” the label conveyed a set of obligations, behaviors, and expectations, rooted in the idea that neighbors were among the group of people who were privy to the intimacies of each others' lives, at times both monumental and mundane. Medieval neighborliness was not uncomplicated or understood as unequivocally positive of course. Neighbors were not always a source of unconditional support or love. Despite a Christian rhetoric that emphasized a love of one's neighbor as a vehicle for loving God, medieval studies have suggested that the figure of the neighbor was, in fact, a source of danger and disquiet. This notion of neighborliness as a source of unease explains, perhaps, why scholars of medieval religion and religious interaction showcase some of the most fruitful uses of the concept. This article considers how scholars have accessed medieval notions of neighbors and neighborliness in their exploration of medieval community.

中文翻译：

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成为邻居：中世纪西方的邻居观念和理想

本文总结了有关中世纪邻居的最新研究成果，以通过中世纪对邻居概念的理解来思考。当历史学家援引邻居和邻里的思想时，它们的含义超出了居住在相邻建筑物或相邻土地上的人们的范围。当中世纪的人们称某人为“邻居”时，标签传达了一系列义务，行为和期望，其根源在于这样的思想，即邻居是一群人，他们彼此之间都没有彼此的亲密关系。巨大而平凡。当然，中世纪的睦邻友好并没有得到明确肯定。邻居并非总是无条件支持或爱的源头。尽管基督教的言论强调了对一个人的热爱。作为爱神的工具，中世纪的研究表明，邻居的身材实际上是危险和不安的根源。这种以邻为居的观念是造成不安的原因，这也许可以解释为什么中世纪宗教和宗教互动的学者展示了这一概念最富有成果的用法。本文考虑了学者们在探索中世纪社区时如何获得中世纪邻居和邻里的概念。