What is Community?

[Era Might]

Just throwing out a discussion starter and seeing what it brings back. I'm reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky and one of the major characters, a monk named Elder Zossima, tells his story of coming to the realization that "all are responsible to all for all." He goes so far as to encourage apologizing to the trees, literally. Dorothy Day used to read this novel on her own pilgrimage of Community. So what is Community. Here's the "answer" I'm currently tossing around in my head: Community is a free and welcome space where men can work out the drama of sin and salvation.

All ideas welcome, abstract or practical.

[Benedictus]

41 minutes ago, Era Might said:

Just throwing out a discussion starter and seeing what it brings back. I'm reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky and one of the major characters, a monk named Elder Zossima, tells his story of coming to the realization that "all are responsible to all for all." He goes so far as to encourage apologizing to the trees, literally. Dorothy Day used to read this novel on her own pilgrimage of Community. So what is Community. Here's the "answer" I'm currently tossing around in my head: Community is a free and welcome space where men can work out the drama of sin and salvation.

All ideas welcome, abstract or practical.

I thought I was alone in doing this It fosters interconnectedness. Lots of people, especially religious, do similar stuff. When someone dies and their body is buried 'they' become at one with that tree and all that is, at least in the earthly realm. In the spirit those who are 'in the spirit of God' become one with him too, at least in some sense

Community: being with others that are connected by location and or values. It depends how much 'choice' is involved and how the term is used. I tend not to overthink it too much.

[CatherineM]

Community is the family we create, not the one we're born into. 

[Not A Real Name]

[Seven77]

 Sometimes I think about how community and solitude both exist in God. God is a community Persons, there's only one God. We are created in God's image… we are separate, unique beings who were made to be in communion.

It's interesting how theElder is contrasted with the hermit in The Brothers Karamazov–– it's challenging to live as a hermit because you don't  get to see how others perceive you (with all your faults, good qualities, basically the truth about yourself) which is a benefit of living in community.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Seven77