as far as i can tell this was originally laid out in a point/counterpoint way with this article but i thought i'd lead with this one because i enjoy looking at different opinions and i thought one written by an "evangelical theology professor" would be outside the norm for hubski i think the christian anarchist viewpoint of orthopraxis over orthodoxy is a really powerful counterattack against mainstream christianity as a political/moral force, but like, it falls prey to slipping back into unhelpful rigidity i think it would be better to interact with this article in a way that's more like having a conversation and considering why he's saying what he says, versus trying to debate and pick it apart - it's not like he's ever going to read criticisms anyway EDIT: i've been frustrated/annoyed enough to delete my account before, and felt like i was being pushed out of different communities, so i understand why you might have left. i'm sorry to see you go and unhappy that i was the reason for it. i hope you'll be back.
To add to this, he never says what he actually thinks "living like Jesus" actually means. Nor does he explain how those social leaders he references (MLK, Gandhi, et al.) deviate from that life. He uses one supposedly anarchist community in eastern Spain as an "example," but conveniently does not actually discuss what that community did or whether it was successful. The best he can do is say that non-church people who aren't necessarily anarchists are too "minority" a view to possibly be a guiding ethic. This is a non-sequitur on its face, and also ignores the fact that Jesus himself held a "minority" viewpoint at the beginning. I also agree that dude clearly has very little understanding of what anarchism actually means. He seems to use the common misstatement of it as some Hobbesian state of nature, which isn't really what actual anarchists believe to my knowledge.
I kind of have some reflections on this, but kind of not. Off the cuff, I did not know that anarchism was anything anyone really took seriously as a way to live life, but more like "Here are some illustrative concepts that work sometimes, but they're more thought experiments to influence philosophy than anything really concrete to build policy on." In regards to non-violence, I guess I'm in the minority when I think pacifism/non-violence doesn't necessarily mean anti-military/non-action. The example I tend to use is that firefighters are supposed to fight fires. As soon as they see an incentive to start fires, we need to take a hard long look at things. Not a Christian, but to the best of my understanding there's a ton of community building philosophy to Christianity, and communities need governance. So the idea that Christianity and anarchism can go hand in hand is kind of hard for me to grasp. Quatrarius, how did you stumble on this? It might take a while for me to reply, I'm heading out for the day, but I think I'm less interested in what I think of this piece and I'm much more interested in what you think about it and why you decided to share it. I'm intrigued to say the least.
i've had a lot of misery in my life and somewhere in the middle of it i tripped over god without realizing it: i was never raised religious and until i started interacting with the academic side of christianity i never thought about it consciously, but i started to do a lot of reading on the early church and christ as a historical figure and it helped me understand how i felt about myself and the kind of future i want to live out - this is one of a lot of articles/books in that reading i get caught up in my head a lot and fritter away time, but there's something that makes me feel like i snapped out of a daze and focuses me and makes me aware of my thoughts i don't want to seem silly or crazy, but i've had similar moments in the past in a non-religious context and i think i've talked about some on hubski (shoveling snow?) and i believe there's some kind of peace or centering force inside me that i reach sometimes, so maybe that's god when i type it out it sounds pretty crazy now that i think about it, but it's the truth, and crazy or not i think it's important
I don't want you to feel compelled to share anything you're not comfortable, so I'll just keep this super surface level. If you're really open to talking about it, either on here or in PM, I'm totally open to it and all ears. It doesn't sound crazy at all. I had a similar, yet still different trajectory, which I'll save you the story of. Suffice to say, life's a mess and sometimes I think that's part of the point. I get this a lot, actually. I read religious texts a lot and I find them to be kind of a mirror that I can hold up against myself and ask really hard questions about who I think I am, who I really am, who I think I want to be, and who I really should be. Sometimes it's discouraging, because I feel like I fall short so often, but more often than not, it feels hopeful and encouraging, like I know I have room to grow and it's a struggle, but it's achievable and important.when i type it out it sounds pretty crazy now that i think about it, but it's the truth, and crazy or not i think it's important
but i started to do a lot of reading on the early church and christ as a historical figure and it helped me understand how i felt about myself and the kind of future i want to live out