Community as a Sociological Category - Basing on the Study of a Religious Community

Abstract

Communities exert great influence on their members. Staying in a given community leaves an indelible mark on every personality. Obviously, it is not true that a human being is entirely determined by its community as to a certain degree that person can choose between various environments and communities. The community type depends on mutual interpersonal relations. Creating the community (especially among young people) is not easy although many people dream of that. People oscillate between the suffering of loneliness and the fear of dependence. The former makes them seek a place of an absolute union with other people sharing the same approach. The latter leads to suffering in being together, in experiencing the self as unable to communicate, to the inability to put up with mutual commitment, as this is felt as manipulating their freedom and autonomy. Some people wish to live in mutual closeness but they do not know how to motivate that desire. Every community should create their idea of life specifying why its members decided to be together and what the expectations towards one another are. This means that the community should have a shorter or longer period of time before establishment for preparing for common life and determining its goals. The community as a sociological or religious category still remains an incomparable example of a perfect social structure with a multiple reach. Participation therein, based on the principles of accountability, voluntariness and love, leading to a permanent conversion and internalization of the suggested attitudes, as well as the postulated need to participate in and serve (ministry) the community is an efficient antidote for the spiritual torpor of the today’s world. The work includes a wide range of general and specific roles within a community as a sociological and religious category.