Are Christians Supposed to Be Communists?
It was in 1983 that I heard the distinguished Greek
Orthodox historian Aristeides Papadakis casually remark in a lecture at the
University of Maryland that the earliest Christians were “communists.” In those
days, the Cold War was still casting its great glacial shadow across the
cultural landscape, and so enough of a murmur of consternation rippled through
the room that Professor Papadakis — who always spoke with severe precision —
felt obliged to explain that he meant this in the barest technical sense: They
lived a common life and voluntarily enjoyed a community of possessions. The
murmur subsided, though not necessarily the disquiet.
Not that anyone should have been surprised. If the
communism of the apostolic church is a secret, it is a startlingly open one.
Vaguer terms like “communalist” or “communitarian” might make the facts sound
more palatable but cannot change them. The New Testament’s Book of Acts tells
us that in Jerusalem the first converts to the proclamation of the risen Christ
affirmed their new faith by living in a single dwelling, selling their fixed
holdings, redistributing their wealth “as each needed” and owning all
possessions communally. This was, after all, a pattern Jesus himself had
established: “Each of you who does not give up all he possesses is incapable of
being my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
This was always something of a scandal for the Christians
of later ages, at least those who bothered to notice it . . .
Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/opinion/sunday/christianity-communism.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
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