[Acts of the Apostles 2:44-45]
"Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common. And sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need."

Notwithstanding Karl Marx's massive underestimation of people's need and love for superstition, it appears that the apostles had a very 'communist' socio/economic structure.

Perhaps if the communism had not set itself so directly against religion, it would be the preferred economic structure of Christians?

In any event it seems to imply that individualism and the retention of personal wealth while others starve was not their way of living.

Rob, wasnt the message of Jesus that you had to give away all of your possessions in order to receive? Not many Christians live by that creed. In fact, I dont know a single one that does.

Yeah, talking the talk is easy, but walking the walk is harder.
This is probably what Rudd meant by Christian Socialism.

I'm pretty convinced Jesus was a socialist - plenty of his words can be attributed to socialist beliefs, but I don't recall hearing him espousing the virtues of the free market economy.

Hi ... being in the business of looking at theology and the New Testament I suppose you could say that the 12 Apostles were into communism. Mind you what we have is "Luke's" idealised version of the Christian Community at the time... the so called "Golden Age" which never existed.

Jesus' main teaching role was to try to return people to the basics of acting justly and righteously which meant caring for those who didn't have a lot and making sure everyone was looked after. One of the reasons that Judaism was popular in the ancient world amongst pagans (the so called god fearers) was because of their teachings about social justice. The whole prophetic literature of the Jewish Scriptures or Old Testament is about calling people back to living justly and according to the tenets of the Law which meant that people were cared for.

Chris Lawrance

The Jerusalem christians did try to live by this rule and did communalise their assets and Paul spent a lot of time running around the 'diaspora' congregations raising money to rescue the Jerusalem group from the financial mess that ensued from their misguided, misinterpretation of Jesus' message. They were obviously a terribly ungrateful lot and despised Paul in spite of his efforts on their behalf.
Look to the Old Testament for some sound social principles. To the extent that Jesus was a socialist he was just expounding the principles at the basis of Jewish Law and condemning the abuses of power inherent in the Herodian alliance with the Romans. He was not inventing anything new.

Country Gal,

Taking Jesus' words literally you are absolutely right and I havent seen any Christians living by that standard either.