God and Utopia: Shakers

"What's a God to a nonbeliever?" Maybe we can't answer Jay-Z's question but God is certainly significant to his/her (or in the case of the Shakers, both) believers. In the first portion of this blog post I will examine the role of God in the Shaker society and then conclude by evaluating God's role in the many intentional communities we've seen.

The Shakers were originally named the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, a rather lengthy title that gives a nod to their religious views. Founded by Ann Lee, they were an offshoot of Christianity with distinctive believes that unified them. The society of the Shakers was built of individuals who followed Ann Lee's interpretation of the Bible and were thus unified in their belief in the communal system of life, the values of Shaker society such as chastity, and their interpretations of the Bible. These common beliefs are the glue that held the society. a glue derived from their unified belief in God, whom without, their society would never have developed. While our focus during our visit to the Shaker Museum was on their lifestyle and the innovations they created, I think the element of God and God's occurrence in the many intentional communities is something significant. God serves to unify these individuals together and allows for a society focused on these values and also enables the exclusion I mentioned in my previous blog post that would be necessary for a small community to bypass the laws of human nature to a certain degree. From the values associated with God, the community and all its innovations became possible.

In the real utopias implemented that we have visited so far, God has been a recurring factor that serves to unify individuals in forming an intentional community. While I personally don't believe God is a necessary factor for creating an intentional community, I find it highly interesting that many intentional communities center themselves around God and from their belief, produce the values necessary for the community. Rather than a necessity, God is just a powerful entity for creating an intentional community. Without God, a society like the Shakers that prized innovation so highly might never have developed and as a result we might have to live with less effective brooms. On a deeper level than just looking at brooms, God often serves as a catalyst for intentional communities and in the case of the Shakers provided the values they based themselves around.