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Christian anarchism is a Christian movement in political theology that claims anarchism is inherent in Christianity and the Gospels. It is grounded in the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable—the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus. It therefore rejects the idea that human governments have ultimate authority over human societies. Christian anarchists denounce the state, believing it is violent, deceitful and idolatrous.

Christian anarchists hold that the "Kingdom of God" is the proper expression of the relationship between God and humanity. Under the "Kingdom of God", human relationships would be characterized by horizontal organization, servant leadership, and universal compassion—not through the traditional structures of organized religion, which most Christian anarchists consider hierarchical and/or authoritarian structures. Most Christian anarchists are also pacifists who reject war, militarism, and the use of violence.

More than any other Bible source, the Beatitudes are used as a basis for Christian anarchism. Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You is often regarded as a key text for modern Christian anarchism.

Origins

Old Testament

Jacques Ellul, a French philosopher and Christian anarchist, notes that the final verse of the Book of Judges (Judges 21:25) states that there was no king in Israel and that "everyone did as they saw fit". Subsequently, as recorded in the first Book of Samuel (1 Samuel 8) the people of Israel wanted a king "so as to be like other nations".

God declared that the people had rejected him as their king. He warned that a human king would lead to militarism, conscription and punitive taxation, and that their pleas for mercy from the king's demands would go unanswered. Samuel passed on God's warning to the Israelites but they still demanded a king, and Saul became their ruler. Much of the subsequent Old Testament chronicles the Israelites trying to live with this decision.

New Testament

More than any other Bible source, the Sermon on the Mount is used as the basis for Christian anarchism. Alexandre Christoyannopoulos [fr] explains that the Sermon perfectly illustrates Jesus's central teaching of love and forgiveness. Christian anarchists claim that the state, founded on violence, contravenes the Sermon and Jesus' call to love one's enemies.

The gospels tell of Jesus's temptation in the desert. For the final temptation, Jesus is taken up to a high mountain by Satan and told that if he bows down to Satan he will give him all the kingdoms of the world. Christian anarchists use this as evidence that all Earthly kingdoms and governments are ruled by Satan, otherwise they would not be Satan's to give. Jesus refuses the temptation, choosing to serve God instead, implying that Jesus is aware of the corrupting nature of Earthly power.

Christian eschatology and various Christian anarchists, such as Jacques Ellul, have identified the state and political power as the Beast in the Book of Revelation.

Friedrich Nietzsche and Frank Seaver Billings criticize Christianity and anarchism by arguing that they are the same thing.

Early Church

According to Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, several of the Church Fathers' writings suggest anarchism as God's ideal. The first Christians opposed the primacy of the state: "We must obey God as ruler rather than men" (Acts 4:19, 5:29, 1 Corinthians 6:1-6); "Stripping the governments and the authorities bare, he exhibited them in open public as conquered, leading them in a triumphal procession by means of it." (Colossians 2:15). Also, some early Christian communities appear to have practised anarchist communism, such as the Jerusalem group described in Acts, who shared their money and labour equally and fairly among the members. Roman Montero claims that using an anthropological framework, such as that of the anarchist David Graeber, one can plausibly reconstruct the communism of the early Christian communities and that the practices were widespread, long-lasting, and substantial. Christian anarchists, such as Kevin Craig, insist that the communities were centred on true love and care for one another, rather than liturgy. They also allege that the reason for the early Christians were persecuted was not that they worshipped Jesus Christ but that they refused to worship human idols claiming divine status (see Imperial cult). Since they refused to worship the Roman Emperor, they refused to swear any oath of allegiance to the Roman Empire. When requested that he swear by the emperor, Speratus, spokesperson of the Scillitan Martyrs, said in 180CE, "I recognize not the empire of this world ... because I know my Lord, the King of kings and Emperor of all nations."

In his introduction to a translation of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Thomas Merton describes the early monastics as "Truly in certain sense 'anarchists', and it will do no harm to think of them as such."

During the ante-Nicene period, there were several independent sects who took a radically different approach to Christianity from that of the Proto-Orthodox Church and displayed anarchist tendencies by relying on direct revelation, rather than scripture, such as:

• Gnosticism, particularly Valentinianism (2nd to 4th centuries) – reliance on revealed knowledge from a transcendent, unknowable God, who was a distinct divinity from the Demiurge who created and oversees the material world.
• Montanism (2nd century) – relied on prophetic revelations from the Holy Spirit.

Conversion of the Roman Empire

For Christian anarchists, the moment that epitomised the degeneration of Christianity was the conversion of Emperor Constantine after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312. Christianity was then legalized under the Edict of Milan in 313, which hastened the Church's transformation from a humble bottom-up sect to an authoritarian top-down organization. Christian anarchists point out that marked the beginning of the "Constantinian shift" in which Christianity gradually came to be identified with the will of the ruling elite by becoming the state church of the Roman Empire and in some cases (such as the Crusades, Inquisition, and the French Wars of Religion) a religious justification for violence.

Peasant revolts in the Post-Reformation era

Various libertarian socialist authors have identified the written work of the English Protestant social reformer Gerrard Winstanley and the social activism of his group, the Diggers, as anticipating their line of thought. For the anarchist historian George Woodcock, "Although (Pierre Joseph) Proudhon was the first writer to call himself an anarchist, at least two predecessors outlined systems that contain all the basic elements of anarchism. The first was Gerrard Winstanley (1609–1676), a linen draper who led the small movement of the Diggers during the Commonwealth. Winstanley and his followers protested in the name of a radical Christianity against the economic distress that followed the Civil War and against the inequality that the grandees of the New Model Army seemed intent on preserving.

