How does AFI define community?
AFI defines community as a state of consciousness that has been aroused by an experiential apprehension of interrelatedness and interconnectedness. This definition of community extends beyond the traditional definition of community which referred to a geographical place where like-minded individuals shared a common worldview and lived by a set of practices and norms of behavior that were consistent with that worldview. Community as AFI defines it is both more complex and more dynamically integrative. As we see it “a felt sense of community” arises when a social system achieves a state of consciousness that employs the differentiated viewpoints of its members (diversity) to provide a more accurate and objective realization of social reality and the existential vulnerability that is common to all of human existence. When this form of community arises it generates an experience of human kindness, that is, a sense of the commonality of our experience as human organisms and a compassionate
