Final Paper: The Big Picture

Chloe Andry

A Faith-Filled Community

Throughout this semester in Faith, Doubt, and Reason, we have dived into concepts

revolving around community. With readings, films, discussions, and “community-based” group

projects I have found myself constantly challenged to think deeper into how communities

function and the numerous factors that affect communities everywhere. I am aware that I have so

much more to learn throughout my life on this topic however, I feel I have already absorbed so

much and sparked a lifelong interest in what community truly means, the importance of justice in

community, warnings of dystopias, ideal communities, and the possibility of achieving them.

As simple as it sounds, one of the main lessons I learned about community is that is

difficult. Community is a dynamic, ever-changing collaboration. With collaboration comes

sharing ideas, listening actively, negotiating and compromising, and constantly creating new

ideas to accommodate the progress and the pitfalls. There are countless decisions and efforts

made by each individual that all contribute to the cohesiveness and success of a flourishing

community.

Throughout the process of creating our ideal community of Breezeway, I had a really

hard time making those tough decisions that governments in real life must make to satisfy

everyone – and my decisions were make-believe! So much goes into creating systems that sit

right in the sweet spot of providing order and protection and also making people happy. Whether

the people in Breezeway were happy or not with our decisions, we will never know…My group

also, fortunately, got to decide our origin story. In reality, communities do not have a say in what

their past was. They must move forward with whatever baggage they might be carrying and try
to resolve it as best as possible. It is important they do not erase the past, but rather learn from it

and avoid repeating mistakes or making similar ones.

The project as a whole, symbolized a community, or in our case, a group, coming

together and collaborating for the well-being of everyone. For example, each of us in the group

took on a role, performed our tasks, and discussed for hours on end what decisions were best, to

create a system for the greater good. Of course, some improvements could be made to our

community, but the overall lesson learned is that communities are complicated and so very

collaborative. It is a fragile and challenging endeavor when everyone is affected by everyone

else’s decisions, but that is exactly what community is; it has the potential to be both beautiful

and broken. Without a doubt, community is a little bit of both.

Freud and Plato helped me to think critically about the origin of community with their

iconic philosophies. It stems from the struggle to survive on Earth alone. There are numerous

factors like weather, natural disasters, basic human needs like food and water, predators,

sickness, aging, and mental illnesses that are difficult to navigate by oneself. When multiple

people can divide up the work, a strong sense of reliance and collaboration is developed. People

begin to acquire specialized gifts and knowledge and contribute to the collective well-being of

the group. When brainstorming his ideal community in Plato’s Republic, he says, “...because

people need many things, and because one person calls on a second out of one need and on a

third out of a different need, many people gather in a single place to live together as partners and

helpers. And such a settlement is called a city. Isn’t that so?” (Plato 44). A strong sense of

interdependency kick-starts communities. Occupations in various fields then form and lead to

trade, infrastructure, transportation, marketplaces, currency, and merchants, just to name a few.

At this point in a community, the need for survival is met, and they can focus on areas that lead
to more pleasure, or what someone might describe as “fully living.” Freud stated in Civilizations

and Its Discontents that “a further incentive to a disengagement of the ego from the general mass

of sensations – that is, to the recognition of an ‘outside,’ an external world – is provided by the

frequent, manifold and unavoidable sensations of pain and unpleasure the removal and avoidance

of which is enjoined by the pleasure principle…” (Freud 14). People are wired to seek pleasure.

This is where the arts, entertainment, time off, spirituality, sports and games, and luxuries come

into play. A work and life balance that satisfies the need for pleasure can be sought out and

growth can be pursued even more within the community.

Freud explained that all of the gains from a community like support, meaningful work,

purpose, meaning, and beauty – the altruistic, “other” focused aspects – are shadowed with

losses. There are sacrifices we make to make the positives possible; to counter the unfortunately

aggressive side of all of us that produces conflict. We must sacrifice privacy, freedoms, and

individuality for the greater good and protection of the community. We also create religion,

pressure valves, laws, punishment, ethics, and social norms to better control and counter

aggression. This is the paradox. Human nature has both a positive and negative side. Within

relationships, there is love and also tension. In a community, there is a common good and a

looming struggle to overcome and control evil. The more people, the more magnified the

struggle (Freud 70-74). The push and pull will never fully be resolved, so a community must do

its absolute best to balance this struggle with the pursuit of justice.

Justice, to me, looks a lot like the golden rule of treating others the way you would like to

be treated. Due to my faith, I believe that everyone was created in God’s image and created with

an equal, unfathomable love from God. In the Ten Commandments, this vertical and horizontal

love is explained. Freud might disagree, but I believe that when we accept God’s love for us and
love God wholeheartedly, we are expected to love others just the same (Exodus 20). Of course,

we are not capable of the perfect love God gives us, but we must aim to support others as best as

we can. Overall, everyone’s life is extremely valuable. When the justice of loving, respecting,

and caring for everyone with as much intent and value as you hope others would for you is gone,

we experience injustice. In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s A Letter from Birmingham Jail, he says,

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King 1). King recognized that one seed of

injustice, one seed of disrespect, grows exponentially into a beast of hatred and injustice.

Because we have built such an interconnected community of relationships and networks,

everyone is tied to one another. If one is hurt by another, there is no doubt that the hurt is being

spread and thus plaguing whole communities.