In 1649–1650, the Diggers squatted on stretches of common land in southern England and attempted to set up communities based on work on the land and the sharing of goods. The communities failed following a crackdown by the English authorities, but a series of pamphlets by Winstanley survived, of which The New Law of Righteousness (1649) was the most important. Advocating a rational Christianity, Winstanley equated Christ with "the universal liberty" and declared the universally corrupting nature of authority. He saw "an equal privilege to share in the blessing of liberty" and detected an intimate link between the institution of property and the lack of freedom. For Murray Bookchin, "In the modern world, anarchism first appeared as a movement of the peasantry and yeomanry against declining feudal institutions. In Germany its foremost spokesman during the Peasant Wars was Thomas Müntzer; in England, Gerrard Winstanley, a leading participant in the Digger movement. The concepts held by Müntzer and Winstanley were superbly attuned to the needs of their time – a historical period when the majority of the population lived in the countryside and when the most militant revolutionary forces came from an agrarian world. It would be painfully academic to argue whether Müntzer and Winstanley could have achieved their ideals. What is of real importance is that they spoke to their time; their anarchist concepts followed naturally from the rural society that furnished the bands of the peasant armies in Germany and the New Model in England."

Modern era

The 19th-century Christian abolitionists Adin Ballou and William Lloyd Garrison were critical of all human governments and believed that they would be eventually supplanted by a new order in which individuals are guided solely by their love for God. Ballou and Garrison advocated Christian nonresistance to evil, as they saw Christ as the embodiment of "passive nonresistance", or nonviolent praxis against the state. They both condemned violence against southern slave owners and advocated instead for moral suasion or consistent rebukes against the institution of slavery in efforts to persuade racist southerns and indifferent northerners to the abolitionist' cause. At the outbreak of the Civil War, however, Garrison later embraced the armed struggle for black liberation and the Lincoln administration. Ballou remained a lifelong pacifist and condemned the Civil War for fear of the eventual retaliation by white southerns on freed black Americans.

Ballou's and Garrison's writings heavily influenced Leo Tolstoy, who was inspired by their lifelong commitment to abolitionism. Tolstoy wrote extensively on his burgeoning Christian anarchist principles in nonfiction books like The Kingdom of God is Within You, which is considered a key Christian anarchist text. Tolstoy sought to separate Russian Orthodox Christianity, which was merged with the state, from what he believed was the true message of Jesus as contained in the Gospels, specifically in the Sermon on the Mount. He took the viewpoint that all governments that wage war and churches that in turn support those governments, are an affront to the Christian principles of nonviolence. Although Tolstoy never actually used the term "Christian anarchism" in The Kingdom of God Is Within You, reviews of the book after its publication in 1894 appear to have coined the term.

Thomas J. Hagerty, a Marxist Catholic priest turned oculist, was a primary author of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Preamble ("an injury to one is an injury to all"). IWW members included Christian anarchists like Dorothy Day and Ammon Hennacy.

Dorothy Day was a journalist turned social activist who became known for her social justice campaigns in defense of the poor. Alongside Peter Maurin, she founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933, which espoused nonviolence and hospitality for the impoverished and the downtrodden. Day was declared Servant of God when a cause for sainthood was opened for her by Pope John Paul II. Day's distributist economic views are very similar to Proudhon's mutualism by which she was influenced. Day also named the phrase "precarious work" based on the former anarchocommunist Léonce Crenier's embrace of poverty. Peter Maurin's vision to transform the social order consisted of establishing urban houses of hospitality to care for the destitute, rural farming communities to teach city dwellers agrarianism and encourage a movement back to the land, and roundtable discussions in community centres to clarify thought and initiate action.

Simone Weil was a French philosopher who was very early animated by a great compassion for the exploited. She was first a socialist and then an anarchist. In 1930s, she converted to "love of Christ". During her experience, she explains that she suddenly felt that Christianity was the religion of the slaves and that she, like other slaves, could not resist adhering to it. She is considered a "Christian mystic" and an "anarchist Christian".

Anarchist biblical views and practices

Church authority

With some notable exceptions such as the Catholic Worker Movement, many Christian anarchists are critical of Church dogma and rituals. Christian anarchists tend to wish that Christians were less preoccupied with performing rituals and preaching dogmatic theology, and more with following Jesus' teaching and practices. Jacques Ellul and Dave Andrews claim that Jesus did not intend to be the founder of an institutional religion, while Michael Elliot believes one of Jesus' intentions was to bypass human intermediaries and do away with priests.

Pacifism and nonviolence

Christian anarchists, such as David Lipscomb, Leo Tolstoy, Ammon Hennacy, Jacques Ellul, and Dave Andrews, follow Jesus' call to not resist evil but turn the other cheek. They argue that this teaching can only imply a condemnation of the state, as the police and army hold a monopoly over the legitimate use of force. They believe freedom will only be guided by the grace of God if they show compassion to others and turn the other cheek when confronted with violence. Christian anarchists believe violence begets violence and the ends never justify the means.

Many Christian anarchists practice the principles of nonviolence, nonresistance, and turning the other cheek. To illustrate how nonresistance works in practice, Alexandre Christoyannopoulos offers the following Christian anarchist response to terrorism:

The path shown by Jesus is a difficult one that can only be trod by true martyrs. A "martyr," etymologically, is he who makes himself a witness to his faith. And it is the ultimate testimony to one's faith to be ready to put it to practice even when one's very life is threatened. But the life to be sacrificed, it should be noted, is not the enemy's life, but the martyr's own life — killing others is not a testimony of love, but of anger, fear, or hatred. For Tolstoy, therefore, a true martyr to Jesus' message would neither punish nor resist (or at least not use violence to resist), but would strive to act from love, however hard, whatever the likelihood of being crucified. He would patiently learn to forgive and turn the other cheek, even at the risk of death. Such would be the only way to eventually win the hearts and minds of the other camp and open up the possibilities for reconciliation in the "war on terror."

