Reddit reviews Anarchy and Christianity

Dorothy Day is still held in high regard by many Christian - esp. Catholic - intellectuals and the Christian Left. For more on Christianity and Anarchy, I recommend a brief book by a French theologian called Christianity and Anarchy He would draw the ire of conservative American Christians - as Dorothy Day does - but you have to remember that not all of us in the Kingdom of Christ are politically conservative, and we certainly do not all agree on major points of theology. Christianity is a huge mansion whose occupants constantly wall of their rooms and claim their room is the only good one in the house.

I find her compassion and activism compelling and Christ-like. I think some of what she wrote made more sense in her context than it would today, but I find the dying light of worker activism something to be mourned and, hopefully, rekindled with more like her.

You should read the book Anarchy and Christianity by Jacques Ellul. He lays it out.

Indeed! There is, in fact, an entire sub-reddit devoted to it. (/r/christiananarchism)

Having only briefly read what's already here, I'll wade in with my 2¢.

It amuses me somewhat when some Christians say that Anarchism can't fit with Christian belief. The only nation ever established by God in the Bible - Israel - explicitly had no king, and was charged with caring for it's poor and needy, and any from other nations that passed through as well. The early Christians of the New Testament welcomed everyone, and gave to everyone as they had need (Acts 2:45).

Despite my best efforts, I don't think I can say it better than Jaques Ellul says it:

"All the churches have scrupulously respected and often supported the state authorities. They have made of conformity a major virtue. They have tolerated social injustices and the exploitation of some people by others, explaining that it is God's will that some should be masters and others servants, and that socioeconomic success is an outward sign of divine blessing. They have thus transformed the free and liberating Word into morality, the most astonishing thing being that there can be no Christian morality if we truly follow evangelical thinking. The fact is that it is much easier to judge faults according to an established morality than to view people as living wholes and to understand why they act as they do"

I highly Recommend Ellul. There's also a bunch of good stuff to read here

Sure.

Jacques Ellul, of Propaganda and The Technological Society, was a Christian anarchist. His most famous book on that field is Anarchy and Christianity which I believe is the best in the works. (http://www.amazon.com/Anarchy-Christianity-Jacques-Ellul/dp/1606089714)

For a classic, there's Leo Tolstoy's "Government is Violence" (http://www.amazon.com/Government-Is-Violence-Leo-Tolstoy/dp/0948984155)

And for a current group, there's "Jesus Radicals" (http://www.jesusradicals.com/) They have conferences, essays, but lately have moved very supportive of primitivism.


(Sorry for the Amazon links, but I'm lazy to find another copy, shop around. AKPREss and the like have bulk buying programs for them I believe)

https://www.amazon.com/Anarchy-Christianity-Jacques-Ellul/dp/1606089714


(Free version: http://nagasawafamily.org/jacques-ellul-anarchy-&-christianity.pdf)