Communinty Contra Communitarian

I have preferential option for communitarian ecclesiologies. The same ilk as MacIntyre and the postliberal clan. But recently I have encountered a problem with language of 'community'. Living in an intentional community I have to say that what 'community' we are pursuing is not the same as 'community' in the sense of 'the Christian community', or 'the Francophone community'. These are not at all identical in my mind - yet they do have some relation.

When I speak of 'church' I mean the very practical embodiement of Christians living in face-to-face community. Yet 'church' to me also means showing some sort of solidarity with all who profess Christian identity. But to use the word 'community' to describe both is just confusing.

ALSO: the notion of face-to-face relationships opposed to relating to someone not face-to-face (not talking about merely technology) is an interesting ethical question for me. How are we to relate to people as we encounter people primarily as friends ,acquaintances and people you will never meet.

The Body, the Eucharist, Sacraments and Symbols

I've mentioned that a lot of what I do read is the movement known as Radical Orthodoxy. What I do severely enjoy about it's corpus of writtings is how they engage with contemporary philosophical,political and cultural issues ranging from the destructive habits of late capitalism to a theology of the body.

It is the theology of the body which challenges me the most. Mainly because their theological account of gender,marriage and sexuality is centred around the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Having listened to their arguments and been somewhat of an observer of the discourse I can say that I do really desire to have the same understanding of the Eucharist as they do simply because from the point they are able to narrate a different world, a 'city of God' so to speak. From that point they are able to talk about Bodies in a meaningful way because they hold a sacramental view of the Eucharist.

So now I'm stuck. I want to engage with a discourse and theology on bodies but now have been forced to really think and pray about what the Eucharist really means.