Spiritual Formation and Inclusive Community: A Phenomenological Practical Theology of Camphill Communities in Process

In this paper I will explore the lived experience of how our individual spiritual formation (broadly defined) interweaves with the cultivation of inclusive community. Based on in-depth, phenomenological interviews with members of Camphill communities in the United States, this study seeks to understand the meaning made out of this interweaving. As a practical theology, understanding is oriented towards enabling “faithful practice,” and in the context of Camphill communities such practice is itself the cultivation of “the healthy social life.” The primary argument of this paper is that inclusive community formation must not only account for, but actively nourish individual formation as the source of inclusive and interdependent community life, particularly in the context of neurodiversity. And yet contrary to a narrow understanding of “person-centeredness” in which the individual is supported by a somewhat stagnant and depersonalized “community” structure, in this context the community becomes both medium and maker insofar as evolving community forms both nourish and are nourished by the individual. Straddling the insider/outside divide, the research questions and methodologies themselves have emerged out of and been shaped by Camphill and anthroposophical paradigms in creative dialogue with practical theology, and serves as a starting point for further inclusive research both within and beyond the Camphill movement. A plain-language version of this paper and presentation (pre-recorded) will be made available.