Religious Communities

Community and Relationship Networks

The word community is derived from the Latin communis: cum, which means “with or together with,” and unio, which means unity, or coming together. The word communication shares the same Latin root, which suggests common participation or “to make things common.” Communis is also the root of communion, a sacrament [Page 742]practiced by those of the Christian faith. The close association between religiosity and community building has also been attributed to the notion that religion may allow individuals to connect with each other via each person's connection to his or her god. In some religions, one's relationship to a supreme being is described in familial terms, such as being depicted as father or mother and adherents relating to each other as brother and sister. Superimposition of this universal social structure encourages religious communities to adopt relational roles and responsibilities that mimic those found in traditional families. In this sense, religious communities often serve as social networks that replace or augment familial social structures.

According to the Judeo-Christian faith, God is a relational being. As beings created in God's image, humankind shares God's nature and the need for relationship. Within the Christian faith, the theological foundation for community is the shared belief that believers constitute the body of Christ, in that believers are joined one with another and together they are joined with Christ in spiritual union. The universal church, composed of all Christian believers, is constituted of many Christian church bodies, or ekklesia (congregations). The Greek word koinonia is used to describe the intimate fellowship that is experienced by members within a community of believers.

Religious communities frequently organize into clusters or groups of adherents who gather together for the observance of religious traditions and rituals. While the size of these groups varies widely, researchers have reported averages for various religious groups. The average size of an Islamic mosque in the United States (as measured by attendance at Friday prayer) is 292, with median attendance at 135. For Christian churches in the United States, the average is 186 and the median is 75. These numbers are close to the ideal size of a social group, also known as Dunbar's number, of approximately 150. According to anthropologist Robin Dunbar, this is the maximum number of individuals in a group that will allow each member to know the other members and help members figure out how one person is related to another. Because excessive size can be seen as a detriment to authentic community, some churches or religious communities, for example, the Hutterites, intentionally limit their size. Another approach, used by some large churches, is to incorporate small groups into their structure. These small groups, ranging from just a few to 30 or more, allow participants to establish close relationships, which promote accountability and intimacy. One of the largest churches in the world, Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, pioneered the “cell group” movement in the late 1960s. The cell group approach is administered by lay leaders who convene small groups in homes during the week, then come together en masse for corporate worship. The “underground” or house-church movement in China and formerly communist eastern Europe is another example of small cells that meet independently of each other. In the case of underground church networks, however, the small-group structure is a response to persecution and suppression of religious expression by central authorities.

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