The Interrelationship of Spirituality, Culture and Community in International Perspective

This chapter deals with the interrelationship of spirituality, culture and community from an international perspective. It begins by looking historically at types of culture and types of spirituality in relation to community with special emphasis on the development of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Specifically it looks at the dynamics of cyclic cultures and word cultures, and the interaction between the two, particularly as they relate to community and spirituality. Is uses as an example the search for the creation of communities of peace between faith-groupings around the world, by looking at the milieu of violence in which the faith-groups began, and then at the dynamics of their search for transformation to peaceful co-existence. From this, the paper seeks to draw out pragmatic conclusions in relation to spirituality, community and cultures.