Who is your favourite pre-modern (i.e. before Marxian Socialism) advocate of proto-socialist ideas and why?
I'm thinking of people like the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in The Republic, Jesus (and the early Christians) in the first century, Mazdak in 6th century Zoroastrian Persia, Petr Chelcicky in 15th century Bohemia (and the Taborite Hussites), St. Thomas More in his 16th century work Utopia and Gerard Winstanley (and the Diggers) in the 17th century English Civil War.
To qualify as "proto-socialist", the thinker or movement has to have anticipated some form of communal ownership of property and espoused an incipient equality, at least as an ideal.
The New Testament’s Book of Acts, for instance, tells us that in Jerusalem the first converts to Christ practised their new faith by living in a single dwelling, selling all fixed holdings, redistributing their wealth on the basis of need and owning all possessions, including land, in common. This was after a pattern Jesus himself had established: “Each of you who does not give up all he possesses is incapable of being my disciple” (Luke 14:33). The Roman satirist Lucian of Samosata (c. 125 AD – 180 AD), who wrote about Christian beliefs extensively in his Death of Peregrine, likewise confirmed that the Christians of his period still held to communal ownership of goods, writing:
The Death of Peregrine | De Morte Peregrini | The Lucian of Samosata Project
And the early Christians adhered to a primitive form of equality of status and human solidarity (i.e. St. Paul in Galatians 3:28 (NRSV) "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus". As the Jewish scholar Daniel Boyarin once explained, in his 1997 study A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity, early Pauline Christianity proclaimed the doctrine of a "universal human essence, beyond difference and hierarchy" and called for "autonomy, equality, and species-wide solidarity". ).
So, on to you!
I'm thinking of people like the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in The Republic, Jesus (and the early Christians) in the first century, Mazdak in 6th century Zoroastrian Persia, Petr Chelcicky in 15th century Bohemia (and the Taborite Hussites), St. Thomas More in his 16th century work Utopia and Gerard Winstanley (and the Diggers) in the 17th century English Civil War.
To qualify as "proto-socialist", the thinker or movement has to have anticipated some form of communal ownership of property and espoused an incipient equality, at least as an ideal.
The New Testament’s Book of Acts, for instance, tells us that in Jerusalem the first converts to Christ practised their new faith by living in a single dwelling, selling all fixed holdings, redistributing their wealth on the basis of need and owning all possessions, including land, in common. This was after a pattern Jesus himself had established: “Each of you who does not give up all he possesses is incapable of being my disciple” (Luke 14:33). The Roman satirist Lucian of Samosata (c. 125 AD – 180 AD), who wrote about Christian beliefs extensively in his Death of Peregrine, likewise confirmed that the Christians of his period still held to communal ownership of goods, writing:
The Death of Peregrine | De Morte Peregrini | The Lucian of Samosata Project
In some of the Asiatic cities, too, the Christian communities put themselves to the expense of sending deputations, with offers of sympathy, assistance, and legal advice. The activity of these people, in dealing with any matter that affects their community, is something extraordinary; they spare no trouble, no expense...
It was impressed on these misguided creatures by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.
All this they take quite on trust, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property. Now an adroit, unscrupulous fellow, who has seen the world, has only to get among these simple souls, and his fortune is pretty soon made; he plays with them.
It was impressed on these misguided creatures by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.
All this they take quite on trust, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property. Now an adroit, unscrupulous fellow, who has seen the world, has only to get among these simple souls, and his fortune is pretty soon made; he plays with them.
And the early Christians adhered to a primitive form of equality of status and human solidarity (i.e. St. Paul in Galatians 3:28 (NRSV) "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus". As the Jewish scholar Daniel Boyarin once explained, in his 1997 study A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity, early Pauline Christianity proclaimed the doctrine of a "universal human essence, beyond difference and hierarchy" and called for "autonomy, equality, and species-wide solidarity". ).
So, on to you!
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