ristian A STUDY OUTLINE and · BIBLIOGRAPHY ....__vans CSM PAMPHLET No 2 ls 6d This pamphlet is published for discussion J and information by the Christian Socialist Movement, Kingsway Hall, London WC2. October 1962 Other pamphlets in this series: 4 No 1: Christian Socialism : Questions & Answers by Donald Soper. 1s No 3 Christian Socialism : Economic C.risis and Common Ownership by Paul Derrick. ls Printed by A. D. Oarke (TU), St. Vincent's Road, Dartford, Kent ristian I A STUDY OUTLINE and " BIBLIOGRAPHY ~vans CHRISTIAN SOCIALIST NIOVEMENT 1962 CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM A STUDY OUTLINE AND BIBLIOGRAPHY By The Rev. Stanley G. Evans Canon R·esidentiary & Chancellor of Southwark Cathedral CONTENTS 1 What is Christian Socialism? 2 The Bible and c ·hristian Socialism. 3 The Early Church and Cli istian Socialisrri. 4 The Middle Ages and Christian Socialism. 5 The Later History of Christian Socialism. 6 The Modern History of Christian So·cialism. 7 The Doctrinal Basis of Christian Socialism. 8 The Christian Socialist Movement Today. 3 1 WHAT IS CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM? The idea of Christian Socialism is something which is fundamental to Christianity; it is simply the understanding that spiritual ideas have to be expressed in material form and th~ at the primary material expression of the spiritual virtue of love is sharing. We are members one of another and sharing has to take place in society and when this is done it is called socialism. Socialism is ·the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, although in a true socialist society sharing, of course go.es further and includes the sharing in government and administration which leads to true forms of democracy and an effective voice of all members of the community in whatever enterprise engages their daily work. Christian Socialism is the grasp of the fact that Christ­ ians ought to be socialists and that there must be Christian inspiration and motivation of a socialist society; it is not a separate Christian form of socialism, still less is it a retreat from the idea of socialism masquerading under the name of Christianity. Christian Socialism although both the term and the move­ ment is modern, is as old as the Church itself. It has its roots in the Bible and in the doctrine and practice of the historic Christian Cht1rch. BOOKS. B. C. Plo,vright. Rebel Religion. London. 1936 0. C. Quick. Cl1ristianity and Justice (Christian News-Letter Books) London. 1940 B. F. Westcott. Social Aspects of Christianity. London. 1887 A. ]. Carlysle. The Influence of Christianity upon Social and Political Ideas. London. 1911 Christianity and Industrial Problems. Report of Archbishops Com­ mission. 1918 C. Gore. Christ and Society. London. 1928 C. l\1arson. God's Co-operative Society. London. 1930 2 THE BIBLE AND CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM The Old Testament is the story both of the record and the 4 .-....------ hopes of the Hebrew people; it is a story that begins in Egypt with a bricklayers strike and ends, in the Apocrypha, with a national and successful insurrection. While the law outlined in the books of the Pentateuch contains a ceremonial law (see Exodus 37 e.g.) and has much to say of candles of beaten gold (even to· the knops) it is much more than this and it contains a vast mass of social legislation ordering the whole life of society, of which the ceremonial law is only a part. A) . THE MOSAIC LAW . .The essential content of the mosaic law is this : 1. The L.and belongs to God (i.e. it· is not private property). Gen. 11 'In the beginning God created the h'eaven and the earth'. Psalm 955 'The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof'. Deut. 1014 'Unto the Lord thy· G~ belongeth the heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth and all that therein is'. 2. Psalm 9516 'The earth hath he given to the children of men'. It is divided by tribes (Numbers 2652, 5353, Joshua .13) and families on an equalitarian basis. Lev. 25 23 'The land shaU not be sold for ever, for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with. me.' 3. · Eccl. 59 'The profit of the e.arth is for all'. Thus the Old Testament sets out a fundamental law for a free society based on equality. It then sets up a series of checks on human failing and depravity. 1. The law of the landmark. Deut. 1914, Hosea 510, Proverbs 2228, 2310• 'T.hou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark'. 2. Usury Laws. Deut. 2319, Ex. 2225, Lev. 2536, Nehemiah 52, Ezekiel 188, 5 1317, 2212• 'Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy .