Is the Bible Anarchist?

But Jesus called them over and said, “You know that those who rule the Gentiles show off their authority over them and their high-ranking officials order them around. But that’s not the way it will be with you. Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant. Whoever wants to be first among you will be your slave— just as the Human One didn’t come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people.” - Matthew 20:25-28 (CEB)

Anarchism - What is it really?

Here are some of the basic principles of anarchism. It is a broad movement containing many different perspectives, but these are some core elements.

Non-Domination and Non-Coercion

No one ought to dominate anyone else. There are no masters and coercion ought not be the basis of leadership, change, participation in organizations, or the sustaining of social structures.

Voluntary Association and Affinity Groups

Individuals choose to participate in organizations, movements, collectives, etc. and are able to leave at any time. Inclusion is not on the basis of inheritance or descent, nor of boundary lines, leadership elections, and monetary dues backed by the use of coercive force, like the modern state. Affinity groups gather around particular tasks, decisions, purposes, areas, or interests to voluntarily pursue them together.

Consensus-Based Decision Making

Decisions are made by consensus of the whole group, rather than authoritarian leaders, elected representatives, or majority rule. A formal collective decisionmaking process is agreed upon and used to consider proposals, get feedback, and confirm that everyone is agreeing to move forward before significant decisions are made.

Non-Hierarchical

Though specific roles may be delegated by consensus to individuals for a given time, hierarchy is rejected. There are not leaders with higher status or permanent authority over the group.

Mutual Aid and Direct Action

Anarchist groups use direct action and mutual aid to directly bring elements of the world they long to see into reality. Instead of a focus on pressuring elected officials or other institutions to make change, they directly meet needs and enact material changes, while proclaiming challenge to the way the world is and the realities created by unjust institutions through political education through written and spoken word as well as embodied education through the actions themselves. Charity is rejected in favor of reciprocal, interdependent mutual aid where all are expected to contribute as they are able to meed the needs of others in a community responsible for one another.

Is Anarchism about violent overthrow of all government?

No. Though anarchists vary in their approach to the use of force and ways of interacting with the state, fundamentally anarchism is about experimenting towards a new future together and forming interdependent community and societal practices that make the state (and intertwined capitalist system) obsolete, so that it may fade away. So like Jesus’ kingdom, this is not about overthrowing a kingdom by force to set up a new one of the same kind, but a grassroots movement towards a transformed world that surpasses and relativizes the kingdoms of this world.

It also doesn't mean there should be no organization and everything ought to be chaos. Anarchism is actually about a pursuit of order, but a new one, free of domination.

Is Anarchism a new, Euro-centric thing?

No. Though the term may have developed in European contexts over the last couple of centuries, the ideas behind it reflect the ways that many different communities across times and places have organized themselves to care for one another interdependently without the state, coercion, or hierarchy.

Is the Bible anarchist?

Yes! You may see some of the connections after reading the description above. Much more will be drawn out in newsletters to come. Now, my purpose here is not to invite you to be an anarchist. My first priority is Jesus. However, I want to highlight the significant overlaps between the teachings of Jesus (and all of scripture) and the vision of anarchism, as well as to read the bible with the principles and history of anarchism in mind, as it is a helpful tool for envisioning what it is that Jesus calls us to, as well as what the church has been, can be, and ought to be in our life together. I believe it also may hold surprises for those sympathetic to radical politics but skeptical of the church.

My hope is that these will be brief reflections with helpful context on biblical stories and anarchist ideas, with launching points for your own reflection, investigation, and action.

Anarchist Bible Series

Below is a tentative plan for writings to come in this series, intermixed with my other posts (not necessarily in the order below). Subscribe to follow here at Jubilee Praxis, and reach out if you have interest in more personal conversations about these topics, (individual or group, in-person or virtual).

• Creation, Anarchy, and Order

• Anarchism in Eden

• Genealogies, Babel, and Criticizing Empire

• Abraham: Called Out of Empire

• Re-examining the Goodness of Joseph

• “A Mixed Multitude”: Class Solidarity in Exodus

• A New Lens on the Law

• Descent into Anarchy?: Rethinking Judges

• The Jerusalem Tragedy: David, Solomon, Monarchy, and Temple

• Dissenting Against the King: From Samuel to Malachi

• My Soul Glorifies the Lord: Mary’s Anarchist Anthem

• The Year of the Lord’s Favor: Jesus’ Anarchist Jubilee

• Seeds and Yeast: Parables of an Anarchist Kingdom

• Jesus and Two Herods: Undermining King and Empire

• God and No Masters: Jesus on Power and Hierarchy

• Are You the One We Are Looking For?: Reshaping Messianic Expectation

• Turning the Other Cheek: Jesus on Non-Coercive Direct Action

• Who Is My Mother, and Who Is My Brother?: Jesus and Affinity Groups

• Organizing Across Divisions: The Twelve as a Radical Worker Collective

• Give to Caesar: Jesus, Money, and the State

• Overturning Tables: Jesus and Propaganda of the Deed

• Acts, Part 1: Mutual Aid in the Early Church

• Acts, Part 2: Consensus and the Holy Spirit

• Powers, Principalities, and Romans 13: Paul and Anarchism

• Revelation: Encoded Subversive Anarchist Propaganda

• No Gods, No Masters: The Early Church as a Threat to Roman Order

• The Trinity as Collective

• Anarchist Atonement Theory

• When God is Anarchist: Free Will and the Problem of Evil

• Circumcision, Baptism, and Voluntary Association

• Take and Eat: Anarchism at the Table

• Interpreting Scripture without Coercive Hierarchy

• From Upper Room to Meetinghouse: Anarchism in Historical Church Structures

• A Society of Friends: How the Church Made Anarchism

• Mutual Aid in the Church Today

• Consensus-Based Decision-making in the Church Today