Reading about Christian anarchism

I'm writing this blog post in response to a tweet that reads, "I've been thinking about Christian anarchism what would you suggest I read? Something theological with good praxis". Sometimes the answer is longer than a tweet allows! @NormalSteve

If it's reading about Christian anarchism you're after, I'd recommend starting somewhere else. Start by reading about anarchism and then do your theological thinking from there. Then do some reading on Christian anarchism. 

Start with the classics: Colin Ward's "Anarchy in Action" (which I can't find on hive.co.uk but his more up to date "Talking Anarchy" is likely to be great. But you can get even more classic than that with Emma Goldman's "Anarchy and other Essays" and the essential Peter Kropotkin's "Mutual Aid". Oh yes: and William Morris! 

The original Christian anarchist writer would be Leo Tolstoi; his acerbic "What I Believe" and "The Kingdom of God is Within You" are the foundations of much Christian anarchist thought. 

Online much of the foundational stuff for Christian anarchism is available form Jacques Ellul and Vernard Eller. 

If you want something that gives you an incredibly in depth overview of Christian anarchist thought you can't go wrong with Alexandre Christoyannopoulos's "Christian Anarchism" and if you want something that's both practical and accessible you've got Dave Andrews' "Christi-anarchy" or "Not Religion, But Love". 

And, of course, anything by Dorothy Day but I would warmly recommend her inspiring biography, "The Long Loneliness" which tells the story of a pioneering Catholic Anarchist with honesty that leaves you utterly humbled. 

If you've read this far, I'm sure you won't mind me recommending my own "Seeking Justice: The Radical Compassion of Jesus" which takes principles of Christian anarchist theory, without the language of anarchism, and translates them into genuine experiments in radical compassion. 

Keith Hebden to fast for 40 days and 40 nights for Lent campaign

• Reverend Dr Keith Hebden of Mansfield Parish, Nottingham will begin a 40 day water-only fast on Ash Wednesday (March 5th) as part of the End Hunger Fast Campaign.
• Announcement comes after seven more Bishops sign last week’s open letter from Anglican, Quaker, Methodist and United Reformed Church leaders in support of the campaign. [1]

A new national grassroots campaign, End Hunger Fast was announced last week, as faith leaders called on the UK Government to act on the growing hunger crisis in Britain.

Foodbanks around the UK are reporting that the number of people needing food aid is still rising, as the poorest miss out on the economic recovery. Last week a report published by the Department for Food and Rural Affairs said those providing food aid attributed the increased demand to low incomes, rising prices and increased indebtedness. [2] Half a million people have visited food banks in the UK since last Easter. Meanwhile there have been 5,500 hospital admissions for malnutrition, up 73% since 2008. [3]

Over half of people using foodbanks have been put in that situation by cut backs to, and failures in, the benefit system – whether it be payment delays or punitive sanctions.

In response to this, food bank volunteers, church groups and poverty activists around the UK have united to launch End Hunger Fast. The grassroots campaign brings people from across the country together to call on the Government to meet its duty of care to UK citizens and take immediate action on welfare, wages and food markets – three of the biggest contributors to the problem. [4]

Supporting church groups, many of whom are also involved with running food banks plan to sign up thousands of supporters for a national day of fasting.[5] Further details to be released on the official launch date, March 5th include:

• New polling data and an advertising campaign from Church Action on Poverty
• A fasting relay, with forty high profile faith leaders, celebrities and food bank volunteers passing a fasting baton.
• A vigil outside Westminster, which will bring Government ministers face to face with the realities of hunger

Keith Hebden, End Hunger Fast campaign spokesman and Parish Priest for Mansfield, said:
“The Government has a duty of care to act and provide a basic safety net for its own citizens. But with so many relying on food banks, people having to chose whether to eat or heat their home, it seems it is failing in that duty.

“I believe the Church should stand in solidarity with the poorest and most vulnerable. I will personally be eating no food for 40 days till Holy Week to show how strongly I feel about this issue.

“I hope others will join and fast for a day, a week or as long as they feel able, in sympathy with the half a million hungry Britons.”

ENDS

Notes to editors
[1] A letter signed by 38 faith leaders, including 27 Anglican Bishops, Methodist leaders, the General Secretary of Quaker Peace and Social Witness and United Reformed Church leaders, was published last week. Since then a further seven Bishops have signed in support. They are:

Nick Baines, Bradford
Pete Broadbent, Willesden
Paul Bayes, Hertford
Graham Kings, Sherborne
Stephen Conway, Ely
Brian Castle, Tonbridge
Jonathan Clark, Croydon

[2] See point 1 in ‘Conclusions of Research’ on page xii of DEFRA report available here. This refutes previous Government claims that increased supply of food aid was driving increased demand.
[3] According to the Department of Health there were 3,161 hospital admissions as a result of malnutrition in 2008/9 and 5,499 in 2012/13. Full figures available here.
[4] The campaign is calling on the Government to act on welfare, wages and food markets. Specific suggestions include:
• Immediately undertake a full independent inquiry, reporting directly to the Prime Minister, into the relationship between benefit delay, error or sanctions, welfare reform changes, and the growth of food poverty and commit to implement its recommendations.
• To monitor, annually, the extent of hunger in the UK and commit to robust 2020 targets for its reduction.
• To begin a phased increase of the national minimum wage to a Living Wage, crucial to making work pay.
• To work with legislators in Europe to curb financial speculation on food markets, which are partly responsible for food price inflation in the UK.

[5] End Hunger Fast are organising an online campaign to encourage citizens around the UK to take part in a national day of fasting on April 4th. People can pledge to join the day of fasting at www.endhungerfast.co.uk

Also fasting for forty days: Simon Cross

Seeking justice

Keith Hebden's Seeking justice is recommended here to non-Christian activists who are wondering why these Christians keep turning up with "their" actions. Secular people will surely express it that way, I once belonged to their tribe. And I do not like the word "Christians", which can be easily fitted into a identity political discourse so as to compete with the Minority of Choice (in the USA this is common practice). To me being "a Christian" however can only refer to what someone is striving for, the horizon you can see but will never reach, just like "anarchy". That is why the two can be combined very well and I know Keith Hebden on that basis (e.g. from this site). In his latest book he does not refer to Christianity, he commends the imitation of Jesus (not: Christ), which fits into the Christian anarchist tradition.

Seeking justice can be read both as a practical guide (to Christian anarchism I would like to add, but you have not read this, have you?) and a manifesto. As far as I can judge it is meant especially for persons in a community, or willing to belong to a community, that considers following Jesus (or Jesus Christ) important. That may be a dwindling minority which can be seen both as a loss and as a benefit. I wonder whether so-called secular activists as mentioned by Grumbling Graham are seeing as much of the inside of jails or prisons as Ciaran O'Reilly, Martin Newell or - people I have met at the Nevada Desert Experience as Megan Rice, Steve Kelly, Louis Vitale (who I never have seen actually, since he spends most of the time behind bars). It takes stamina that might be best inspired by belief.

Sometimes Keith gives exegeses that are new to me, a contextual explanation of the water-into-wine story for example.

The steps developed by Keith culminate in this peroration by Laozi:

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbours.

If there is to be peace between neighbours,
There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

which he turns upside down.
And a book for turning the world upside down it is.
You are cordially invited to give your opinion on the book in the comments, if you have read it.

- Keith Hebden, Seeking justice - the radical compassion of Jesus. Winchester: Circle Books, 2013. The price of the paper edition varies from around nine to twelve UK pounds.