How does one stop this destruction of justice? Throughout this semester I learned about

people like Martin Luther King Jr. and prophets in Micah and Amos who called out the injustice

and brought awareness to people in the community during their time, in today’s time, and

beyond. These leaders were incredibly honest. With this honesty comes tension, but it is a

tension that is healthy and much needed. It comes from a place of love and hopefulness. Martin

Luther King Jr. describes “positive peace” as the calling out of wrongdoings and injustice and

working to make it better (King 6). If we do not practice “positive peace,” we remain stagnant as

an unjust community. We cannot move forward without uplifting one another, dignifying one

another, and calling each other higher. It is so important that each individual does their part in

learning about what justice truly means. It is not “payback” or “vengeance,” which is a common

misconception. “Positive peace” also entails self-reflection as well as calling out those in one’s

life who are not treating others with the respect they deserve. In the case of Martin Luther King

Jr., the prophets, and even more leaders throughout history, it might look like a public
declaration that will make a more universal impact. Whatever the scale might be and no matter

how uncomfortable, the fight for justice is a tension in community that should never fade or

become complacent.

When the fight for justice is silenced and power is corrupt, communities can begin to take

a dystopian form, similar to the societies in Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid’s

Tale. Reading these novels for one, reinforced my gratitude for the beauty and hope in my life

right now, but also opened my eyes to the possibilities of communities in our world today

becoming destructive in similar senses. When communities want so badly for their people to be

controlled and silent with no objections to the justice system and no voice, dystopias form.

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, O’Brien reveals the intent of the government in Oceania: “Now I will

tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We

are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power” (Orwell

263). Everything the government did in Oceania was for their own good. The Party was

completely against the concept of justice and love in general. They took away all freedoms. They

prohibited any individuality or self-expression. They also kept the people from being informed of

the past. In the end, the people had nothing left. No one felt joy, hope, or connection, and even if

they wanted to, they could not advocate or fight for it. It can be seen that a community with no

justice is a dystopian community.

Our world can avoid dystopias by first, educating people on what true justice is. We then

can advocate for the healthy use of protest and honesty. Dystopian novels are very impactful

educational tools that demonstrate what the void of justice leads to and warn communities that

might be on a destructive path to reevaluate their motives. Like the seed of injustice I had

mentioned before, the same is true with justice. If one act of reconciliation and change is made
even within one relationship, that mending can be seen in a whole community, and a magnitude

of justice can be achieved over time. Dystopias can be avoided if this type of mindset is adopted

in our world today.

If I were to pick three key factors that would make a community “ideal,” I would choose

freedom and education of faith, doubt, and reason, a government that allows freedom of speech,

expression, and protest, and an encouraged balance between work and life. My first pick would

be education on faith, doubt, and reason because I have seen how I have changed as a person

from this course. I came into this class with personal faith and left not only with a stronger sense

of my purpose but an awareness of the extreme impact that faith has not only for individuals but

for communities. I have learned that having an “ultimate concern” truly brings hope that no

worldly endeavor can provide. I learned that it is okay to doubt and question aspects of my faith

to strengthen it, and I have learned the means of reasoning with both. I oftentimes in class

thought about the extreme impact that this class would make if more people could take it. As I

had said, I have faith and I grew exponentially. What would happen if those without faith could

learn about the joy they could have if they put their hope into something eternal? I know that

what would happen would be a centered, open, and faith-based community, whatever each

individual’s discovered meaning may be.

My second factor would be freedom of speech, expression, and protest. I believe that if

people feel heard and that their opinions have value, they will express themselves with respect

and calmness. This way, art, literature, music, and more can be created and enjoyed, and protests

can be used to better the community as well. Injustices can be recognized and dealt with

maturely.
 The last key factor is a work and life balance. In our world today, I oftentimes feel that

there is a wide spectrum of people who either play all day and do nothing to help better their

community or work all day and feel no sense of pleasure and relaxation. I would strive to make

pressure valves accessible to everyone. I would limit working hours but also try to help provide

jobs for people who need an income. I think finding, or at least seeking this balance between

providing for oneself and possibly a family and enjoying life’s beautiful moments is so crucial to

the dynamics within a flourishing community.

Despite my temptation to be pessimistic, I would say with a hopeful heart that achieving

the ideal community is possible. I think that if we were all without hope in the possibility of our

community getting better, our communities would plummet. So, I am hopeful that with all of the

tools, texts, and examples we have access to, we would learn that although it is sure to come with

its struggles and brokenness, the ideal community is attainable. It might not be perfect, because

people are without a doubt imperfect, but it can be worked towards. In Luke 6, The Sermon on

The Plain, and Matthew 5-7, The Sermon on the Mount, my key takeaway was “Do not judge.”

These three short words encapsulate a magnitude of lessons I think we all can apply to ourselves,

no matter one’s faith. If one can humble themselves, love others well, and help others around

them, great change can be made. It is important to note, that everyone’s “ideal” varies. However,

I think everyone can agree that as long as there is a higher meaning, promised freedoms, and the

means to survive and truly live, they are living in an idealistic community. With that being said, I

think that an ideal and beautifully imperfect community can exist. It is possible if we take all of

these hard truths Jesus preached and apply them wholeheartedly to our lives.

This semester has been a rollercoaster of learning but has helped shaped the way I think

about how my actions make a huge impact on those within my community. I have been able to
connect the dots between my personal journey of faith, doubt, and reason that we explored in the

first semester and see the impact it can make on a community of people on their own journeys as

well. The dynamics of community and all of the interrelated concepts are so hard to wrap my

head around fully, but I know that the knowledge I have acquired will make a huge difference,

and I am thankful for that.