Simple living

Christian anarchists such as Ammon Hennacy, Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day often advocate voluntary poverty. This can be for a variety of reasons, such as withdrawing support for government by reducing taxable income or following Jesus' teachings. Jesus appears to teach voluntary poverty when he told his disciples, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:25) and "You cannot serve both God and Mammon" (Luke 16:13).

State authority

The most common challenge for anarchist theologians is interpreting Paul's Epistle to the Romans 13:1–7, in which Paul demanded obedience to governing authorities and described them as God's servants exacting punishment on wrongdoers. Romans 13:1–7 holds the most explicit reference to the state in the New Testament but other parallel texts include Titus 3:1, Hebrews 13:17 and 1 Peter 2:13-17.

Some theologians, such as C.E.B. Cranfield, have interpreted Romans 13:1–7 to mean the Church should support the state, as God has sanctified the state to be his main tool to preserve social order. Similarly, in the case of the state being involved in a "just war", some theologians argue that it's permissible for Christians to serve the state and wield the sword. Christian anarchists do not share these interpretations of Romans 13 but still recognize it as "a very embarrassing passage."

Christian anarchists and pacifists such as Jacques Ellul and Vernard Eller do not attempt to overthrow the state given Romans 13 and Jesus' command to turn the other cheek. As wrath and vengeance are contrary to the Christian values of kindness and forgiveness, Ellul neither supports, nor participates in, the state. Eller articulates this position by restating the passage this way:

Be clear, any of those human are where they are only because God is allowing them to be there. They exist only at his sufferance. And if God is willing to put up with...the Roman Empire, you ought to be willing to put up with it, too. There is no indication God has called you to clear it out of the way or get it converted for him. You can't fight an Empire without becoming like the Roman Empire; so you had better leave such matters in God's hands where they belong.

Christians who interpret Romans 13 as advocating support for governing authorities are left with the difficulty of how to act under tyrants or dictators. Ernst Käsemann, in his Commentary on Romans, challenged the mainstream Christian interpretation of the passage in light of German Lutheran Churches using this passage to justify the Holocaust.

Paul's letter to Roman Christians declares "For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong." However Christian anarchists point out an inconsistency if this text were to be taken literally and in isolation as Jesus and Paul were both executed by the governing authorities or "rulers" even though they did "right." The content of Paul's letter to the Romans is also denied by Paul himself in the same letter's 12:2 verse: "Do not conform to this world's system of things, but change yourselves by using your own intellect, so that you shall understand by yourselves the good and perfect will of God." In his Epistle to the Ephesians, 6:12, Paul states: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world's obscurantism".

There are also Christians anarchists such as Leo Tolstoy and Ammon Hennacy, who favor Jesuism and do not see the need to integrate Paul's teachings into their subversive way of life. Tolstoy believed Paul was instrumental in the church's "deviation" from Jesus' teaching and practices whilst Hennacy believed "Paul spoiled the message of Christ". In contrast to Eller, Hennacy and Ciaron O'Reilly advocate nonviolent civil disobedience to confront state oppression.

Swearing of oaths

In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:33-37), Jesus tells his followers to not swear oaths in the name of God or Man. Tolstoy, Adin Ballou and Petr Chelčický understand this to mean that Christians should never bind themselves to any oath as they may not be able to fulfil the will of God if they are bound to the will of a fellow-man. Tolstoy takes the view that all oaths are evil, but especially an oath of allegiance.

Tax

Some Christian anarchists resist taxes in the belief that their government is engaged in immoral, unethical or destructive activities such as war, and paying taxes inevitably funds these activities, whilst others submit to taxation. Adin Ballou wrote that if the act of resisting taxes requires physical force to withhold what a government tries to take, then it is important to submit to taxation. Ammon Hennacy, who, like Ballou also believed in nonresistance, eased his conscience by simply living below the income tax threshold.

Christian anarchists do not interpret the injunction in Matthew 22:21 to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's" as advocating support for taxes, but as further advice to free oneself from material attachment. For example, Dorothy Day said if we were to give everything to God there will be nothing left for Caesar, and Jacques Ellul believed the passage showed that Caesar may have rights over fiat money but not things that are made by God, as he explained:

"Render unto Caesar..." in no way divides the exercise of authority into two realms....They were said in response to another matter: the payment of taxes, and the coin. The mark on the coin is that of Caesar; it is the mark of his property. Therefore give Caesar this money; it is his. It is not a question of legitimizing taxes! It means that Caesar, having created money, is its master. That's all. Let us not forget that money, for Jesus, is the domain of Mammon, a satanic domain!

Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism in the Christian tradition has a long history commencing in the first centuries of Church with the Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers who abandoned the "world of men" for intimacy with the God of Jesus Christ. Vegetarianism amongst hermits and Christian monastics in the Eastern Christian and Roman Catholic traditions remains common to this day as a means of simplifying one's life, and as a practice of asceticism. Leo Tolstoy, Ammon Hennacy, and Théodore Monod extended their belief in nonviolence and compassion to all living beings through vegetarianism.

Present-day Christian anarchist groups

Brotherhood Church

The Brotherhood Church is a Christian anarchist and pacifist community. The Brotherhood Church can be traced back to 1887 when a Congregationalist minister called John Bruce Wallace started a magazine called "The Brotherhood" in Limavady, Northern Ireland. An intentional community with Quaker origins has been located at Stapleton, near Pontefract, Yorkshire, since 1921.

