Voluntary simplicity within the Christian community context : honors thesis ([HONRS] 499)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the structures, the relationships, and the motivations of voluntary simplicity within the context of the Christian intentional community, or to use a more popular term, the commune. The person who desires to write such a paper must have certain personal interests in the subject; the alternative would probably be a complete loss of interest mid-way through the task. I am personally interested in this subject. How? I have considered adopting this lifestyle; this possibility has resulted in a dual approach to my investigation.The first part of my paper is intended to be subjective in view and journalistic in style. I apologize for my deficiencies in this style, yet I felt I was a necessary defect. It seemed important to give a middle-class American’s response to his contemporaries who have chosen poverty over affluence, community over the nuclear family unit. Also I desired to create a picture of the daily life of these people. It seems one could read page after page of literature concerning this lifestyle without really understanding its deviance from the normal, American lifestyle.The second part of my paper is the objective section. Here I hope to investigate the sociological phenomena involved in voluntary simplicity within a community context.Finally, my beliefs and worldview as a Christian must continually affect the contents of this paper. Certainly our common views created a sympathy between those at New Covenant and myself. However, I believe our differences were frequent enough to keep this paper from involving a boring, sympathetic approach.