Christian socialism

Part of a series on
Christian socialism
Political concepts
People
Major writings
Organizations
Related ideas

Christian socialism is a religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus.[1] Many Christian socialists believe capitalism to be idolatrous and rooted in the sin of greed.[2][3] Christian socialists identify the cause of social inequality to be the greed that they associate with capitalism.[2] Christian socialism became a major movement in the United Kingdom beginning in the 19th century. The Christian Socialist Movement, known as Christians on the Left since 2013, is one formal group,[2][4] as well as a faction of the Labour Party.[5][6]

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, socialism is a "social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work isolated, but live in cooperation with one another. Furthermore, everything that people produce is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. Society as a whole, therefore, should own or at least control property for the benefit of all its members. ... Early Christian communities also practised the sharing of goods and labour, a simple form of socialism subsequently followed in certain forms of monasticism. Several monastic orders continue these practices today."[7]

The Hutterites believe in strict adherence to biblical principles and church discipline, and practices common ownership of nearly all property, resembling a form of communism to secular observers. In the words of historians Max Stanton and Rod Janzen, the Hutterites "established in their communities a rigorous system of Ordnungen, which were codes of rules and regulations that governed all aspects of life and ensured a unified perspective. As an economic system, Christian communism was attractive to many of the peasants who supported social revolution in sixteenth century central Europe", such as the German Peasants' War, and Friedrich Engels came to view Anabaptists as proto-communists.[8]

Other earlier figures viewed as Christian socialists include the 19th-century writers F. D. Maurice (The Kingdom of Christ, 1838),[4] John Malcolm Forbes Ludlow (The Christian Socialist, 1850),[4] Adin Ballou (Practical Christian Socialism, 1854),[9] Thomas Hughes (Tom Brown's School Days, 1857),[10] John Ruskin (Unto This Last, 1862),[11] Charles Kingsley (The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby, 1863),[4] Frederick James Furnivall (co-creator of the Oxford English Dictionary),[12] and Francis Bellamy (a Baptist minister and the author of the Pledge of Allegiance in the United States).[13]

  1. ^ Williams, Anthony Alan John (March 2016). "Christian Socialism as a Political Ideology" (PDF). University of Liverpool Repository. University of Liverpool. p. 5. Retrieved 16 January 2023. Firstly, Christian Socialists based their socialism mainly on the Bible, church teaching and the sacraments, to a far greater extent than any other sources. Secondly, Christian Socialists called for a revolution but were committed to democratic methods, suggesting a synthesis between revolutionary and democratic socialism. In practice this can be sketched out as a three-stage process: first, persuading people of the deficiencies of capitalism and the need for socialism; second, the election of a Labour government / the persuasion of other politicians to adopt socialism; third, the establishment of socialism, brought about by a socialist government and population. Thirdly, Christian Socialists sought to create a society of co-operation and collectivism, equality, democracy and peace ... the concept at the core of Christian Socialism is brotherhood, based on the idea of the universal Fatherhood of God, and that other key concepts – co-operation, equality and democracy – are derived from this. In seeking co-operation, equality and democracy Christian Socialism is not necessarily distinct from other forms of socialism, but it is distinct in drawing upon Christian theology as a basis for these concepts as well as the language to describe a future socialist society.
  2. ^ a b c Leech 2000, pp. 677–678.
  3. ^ McIlhenny, Ryan C., ed. (16 July 2015). Render unto God: Christianity and Capitalism in Crisis (hardbook ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-7705-3.
  4. ^ a b c d Schmidt, Alvin J., ed. (2012) [2011]. "Christian Socialism". The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9780470670606.wbecc0289. ISBN 9781405157629. Although Frederick Denison Maurice's father was a Unitarian clergyman, Maurice later joined the Church of England, and in 1834 he became one of its ordained clergy. He was appalled by the widespread poverty, the misery of child labor, and the economic plight of the poor and working class in the 1830s and 1840s. Similar to his acquaintance, John Malcolm Ludlow, he believed that socialism would ameliorate England's socio-economic problems of the economically oppressed. But neither Maurice nor Ludlow wanted socialism, divorced from Christian principles. Socialism, in their opinion, needed the guidance of Christian values. Thus, Maurice coined the term 'Christian socialism' in 1848, as he launched the Christian Socialist Movement. He had another close associate in Charles Kingsley, also an avid proponent of Christian socialism. In 1850, a periodical, The Christian Socialist, was created with Ludlow as editor.
  5. ^ Routledge, Paul (22 May 1994), "Labour revives faith in Christian Socialism", The Independent on Sunday. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018.
  6. ^ Kurian, Thomas, ed. (2011). "Christian socialism". The Encyclopedia of Political Science. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. p. 1555. ISBN 978-1-933116-44-0.
  7. ^ Ball, Terence; Dagger, Richard (30 April 2020). "Socialism". Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  8. ^ Janzen, Rod; Stanton, Max (2010). The Hutterites in North America (illustrated ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-8018-9925-6.
  9. ^ Sartwell, Crispin (1 January 2018). "Anarchism and Nineteenth-Century American Political Thought". Brill's Companion to Anarchism and Philosophy: 454–483. doi:10.1163/9789004356894_018. ISBN 978-9-0043-5688-7.
  10. ^ Norman, Edward (2002) [1987]. The Victorian Christian Socialists (paperback ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-5215-3051-4.
  11. ^ MacCarthy, Fiona (1994). William Morris: A Life for Our Time. Faber and Faber. pp. 69–70, 87.
  12. ^ Peterson, William S. (2007) [2004]. "Furnivall, Frederick James". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33298. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  13. ^ Dorn, Charles (8 September 2017). "How a Socialist Ended Up Writing the Pledge of Allegiance". Fortune. Retrieved 16 January 2023.