Catholic Worker Movement

Established by Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day in the early 1930s, the Catholic Worker Movement is a Christian movement dedicated to nonviolence, personalism and voluntary poverty. Over 130 Catholic Worker communities exist in the United States where "houses of hospitality" care for the homeless. The Joe Hill House of hospitality (which closed in 1968) in Salt Lake City, Utah featured an enormous twelve feet by fifteen foot mural of Jesus Christ and Joe Hill. Present-day Catholic Workers include Ciaron O'Reilly, an Irish-Australian civil rights and anti-war activist.

Anne Klejment, professor of history at University of St. Thomas, wrote of the Catholic Worker Movement:

The Catholic Worker considered itself a Christian anarchist movement. All authority came from God; and the state, having by choice distanced itself from Christian perfectionism, forfeited its ultimate authority over the citizen...Catholic Worker anarchism followed Christ as a model of nonviolent revolutionary behavior...He respected individual conscience. But he also preached a prophetic message, difficult for many of his contemporaries to embrace.

Separation of church and state in the history of the Catholic Church
Overview Two kingdoms doctrine in Roman Catholicism Relations between the Catholic Church and the State Catholic integralism Politics of Vatican City
Sovereignty and loyalty Papal deposing power Sovereign immunity § Holy See Dual loyalty § Historical examples Fourth vow § In the Society of Jesus
Documents Donation of Constantine Dictatus papae Unam sanctam To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560 (Scotland) Disputationes de Controversiis Dignitatis humanae Church–state relations in Argentina § 2005 Episcopal Conference document
Historical controversies Constantinian shift / Constantinianism Investiture Controversy Society of Jesus § Political intrigue Cisalpinism vs. Ultramontanism Americanism (heresy) § The American response
20th century topics History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance § The mid-20th-century Spanish model Letitia Dunbar-Harrison Christian anarchism § Catholic Worker Movement
Current topics Evo Morales and the Roman Catholic Church Radio Maryja § Involvement in politics Laudato si' § Impact on the United States political system Catholic social teaching Conscience clause in medicine in the United States § Catholic doctrine Canon 915 § Politicians consistently promoting permissive abortion or euthanasia laws Bp. W. Francis Malooly on Canon 915 Bp. Edward J. Slattery § Illegal immigrants
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The Catholic Worker Movement has consistently protested against war and violence for over seven decades. Many of the leading figures in the movement have been both anarchists and pacifists, as Ammon Hennacy explains:

Christian Anarchism is based upon the answer of Jesus to the Pharisees when Jesus said that he without sin should be the first to cast the stone, and upon the Sermon on the Mount which advises the return of good for evil and the turning of the other cheek. Therefore, when we take any part in government by voting for legislative, judicial, and executive officials, we make these men our arm by which we cast a stone and deny the Sermon on the Mount. The dictionary definition of a Christian is one who follows Christ; kind, kindly, Christ-like. Anarchism is voluntary cooperation for good, with the right of secession. A Christian anarchist is therefore one who turns the other cheek, overturns the tables of the moneychangers, and does not need a cop to tell him how to behave. A Christian anarchist does not depend upon bullets or ballots to achieve his ideal; he achieves that ideal daily by the One-Man Revolution with which he faces a decadent, confused, and dying world.

Maurin and Day were both baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church and believed in the institution, thus showing it is possible to be a Christian anarchist and still choose to remain within a church. After her death, Day was proposed for sainthood by the Claretian Missionaries in 1983. Pope John Paul II granted the Archdiocese of New York permission to open Day's cause for sainthood in March 2000, calling her a Servant of God.

In literature, in Michael Paraskos's 2017 novel, Rabbitman, a political satire prompted by Donald Trump's presidency, the heroine, called Angela Witney, is a member of an imagined Catholic Worker commune located in the southern English village of Ditchling, where the artist Eric Gill once lived.

Doukhobors

Online communities

Numerous Christian anarchist websites, social networking sites, forums, electronic mailing lists and blogs have emerged on the internet over the last few years. These include: The AnarchoChristian Podcast and Website, Biblical Anarchy: Obey God Rather Than Men, The Libertarian Christian Institute, started by Norman Horn, A Pinch of Salt, a 1980s Christian anarchist magazine, revived in 2006 by Keith Hebden as a blog and bi-annual magazine; Libera Catholick Union founded in 1988 and re-organized in 2019; Jesus Radicals founded by Mennonites in 2000; Lost Religion of Jesus created in 2005; Christian Anarchists created in 2006; The Mormon Worker, a blog and newspaper, founded in 2007 to promote Mormonism, anarchism and pacifism; and Academics and Students Interested in Religious Anarchism (ASIRA) founded by Alexandre Christoyannopoulos in 2008.

Criticism

Critics of Christian anarchism include both Christians and anarchists. Christians often cite Romans 13 as evidence that the State should be obeyed, while secular anarchists reject belief in any authority including God. The latter often denounce religious dogma through use of the slogan "no gods, no masters". Christian anarchists often believe Romans 13 is taken out of context, emphasizing that Revelation 13 and Isaiah 13, among other passages, are needed to fully understand the meaning of Romans 13 text.

