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Human existence (or be-ing) is profoundly relational. Yet educational environments often assume that learning happens individually. Though many educators are trying to rectify this problem by introducing community into the learning process, these efforts are too often simply overlaid onto a system that works through competition and rewards individual achievement. Therefore, an alternative perspective for who we are as humans and how we should be together is needed. In this dissertation, I examine what it means to be fundamentally related and show how such an understanding might impact learning. We often think of “community” as a place, but I also use it to embody an alternative understanding of human be-ing: how we are and should be related and the process by which we can learn to embrace our ethical responsibilities. This second way of understanding community addresses a mode of be-ing that describes how we should come together: with (or “com”) unity. I use religious narratives to explore what a non-modern understanding of relational be-ing might mean for education. Looking at community in a religious context is helpful because it offers a different framework for understanding human be-ing. Using three stories found in Genesis—(a) the Creation of the world including the introduction of Adam and Eve, (b) their Fall, and (c) their Expulsion from Eden—I argue that they reveal the importance of three aspects of community: (a) diversity, a deep appreciation for our and others' enduring individuality, (b) unity, a willingness to be responsible both to and for others in a particular, ethical way, and (c) work, the catalyst for coming together and making relationships purposeful. Understanding how the aspects of diversity, unity, and work strengthen supportive relationships is an important way to understand community, including learning communities. It suggests that the purpose of education should be to help learners realize their moral responsibilities to others and teach them how to respond to that obligation. Moral learning communities can generate experiences that speak more authentically to human be-ing. They enhance education so that learning becomes not only more meaningful but truly life-changing.

The colonists living in the new United States after the American War for Independence were faced with the problem of forming new identities once they could no longer recognize themselves, collectively or individually, as subjects of Great Britain. After the French Revolution American politicians began to weed out the more radical political elements of the newly formed United States, particularly by painting one of the revolution’s biggest defenders, Thomas Paine, as unworthy of the attention he received during the American War for Independence, and fear ran throughout the states that an anarchic revolution like the French Revolution could bring the downfall of the nation. State, local, and regional organizations sprang up to fight Jacobinism, the legendary secret group of murderers and anarchists that fought against the French government. This distressing situation gave rise to new literature that sought to describe the “real” origins and background of Jacobinism in the War in Heaven and in Eden, and a new movement against Jacobinism was established. Fears about the organization of secret societies did not wane in the decades after the French Revolution, but worsened in the last half of the 1820s when a Freemason, William Morgan, disappeared under mysterious circumstances in connection to an exposé of Masonry he had written. Most Americans assumed that Freemasons had abducted and murdered Morgan in order to keep their oaths and rites secret. One influential early American who was influenced by this socio-historical was Joseph Smith, Jr., the founding prophet of Mormonism. Smith interpreted the Eden narrative in light of the movement against secret societies, and literary motifs common to anti-Jacobin literature during the period provided language and interpretive strategies for understanding the Eden narrative that would influence how Smith produced his new scripture. Only a few months after the publication of the Book of Mormon Smith edited the version of Eden found there into the text of the Bible itself and made the biblical narrative conform to the version found in the Book of Mormon through his own revisions and additions.

In my thesis I deal with a biblical "myth" of the original sin and with a question how this topic can demonstrate the genesis of gender duality in a sense of superiority and inferiority using the authors catholic and feminist theology and subsequent data collection. The topic of the original sin is being analysed from a gender view -first in the theoretical part of the thesis that has helped me to continue to the following part of a research. The research consists of semi-structured interviews with a group of people belonging to a specific community. These people were born in the Czech villages in Romania and live nowadays in the Czech Republic. The original sin and its "myth" are still being presented at the level of a myth. His consequences remain in the background of the society and public attention. That is why I decided to deal with this topic. In this way I connect my own interest with this group, which includes a minority of a society with special characteristics. The aim of this thesis is to present the consequences of the original sin on a theoretical level and in terms of research, which I also contribute to with my interviews. And so to answer the research question regarding the influence of minority companies mostly from the standpoint of faith.