ABSTRACT

The idea of "community" is increasingly vital to our individual and social well-being. Yet at the same time, our ordinary communal relations are being eroded by increased social and geographical mobility, lost traditions, and the growing pluralism of society. Examining this renewed desire for community, Coming Together/Coming Apart locates the current problems of society in the conditions of modern capitalism. Arising out of a common matrix of a world in crisis, contemporary religious, social and feminist discussions of community compose an ideological struggle over the reformation of society.

chapter |26 pages

Chaos or Community?

Setting the Scene

chapter |17 pages

All That Is Solid Melts into Air

A Brief Account of Modernity and Postmodernity

chapter |26 pages

Liberal Illness, Communal Remedies

White Men and Community

chapter |22 pages

Sisterhood, Family, and Society

White Women in Search of Community

chapter |17 pages

Community Apart

African-American Models of Community

chapter |10 pages

Community, Civil Society, and Solidarity

Some Concluding Comments