See also

• Acephali – Various leaderless Christian sects
• Anarchism and Islam
• Anarchism and Orthodox Judaism
• Anarchism and religion
• Anarchist symbolism#No gods, no masters – Typical symbols expressing anarchist ideology
• Christianity and politics – Aspect of political history
• Christian libertarianism – Synthesis of Christian beliefs with libertarian thought
• Christian communism – Form of communism based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ
• Christian socialism – Type of socialist philosophy
• Distributism – Economic theory promoting local control
• Liberation theology – Christian theological approach emphasizing the liberation of the oppressed
• New Monasticism – American Christian movement
• Plowshares movement – Christian pacifist movement
• Postmodern theology – Theological movement
• Radical Reformation – Anabaptist movement concurrent with the Protestant Reformation
• Render unto Caesar – Phrase attributed to Jesus in the synoptic gospels
• Statolatry – Worship of the state
• Theonomy – Christian form of government in which society is ruled by divine law
• Tolstoyan movement – Social movement based on the views of Leo Tolstoy
• Utopian socialism – Political theory concerned with imagined socialist societies

References

1. Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter: Imprint Academic. pp. 2–4. Locating Christian anarchism…In political theology…In political thought
2. Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). Jun, Nathan J.; Wahl, Shane (eds.). New Perspectives on Anarchism. Lexington Books. p. 149. ISBN 978-0739132401. Christian anarchism 'is not an attempt to synthesise two systems of thought' that are hopelessly incompatible; rather, it is 'a realisation that the premise of anarchism is inherent in Christianity and the message of the Gospels'.
3. ^ Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (March 2010). "A Christian Anarchist Critique of Violence: From Turning the Other Cheek to a Rejection of the State" (PDF). Political Studies Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-12.
4. Christoyannopoulos 2010a, p. 254, The state as idolatry.
5. Van Steenwyk, Mark (August 2013). The UNkingdom of God: Embracing the Subversive Power of Repentance. Downers Grove IL USA: IVP Books. ISBN 978-0830836550.
6. ^ Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). "The Sermon on the Mount: A Manifesto for Christian Anarchism". Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter: Imprint Academic. pp. 43–80.
7. ^ Christoyannopoulos 2010a, pp. 19 and 208, Leo Tolstoy.
8. Christoyannopoulos 2010a, pp. 84–88, Old Testament.
9. Ellul, Jacques (1988). Anarchy and Christianity. Michigan: Eerdmans. pp. 47–48. ISBN 9780802804952. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2014 – via Google Books. Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, and Samson were more prophets than kings. They had no permanent power. A significant phrase at the end of the book of Judges (21:25) is that at that time there was no king in Israel; people did what was right in their own eyes.
10. Judges 21:25: "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."
11. Ellul, Jacques (1988). Anarchy and Christianity. Michigan: Eerdmans. p. 48. ISBN 9780802804952. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2014 – via Google Books. Samuel was now judge. But the assembled people told him that they had now had enough of this political system. They wanted a king so as to be like other nations.
12. "1 Samuel 8 (New International Version)". Bible Gateway. HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2014. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, 'You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.'
13. "1 Samuel 9 (New International Version)". Bible Gateway. HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Archived from the original on 27 December 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2014. Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel: 'About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him ruler over my people Israel; he will deliver them from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked on my people, for their cry has reached me.'
14. Ellul, Jacques (1988). Anarchy and Christianity. Michigan: Eerdmans. p. 48. ISBN 9780802804952. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2014 – via Google Books. He who was chosen to be king thus came on the scene, namely, Saul ...
15. Eller, Vernard (1987). Christian Anarchy: Jesus' Primacy Over the Powers. Eerdmans. Archived from the original on 2019-09-05. Retrieved 2012-08-15. God and Samuel accept (and honor) Israel's (bad) decision as accomplished fact and proceed to live with it rather than try to reverse it.
16. "Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 4:8-10 – New International Version". Bible Gateway. Archived from the original on 2020-01-30. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
17. Ellul, Jacques (1988). Anarchy and Christianity. Michigan: Eerdmans. pp. 57–58. ISBN 9780802804952. Archived from the original on 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
18. Christoyannopoulos 2010a, p. 94, Jesus' third temptation in the wilderness.
19. Christoyannopoulos 2010a, p. 123–126, Revelation.
20. Ellul, Jacques (1988). Anarchy and Christianity. Michigan: Eerdmans. pp. 71–74. ISBN 9780802804952. Archived from the original on 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2015-08-14. The first beast comes up from the sea ... It is given 'all authority and power over every tribe, every people, every tongue, and every nation' (13:7). All who dwell on earth worship it. Political power could hardly, I think, be more expressly described, for it is this power which has authority, which controls military force, and which compels adoration (i.e., absolute obedience).
21. Nietzsche, Friedrich (1895). "58". Der Antichrist. There is a perfect likeness between Christian and anarchist: their object, their instinct, points only toward destruction. ... The Christian and the anarchist: both are decadents; both are incapable of any act that is not disintegrating, poisonous, degenerating, blood-sucking; both have an instinct of mortal hatred of everything that stands up, and is great, and has durability, and promises life a future ...
22. Billings, Frank S. (1894). How Shall the Rich Escape?. Arena Publishing. p. 209. Taking the gospels as our only possible authority, it cannot be denied that Jesusism and anarchism are almost identical.
23. ^ Christoyannopoulos 2010a, p. 243–246, Early Christians.
24. Hinson, E. Glenn (1996). The Early Church: Origins to the Dawn of the Middle Ages. pp. 42–43.
25. Montero, Roman A.; Foster, Edgar G. (2017). All Things in Common The Economic Practices of the Early Christians. Eugene: Wipf and Stock. ISBN 9781532607912. OCLC 994706026.
