A Definition of Community

1
A Definition of Community

• Gleaned from Chapter 6, Individualism, of
  Habits of the Heart, by Robert N. Bellah, et al.

2
Communities of Memory

• Communities have histories and are actively
  involved in retelling their stories.

3
Examples

• Communities offer examples of the men and women
  who embody the meaning of the community.
• This may include conceptions of character, what a
  good person is like, and the virtues of such a
  person.

4
Shared Suffering and Suffering Imposed

• A genuine community of memory will tell painful
  stories of shared suffering that sometimes create
  deeper identities than success.
• If the community is completely honest, it will
  remember stories not only of suffering received
  but of suffering inflicted.

5
Communities of Hope

• Members of the community connect their personal
  aspirations and the aspirations of those closest
  to them to the aspirations of the larger
  community and see their own efforts as being, in
  part, contributions to the common good.

6
Rituals

• Rituals define the community as a way of life.
• These practices of commitment define the
  patterns of loyalty and obligation that keep the
  community alive.

7
What is not a community?

• Where history and hope are forgotten and
  community means only the gathering of the
  similar, community degenerates into a lifestyle
  enclave.

8
Make a list of communities to which you belong

• Groups
• Teams
• Clubs
• Church

• Places
• Informal Groups
• Jobs/Professional Organizations
• School

9
Fastwrite about your community

• History? Involved in retelling its story?
• Model members with ideal qualities?
• Shared suffering? Suffering Imposed?
• Community of hope? Shared goals?
• Rituals or practices of commitment?