Boundaries and Community

Adam B. Seligman is a professor of religion at Boston University and a founding director of CEDAR – Communities Engaging in Difference and Religion.

Prologue and Problem: Why We Need Boundaries and Communities
The Importance of Boundaries
Rule #1 – Boundaries Connect as Well as Divide
Community and Belonging
Rule #2 – Belonging Is Not Fungible
Belonging and Rights
Rule #3 – Having "Rights" Is Very Different from Belonging to a Community
Strangers and Neighbours
Rule #4 – Distinguish Beliefs from Experience
Trust Is Not Confidence
Rule #5 – All Understandings Are Only Partial
Being Uncomfortable
Rule #6 – Uncomfortable Is Not Unsafe
Personal Responsibility and Collective Actions
Rule #7 – Distinguish between Shame and Guilt
Knowledge and the Limits of Control
Rule #8 – Knowledge For, Not Knowledge Of
Shared Experience versus Shared Meaning
Rule # 9 – Allow Experience to Precede Judgment
Negotiable versus Non-Negotiable
Rule #10 – What We Hold to Be Sacred Is Usually Non-Negotiable
Saving the Commons
Rule #11– There is No Monopoly on Suffering
Rights and Belonging