26. Smith, Clyde Curry (2004). "Speratus". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Archived from the original on 9 September 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
27. The Passion of the Scillitan Martyrs , translated by Schaff, Philip, T. & T. Clark, 1897 .
28. Merton, Thomas (1960). Wisdom of the Desert. Abbey of Gethsemani Inc. p. 5.
29. ^ Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). "Christian Anarchism: A Revolutionary Reading of the Bible". New Perspectives on Anarchism. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. pp. 149–168.
30. Marlow. "Anarchism and Christianity". The Anarchist Library. Archived from the original on 2012-05-15. Retrieved 2013-05-06. It was in these conditions of class struggle that, among a whole cluster of radical groups such as the Fifth Monarchy Men, the Levellers and the Ranters, there emerged perhaps the first real proto-anarchists, the Diggers, who like the classical 19th century anarchists identified political and economic power and who believed that a social, rather than political revolution was necessary for the establishment of justice. Gerrard Winstanley, the Diggers' leader, made an identification with the word of God and the principle of reason, an equivalent philosophy to that found in Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You. In fact, it seems likely Tolstoy took much of his own inspiration from Winstanley.
31. Berneri, Marie Louise. Utopias of the English Revolution. Archived from the original on 2012-05-15. Retrieved 2013-05-06. While the ideal commonwealth conceived by James Harrington tried to combine the existence of a powerful state with respect for the political rights of the citizens, Thomas Hobbes and Gerrard Winstanley, for opposite reasons, denied the possibility of power being shared between the state and the people. ... Before defining the government of a true Commonwealth Winstanley denounces the kingly government based on property and like Proudhon he believes that 'property is theft'.
32. Woodcock, George. "Anarchism". The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 2012-05-15. Retrieved 2013-05-06 – via The Anarchist Library.
33. Bookchin, Murray (27 April 2009). Herber, Lewis (ed.). Ecology and Revolutionary Thought. Archived from the original on 15 May 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2011 – via The Anarchist Library.
34. Anderson, Carlotta R. (2017). All-American Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement. Wayne State University Press. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-8143-4327-2. Archived from the original on 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
35. Maude, Aylmer (1911). The Life of Tolstoy: Later years. Dodd, Mead. p. 355.
36. Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2006). "Tolstoy the Peculiar Christian Anarchist".
37. Stead, William Thomas, ed. (1894). The review of reviews, Volume 9, 1894, p.306. Archived from the original on 2021-04-18. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
38. Mather & Crowther, ed. (1894). The Speaker. Vol. 9. p. 254. Archived from the original on 2021-06-25. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
39. ^ Dawkins, Richard (2007). The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief. Prometheus Books, Publishers. p. 468. ISBN 978-1-61592-280-2. Archived from the original on 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
40. Proceedings of The ... annual Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World ... 1905. p. 245. Archived from the original on 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
41. Rosemont, Franklin (2015). Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture. PM Press. p. 442. ISBN 978-1-62963-210-0. Archived from the original on 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
42. Benowitz, June Melby (2017). Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. pp. 137–138. ISBN 978-1-4408-3987-0. Archived from the original on 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
43. "US bishops endorse sainthood cause of Catholic Worker's Dorothy Day". Catholic New Service. 13 November 2012. Archived from the original on 7 December 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
44. Dorothy, Day (1999). On Pilgrimage. Eerdmans. p. 40.
45. McKay, Iain (2007). An Anarchist FAQ Volume One. AK Press. p. 75.
46. Lambert, Rob; Herod, Andrew (2016). Neoliberal Capitalism and Precarious Work: Ethnographies of Accommodation and Resistance. Edward Elgar. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-78195-495-9. Archived from the original on 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
47. Coy, Patrick G. (1988). A Revolution of the heart: essays on the Catholic worker. Temple University Press. pp. 16–23. Peter Maurin
48. Weil, Simone. Waiting for God.
49. "Avec Simone Weil et George Orwell" [With Simone Weil and George Orwell]. Le Comptoir (in French). 22 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2020-11-19. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
50. Christoyannopoulos 2010a, p. 167–175, Deceptive Dogmas...Sanctimonious self-righteousness.
51. Ellul, Jacques (1988). Anarchy and Christianity. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. p. 26. The immediate reality, however, is that the revelation of Jesus ought not to give rise to a religion. All religion leads to war, but the Word of God is not a religion, and it is the most serious of all betrayals to have made of it a religion.
52. Christoyannopoulos 2010a, p. 175–177, Institutional religion.
53. Elliot, Michael C. (1990). Freedom, Justice and Christian Counter-Culture. London: SCM Press. p. 164. Jesus asserted that each person could have direct and personal access to the truth, and each become in effect his or her own authority
54. Christoyannopoulos 2010a, p. 52, The cycle of violence.
55. Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (April 2008). "Turning the Other Cheek to Terrorism: Reflections on the Contemporary Significance of Leo Tolstoy's Exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount". Cambridge University Press. pp. 41–42.
56. Day, Dorothy (February 1945). "More About Holy Poverty. Which Is Voluntary Poverty". The Catholic Worker. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
57. Cornell, Tom; Ellsberg, Robert (1995). A Penny a Copy: Readings from the Catholic Worker. Orbis Books. p. 198. At its deepest level voluntary poverty is a way of seeing the world and the things of the world.… The Gospels are quite clear: the rich man is told to sell all he has and give to the poor, for it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. And we are clearly instructed that 'you can not serve God and Mammon'.