~rother, usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury; unto a foreigner thou mayest lend upon usury ' .... 3. Year of R·elease. Deut. 15, Lev. 25. The ending, b·etween Israelites, every seven years of debt and . slavery; the poor to be fed; some release from prison; a year of fallow. 4. The Year of Jubilee. Lev. 25. Every 49 years liberty to all; a redistribution of land; the end of debt; the emptying of prisons; a fresh start for everybody. On redistribution there was compen­ sation for improvements. 5. Other Laws: (a) Six days shalt thou labour, with one day rest. There were. other holidays including the passover, ·the feast of weeks and the feast of booths. (b) Food. See Gen. 94, Lev. 717• 1926, 11 1-47, 1710-16, 196-26, 22s, Deut. 1216, 143-21 • . (c) Cleanliness of .person, clothing and house. Lev.· 1449·52, Numbers 19 1~, 1 3, 192o, Exodus 3 . 1~- 26, 4012-30-32, Lev. 411,12,21, 611, Deut 2312-14• . (d) Military Service. 'From 20· years old ·and upward', but not at the beginning of a marriage. Deut. 24, Numbers 1, 2, 347-53, . 354, . 85• (e) Justice.· Deut. 2513· 16• ProPer weights and measures. Lev. 1915. Equality between rich and poor. (f) . Bond-slavery grudgingly allowed (but not landlord­ ism); Exodus 2L Not to be sold to .foreigners. (g) Laws of punishment for murder, .theft of persons etc. Exodus 21. 6 (h) Cities of Refuge; Deut. 21. (i) Laws of Inheritance. B) THE PROPHETS The prophets sprang from Mos'es and the Law and were for ever harking back to it and resisting attempts to thwart its intentions and subvert its moral and social outlook. 'T.he morality which the prophets had in mind in their strenuous insistence on righteousn·ess, was not .merely the • private morality of the home, but the public morality on which national life is founded. They said less about the pure heart for the i~dividual than of just institutions for the nation. We are accustom'ed to connect piety with the thought of private virtues; the pious man is ~he quiet, temperate, sober, kindly man. The evils against which we contend in the church are intemperance, unchastity, the sins of the tongue. The twin evils against which the prophets launched the condemnation of Jehovah were injustice and oppre\sion.' (Rauschenbusch. Christ and Social Order. p.8). · . In the main the proph·ets denounced departure from the ways of God (a) by the sins of the people as a whole and (b) by false foreign politics. 'In the early days Yahweh had been the guardian of the simple ethic of the wandering tribe, the prophets insisted that he would retain his functions and apply to the far more complicated life of the settled agriculture community those moral and social principles which, on the more elementary plan.e, had commended themselves alike to the religious instinct and to the conscience of men.' (Oesterley & Robinson. Hebrew Religion: Its Origin and Develo·pment. pp. 194-5). The prophets were the 'beating heart' of the Old Testament. The lowest common multiple of their message would be some­ thing like this : 1. Religiofl is ethical before it -is ceremonial. 7 2. Th·e Nation is an entity and we are concerned \Vith its morality as such. 'Though your sins be as scarlet' has a corporate reference. 3. Their special task was to champion the poor. Se'e e.g. Isiah 58, Micah 22, Amos 26, Jeremiah 221• 4. The hope of national perfection. 5. The hope of universal perfection. 6. Social realism based on the idea that while people forsook the ways of God it was not possible for things to go rightly. So Amos and Hosea proclaimed the doom of tl1e N orthem Kingdom and Jeremiah proclaimed the doom of the Southern Kingdom. It is all summed up in the last words of the last book of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi: 'Rremember ye the Law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all lsra·el, even statutes and judgements. Behold, I will send you Elijah the pro·phet before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And he sh.all tum the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers lest I come and smite the earth with a curse'. C) THE APOCALYPTISTS Between the Old and the New Testament but starting at the end of the Old Testament itself, lie the writers we call the 'Apocalyptists' the people whose meaning is hidd'en and vague partly because they were groping in an explosive situation and partly because they were revolutionaries. Ess·entially they proclaimed : 1. The Day of the Lord, wherein a nationalist God would overthrow the enemies of Israel. 2. The Day of the Lord (post-Amos) in which would be 8 money lent, was absolutely forbidden to Christians as money existed only for exchange and was not fecund.