Faith & Civic Life
We Need to Build Discussion Guide
A resource for book clubs, classrooms, colleagues and friends to discuss Eboo Patel’s book, We Need To Build.
In We Need to Build, Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, identifies himself within an American tradition of institution-building and invites you to join him. Patel paints a compelling picture of American religious diversity and the civic leadership required to maintain it.
We Need to Build is an excellent choice for book clubs, employee resource groups, congregations, classrooms, and any other group of curious and introspective leaders. It is replete with colorful and interesting stories that will be applicable to any audience. To help you get the most out of your discussion, we’ve written a discussion guide to help focus your conversation.
This discussion guide is organized by essential questions with which Patel wrestles in the book. Groups using it will begin by discussing existing assets in our communities and the ways that we can leverage them toward our goals. There is then an invitation to dwell on the important questions Patel raises about leadership. After setting the table, groups will be prompted to discuss obstacles and how to tackle them. Finally and most importantly, groups will discuss the vision that each individual has for a more perfect society and how we can build our way towards it.
Please use this guide to reflect on Patel’s answers to these questions and formulate your own. We hope that the conversation this resource inspires will lead you closer to what you want to build.
Discussion Guide
In We Need to Build, Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, identifies himself within an American tradition of institution-building and invites you to join him.
This discussion guide is organized by essential questions with which Patel wrestles in the book. Please use this guide to reflect on Patel’s answers and formulate your own. We hope that the conversation this resource inspires will lead you closer to what you want to build.
What strengths do we already have?
Patel titles the book’s second section “The Good Society”. He describes an “American Potluck” in which different groups of people have brought their best “dishes” to the table. Instead of a melting pot, he describes our society as one where people bring their own values and share them with all. In “The Good Society”, Catholic hospitals and schools dot the country, serving all kinds of people. Some secular humanists in Seattle start a “civic Saturday” group to live out their values with their neighbors. A town in Minnesota engages its newfound diversity to become an economic powerhouse. Ismaili Muslims serve their communities through the Aga Khan development network.
Instead of assimilation or segregation, people invite others into the inspiring and uplifting parts of their traditions. Patel contrasts The Good Society with a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina where all civic spaces and municipal services are segregated along religious lines. All these examples illustrate the remarkability of American pluralism, especially when contrasted with divided societies.
- Where in your community does “the good society” exist?
- How does considering our societal strengths make you feel about your community?
How can we prepare to lead?
In Chapter 12, Patel writes about the difficulty of going from an activist demanding change to a leader responding to those demands. He writes: “The line by Frederick Douglass, ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand,’ is a mainstay in activist circles. It makes a crucial point about the significance of struggle. But what happens when you win? When you go from activist public defender to actual district attorney?”
- Think about something that you would like to lead or improve. How much do you know about what you will need to do once you’re in a position to make change?
- What strengths do you think you will bring?
- What biases or blind spots do you think you have?
- What difficulties do you anticipate?
- How do you think you could learn more about the problems facing leaders on whatever issues you care about?
How do we navigate our differences?
In Chapter 13, Patel writes about the dangers of making assumptions about what people think based on who they are. Think about your own social circles, identities, and ideas.
- Think about a part of your identity that’s important to you (e.g., you’re a parent, an American, a vegetarian, a committed Christian, etc.). What do most people assume about folks with that identity? What is a position you hold that differs from those expectations?
- Recall a time when someone shared something about themselves that surprised you. What assumptions had you made? How did you learn new information about the person? How did it challenge your thinking, either about the person or the identity group?
What can we do when things go wrong?
Patel writes of the book’s final section: “It’s a collection of what I call considerations and cautions about how to achieve power in a way that builds people’s trust and how to wield power in a way that improves people’s lives.”
- Which one of these “considerations and cautions” would you most like to put into practice in the coming months?
- Why does it speak to you?
What do you want to build?
Part of Patel’s story begins when he makes a complaint about the lack of youth involvement in the interfaith movement at a conference. A woman named Yoland Trevino tells him, “You should build that,” in response to his complaint. Patel took her exhortation seriously and spent the following decades building a national institution to increase the scope and effectiveness of work to build interfaith cooperation. Take a moment to think about any complaints you may have or issues that you’ve noticed.
- What do you think ought to be built?
- What is a step you can take to build it?
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