58. ^ Christoyannopoulos 2010a, p. 181–182, Paul's letter to Roman Christians, chapter 13.
59. "Bible Gateway passage: Romans 13:1-7 - New International Version". Bible Gateway. Archived from the original on 2020-01-30. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
60. Christoyannopoulos 2010a, p. 191–192, Similar passages in the New Testament.
61. "Bible Gateway passage: Titus 3:1 - New International Version". Bible Gateway. Archived from the original on 2020-01-30. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
62. "Bible Gateway passage: Hebrews 13:17 - New International Version". Bible Gateway. Archived from the original on 2020-01-30. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
63. "Bible Gateway passage: 1 Peter 2:13-17 - New International Version". Bible Gateway. Archived from the original on 2020-01-30. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
64. C.E.B. Cranfield (1985). The Christian's Political Responsibility According to the New Testament. pp. 177–184. We have to serve the state for the sake of men's eternal salvation
65. ^ Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2009). "Responding to the State: Christian Anarchists on Romans 13, Rendering to Caesar, and Civil Disobedience". Religious Anarchism: New Perspectives. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 106–144.
66. BBC. "Just War - introduction". Archived from the original on 2019-12-28. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
67. ^ Ellul, Jacques (1988). Anarchy and Christianity. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. pp. 86–87. ISBN 9780802804952. Archived from the original on 2022-05-31. Retrieved 2021-10-17. The Interpretation of Romans 13:1-2
68. Boyd, Greg (9 January 2008). "Does Following Jesus Rule Out Serving in the Military if a War is Just?". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
69. Eller, Vernard (1987). Christian Anarchy: Jesus' Primacy Over the Powers. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. p. 239. Archived from the original on 2019-09-06. Retrieved 2011-05-07. Voluntary self-subordination
70. "Christian Anarchy (Eller)". www.hccentral.com. Archived from the original on 2019-09-06. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
71. Käsemann, Ernst (1980). Commentary on Romans.
72. Romans 12:2
73. Ephesians 6:12
74. Tolstoy, Leo (1882). Church and State. This deviation begins from the times of the Apostles and especially from that hankerer after mastership Paul
75. Hennacy, Ammon (1970). The Book of Ammon. Hennacy. p. 475. Paul and the Churches
76. Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter: Imprint Academic. pp. 199–201. For (non-violent) civil disobedience
77. Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter: Imprint Academic. pp. 67–69. Swear not at all
78. ^ Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter: Imprint Academic. pp. 192–197. Jesus' advice on taxes
79. "Anarchists and War Tax Resistance". National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee. Archived from the original on 2011-10-13. Retrieved 2011-10-10.
80. Gross, David M., ed. (2008). "Ammon Hennacy". We Won't Pay: A Tax Resistance Reader. Picket Line Press. pp. 385–393. ISBN 978-1-4348-9825-8.
81. Dear, John (2007). The Questions of Jesus: Challenging Ourselves to Discover Life's Great Answers. Doubleday. p. 190. ISBN 9780307424075. Archived from the original on 2022-05-31. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
82. Ellul, Jacques. Anarchism and Christianity (PDF). p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 February 2012.
83. Miller, Robin Feuer (2010). Anniversary Essays on Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press. p. 52. ISBN 9781139486200. Archived from the original on 2015-11-05. Retrieved 2015-08-14. Tolstoy's famous embrace of vegetarianism was triggered in large part by his intensifying philosophy of non-violence
84. "'Thou shalt not kill' does not apply to murder of one's own kind only, but to all living beings; and this Commandment was inscribed in the human breast long before it was proclaimed from Sinai." – Leo Tolstoy
85. Hennacy, Ammon (1970). The Book of Ammon. Hennacy. p. 125. I had been vegetarian since 1910
86. Geological Society of London (2007). Four centuries of geological travel. ISBN 9781862392342. Archived from the original on 2015-11-28. Retrieved 2015-08-14. Monod became a vegetarian and an ardent pacifist
87. Higgins, Alfred G. (1982). A History of the Brotherhood Church. p. 52.
88. "The Brotherhood Church history". Archived from the original on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
89. Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter: Imprint Academic. pp. 24 and 260. The Catholic Worker movement
90. Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter: Imprint Academic. pp. 28–29. Ciaron O'Reilly
91. Klejment, Anne; Patrick Coy (1988). A Revolution of the heart: essays on the Catholic worker. Temple University Press. pp. 293–294.
92. Hennacy, Ammon (1970). The Book of Ammon. Hennacy. p. 0.
93. Paraskos, Michael (2017). Rabbitman. London: Friction Fiction. ISBN 9780995713000.
94. ^ Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). "Online communities". Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter: Imprint Academic. pp. 264–265.
95. "We are contemplative-activists amalgamating Independent Sacramental Movement, New Monastic, and Christian Anarchism charisms in a Catholic context." libera-catholick-union.simdif.com. Archived from the original on 2020-02-19. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
96. Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2011). "Was Jesus an anarchist?". BBC. Archived from the original on 2019-09-05. Retrieved 2019-12-20. The two passages that are most frequently brought up as 'clear evidence'… to respect civil authorities and to honour secular governments as those whom God has placed in authority… are Romans 13 and 'render unto Caesar'.
97. Alexis-Baker, Nekeisha (October 2006). "Embracing God and Rejecting Masters: On Christianity, Anarchism and the State". The Utopian. 5. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-05-10. The anarchist position on God can be summed up in the popular slogan, 'No God and no masters'. If God is indeed a tyrant as Bakunin asserts then the abolition of God and religion are necessary parts of what it means to be anarchist.
98. Craig, Kevin. "Romans 13: The Most Disastrously Misinterpreted Scripture in the History of the Human Race". Archived from the original on 2022-04-05. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
99. ""Unlucky 13": Romans 13, Revelation 13, and Isaiah 13… and why the State does not want you to read them together". Vine & fig tree. Archived from the original on 2019-09-05. Retrieved 2013-10-28.

