This page is designed to assist my students and any other students interested in the subjects of pluralism, civility, civilized conduct, and civil society. These topics are explored in this course on Community, Boundaries, and Covenants. The course recognizes the fundamental role of religion in the development and maintenance of community and civil society. The vitality and quality of our community depend on our definitions of religion, community, and civilization. We also need to appreciate the power that we can gain from a return to covenantal thinking, that is, an understanding and respect for our responsibilities and connections to one another (civilly and pluralistically).
A sense of community, belonging and responsibility can emerge from our involvement in religious institutions such as churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples. On a more fundamental, existential level, the support of religion extends beyond these explicit institutional expressions. Religion is a resource to all humans enabling us to secure our existence through a sacred canopy that encompasses general cultural structures that constitute our cosmos, that is, a meaningful world system. We will consider how we define and deny community by the symbolic boundaries we create and maintain. Numerous factors that stabilize or destabilize community will also be examined. The readings and lectures are intended to stimulate interesting, even intense discussion and discovery.
Community is defined by the symbolic boundaries that we create and maintain. Besides definition, community needs some cohesive force to hold its members together. American culture depends on constitutionalism with its roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition of covenantal thinking. Pluralism and empathetic interest refuse to set hostility and contempt at the boundaries of our small circles. The Enlightenment calls us to recognize the existence and value of a larger symbolic boundary that encompasses all other humans.
The schedule of lectures and assignments are listed at the Course Schedule page which explains in detail the writing assignments for the course. Resources on the subject can be found at the Bibliography page.
A study of Community, Boundaries, and Covenants should assist students in their intellectual, professional, and social development in the following areas.
You may view the Course Schedule page or visit the Bibliography page for this course. You can find a few hints about writing style and a list of common writing errors to avoid at my help page on Good Composition.
Return to the Lecture Hall. Thanks for the visit! This page was edited on 30 August 2002. Email is welcomed by John R. Mitchell, Part-time Instructor in Religion. © 2000-2002 Erasmus Compositor, P.O. Box 25958, Baltimore, MD 21224. For an introduction to life at the center of the world forty centuries ago, visit an old Sumerian scribe at the Nippur Quay. You can also visit Villa Julie College.