Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel: Abridged Edition

overall i really appreciated this book. Christoyannopoulos weaves together all of the different strands on christian anarchy to provide a picture of the thinking of the movement as a whole. no one has ever done that before and his contribution will be a great addition to the christian anarchist scholarship. since much of the work can be hard to find, this survey (with meticulous footnotes) is very important.

my frustration with a lot of the conclusions drawn (both by this survey and by other christian anarchist writers) lies in a poor academic reading of many of the Gospel texts. These texts are read with a cursory exegesis and not in light of the empire. whether that is because empire scholarship is relatively new or whether it's show more because christian anarchists haven't completely done their homework is unclear. this lack of exegesis leads to conclusions that don't fit with the gospel texts. in this book, Christoyannopoulos' conclusion tries to set up the way forward by christian anarchists but sets up a false dichotomy; either one is completely non-resistant (read non-engaged) with the political world, or one is buying in to the state. show less

This "political commentary" was a good read for the novice anarchist, especially. Beyond just Catholic Workers, it discusses several aspects of Christian anarchism. It helped me realise that on more than one front, I have been a Christian anarchist most of my life. It was an excellent read, and I intend to wear it out as both a "textbook" and commentary as I go through the last decades of my life.

A nice summary of some of the main players and modes of thought within Christian anarchism.