Bibliography

• Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010a). Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter: Imprint Academic.

Further reading

19th century

• Ernest Renan (1863) The Life of Jesus.
• Leo Tolstoy (1886–94) What I Believe; and The Kingdom of God Is Within You.
• Friedrich Engels (1894) A Contribution to the History of Primitive Christianity.

20th century

• Elbert Hubbard (1910) Jesus Was An Anarchist (originally titled The Better Part).
• Ammon Hennacy (1954) The Autobiography of a Catholic Anarchist (reprinted in 1965 as The Book of Ammon). ISBN 978-1608990535
• Archie Penner (1959) The Christian, The State, and the New Testament (reprinted in 2000 as The New Testament, the Christian, and the State).
• Ruth Gilmore (1970) The Christian Anarchists: Ruskin and Tolstoy, and a Consideration of Their Influence on Gandhi.
• Niels Kjaer (1972) Kristendom og Anarkisme (translated as Christianity and Anarchism).
• Mary Segers (1977) Equality and Christian Anarchism: The Political and Social Ideas of the Catholic Worker Movement.
• Vernard Eller (1987) Christian Anarchy: Jesus' Primacy Over the Powers. ISBN 978-1579102227
• Linda H. Damico (1987) The Anarchist Dimension of Liberation Theology. ISBN 978-1620323441
• Jacques Ellul (1988) Anarchy and Christianity. ISBN 978-1606089712
• Patrick Coy, et al. (1988) A Revolution of the Heart: Essays on the Catholic Worker Archived 2015-11-20 at the Wayback Machine. ISBN 978-0865712621
• Michael C. Elliott (1990) Freedom, Justice and Christian Counter-Culture. ISBN 978-1620328576
• George Tarleton (1993) Birth of a Christian Anarchist.
• Dave Andrews (1999) Christi-Anarchy: Discovering a Radical Spirituality of Compassion. ISBN 978-1610978521

21st century

• Frederick G. Boehrer (2001) Christian Anarchism and the Catholic Worker Movement: Roman Catholic Authority and Identity in the United States.
• Jonathan Bartley (2006) Faith and Politics After Christendom: The Church as a Movement for Anarchy. ISBN 978-1842273487
• Ted Lewis ed. (2008) Electing Not to Vote: Christian Reflections on Reasons for Not Voting ISBN 978-1556352270
• Shane Claiborne (2008) Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals. ISBN 978-0310278429
• Tripp York (2009) Living on Hope While Living in Babylon: The Christian Anarchists of the 20th Century. ISBN 978-1556356858
• David Alan Black (2009) Christian Archy. ISBN 978-1893729773
• Alexandre Christoyannopoulos (2010) Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. ISBN 978-1845402471
• Ronald E. Osborn (2010) Anarchy and Apocalypse: Essays on Faith, Violence, and Theodicy. ISBN 978-1606089620
• Keith Hebden (2011–13) Dalit Theology and Christian Anarchism. ISBN 978-1409424390 and Seeking Justice: The Radical Compassion of Jesus. ISBN 978-1-78099-688-2
• Tom O'Golo (2011) Christ? No! Jesus? Yes!: A Radical Reappraisal of a Very Important Life. ISBN 978-0953252008
• Jacques de Guillebon and Falk van Gaver (2012) L'anarchisme chrétien (translated as Christian anarchism). ISBN 978-2356310613
• Mark Van Steenwyk (2012–13) That Holy Anarchist: Reflections on Christianity & Anarchism. ISBN 978-0615659817 and The Kingdom of God: Embracing the Subversive Power of Repentance. ISBN 978-0830836550
• Noel Moules (2012) Fingerprints of Fire, Footprints of Peace: A Spiritual Manifesto from a Jesus Perspective. ISBN 978-1-84694-612-7
• Davor Džalto (2016) Anarchism and Orthodoxy Archived 2016-10-11 at the Wayback Machine.
• Davor Džalto (2021) Anarchy and the Kingdom of God: From Eschatology to Orthodox Political Theology and Back Archived 2021-01-15 at the Wayback Machine.
• Montero, Roman A. 2017. All Things in Common: The Economic Practices of the Early Christians. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock. ISBN 9781532607912
• Beno Profetyk (2017) Christocrate, la logique de l'anarchisme chrétien ISBN 978-2839918466
• Beno Profetyk (2020) Credo du Christocrate – Christocrat's creed (Bilingual French-English edition)

External links

• Works on Christian anarchism at Internet Archive
• Books on Christian anarchism at the Open Library
• "Union Square Speech", Dorothy Day, November 6, 1965
• Commentary: John 18:33-38, Ollie Harrison, Third Way Magazine, February 1996
• Christian Anarchism: A Revolutionary Reading of the Bible, Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, World International Studies Conference (WISC), July 23–26, 2008
• Jesus Is an Anarchist, James Redford, Social Science Research Network (SSRN), October 17, 2009
• Was Jesus an anarchist? - interview with Alexandre Christoyannopoulos by William Crawley, BBC Northern Ireland, May 2011
• Jesus Radicals - A webzine exploring Christianity and anarchism
• Compassionistas - A resource for Spiritual Activism with some Christian Anarchist material
• Christianarchism Archived 2013-05-26 at the Wayback Machine - An interpretation of Christian Anarchism
• Beno Hasopher Archived 2022-09-07 at the Wayback Machine - Webpage of Beno Hasopher, christian anarchist theologian (in French)
• Maurin, Day, the Catholic Worker, and Anarcho-Distributism by Nicholas Evans 2018
• Pantarchy: Voluntary State and a New Catholic Church: Brief Overview of the Views of the Individualist Anarchist Stephen Pearl Andrews by Nicholas Evans 2018
• Catholic Freedom: Why Confession To A Priest Is Not Necessary To Have Sins Forgiven A Brief History of Confession from a Cafeteria Catholic Anarchist perspective by Nicholas Evans
• Jesus was an anarchist! - interview with Alexandre Christoyannopoulos by Matt Archer, June 2021

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