Currently in Christian culture there is a great deal of discussion about 'community'. While reading John Cornwell's book 'Darwin's Angel' which is a light touch counter to Dawkins 'The God Delusion', I was struck by a passage where he discusses the question 'what is religion?' - he says
"Religious rituals and symbols, from the dawning of human history, marked and celebrated birth, growth, age, death and burial, the makings of families and communities, the coming together for feasts, husbandry, hunting, journeys, the life cycles of plants, animals, and human beings, the changing seasons, the diurnal, lunar, and annual rounds, the mystery of existance...It is exciting to think of the deepening of our awareness of the world through the scientific dimension, especially cosmology and biology and yet science cannot encompass the multi-dimensional symbols of religion, which by their nature resist explanation and control...
..It was only after the Enlightenment that the word 'religion' principally came to mean an aspect of human behaviour or culture. And in the conflicts between throne and altar, church and state, priesthood and politics, there emerged a concerted and determined effort to describe religion as a private, purely personal activity. The struggle to banish religion to the private sphere continues to this day."
There is something powerful in recovering 'community' which was so strong in the early church. Celebrating together, marking events significant to the people in our community, whether our immediate church community or the wider community. The church can't be hidden in the box marked 'private activity'. The church has a call to justice. So if we are radical participants in a high commitment endeavour then that requires us to interact - to weep with those who weep and be happy with those who are happy [Rom 12.15]. This stands in contrast to the 'communitylessness' which people often experience, both in the church and without.
This is important for me particularly in thinking forward to some of the things on the horizon, like 'Advent' and the development of Street Pastors. These things re-emphasise the centrality of community and recovery of something fundamental to Christian practice.
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