What do you think about christian socialism?

Discussion in 'Theology and Doctrine' started by niccolo25, May 6, 2016.

  1. niccolo25

    niccolo25 New Member

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  2. anglican74

    anglican74 Well-Known Member Anglican

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    It is an atheistic ideology, no?
     
  3. Botolph

    Botolph Well-Known Member

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    In fairness A74 I think that is a bit harsh.

    In James 2:14-17 we read
    What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.​

    I think that the challenge for Christian Socialism is the temptation to activism. We can run around doing so much good that we forget who we serve - Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and even Pentecost are subsumed to the activism of doing good.

    I think for many of us the challenge of Christian Socialism is that we are not active enough. The great mysteries we proclaim on the mountain are somehow a remembrance when we return to the plain of everyday life, rather than being the empowering force that enables us to make a difference.

    Politically I tend to be a centralist. None the less I recognise and celebrate Christians to the Left and to the Right. We are, after all called to be One Body in Christ, as distinct from being one opinion in politics.

    Luke 10:38-42 where Jesus Visits Martha and Mary mas much to instruct us
    Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’​
     
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  4. anglican74

    anglican74 Well-Known Member Anglican

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    Friend, what do the passages on Christian charity have to do with socialism? I have learned that the term was coined by an atheist on the basis of atheism, no?
     
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  5. Aidan

    Aidan Well-Known Member

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    Jesus was the perfect socialist
     
  6. Lowly Layman

    Lowly Layman Well-Known Member

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    I disagree completely with your comment. But I suppose it depends on what your definition of socialism is...he certainly does not conform to the formal definition Imy familiar with. Perhaps it would help to have a definition to work with before this thread continues.
     
  7. Botolph

    Botolph Well-Known Member

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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_socialism

    My experience of Christian Socialist would conform to the opening paragraph, and certainly the ones who stand uppermost in my mind were profoundly influenced through Education in the 60's and 70's in the UK. There are numbers today who I would clearly understand to be 'Christians on the Left'. My biggest difficulty is that they can be determined in the left-ness so much as to think nothing else passes as Christian.

    That has less to do with the movement in the century before last - which reading serves me to see was perhaps less faith and more politics, but which I pretend no expertise in.
     
  8. RBrown

    RBrown New Member

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    That's the only one I'm familiar with or see liberal Christians practising locally. That may be where Anglican74 is coming from as well.