Communism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Early communism === {{further|Pre-Marxist communism|Primitive communism|Religious communism|Scientific socialism|Utopian socialism}} According to [[Richard Pipes]],<ref name="Pipes">{{cite book |author-link=Richard Pipes |last=Pipes |first=Richard |date=2001 |title=Communism: A History |isbn=978-0-8129-6864-4 |pages=3–5 |publisher=[[Random House Publishing]]}}</ref> the idea of a [[Classless society|classless]], [[egalitarian]] society first emerged in [[Ancient Greece]]. Since the 20th century, [[Ancient Rome]] has been examined in this context, as well as thinkers such as [[Aristotle]], [[Cicero]], [[Demosthenes]], [[Plato]], and [[Tacitus]]. Plato, in particular, has been considered as a possible communist or socialist theorist,<ref>{{cite book |last=Bostaph |first=Samuel |year=1994 |chapter=Communism, Sparta, and Plato |editor-last=Reisman |editor-first=David A. |title=Economic Thought and Political Theory |edition=hardcover |series=Recent Economic Thought Series |volume=37 |location=Dordrecht |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] |pages=1–36 |doi=10.1007/978-94-011-1380-9_1 |isbn=9780792394334}}</ref> or as the first author to give communism a serious consideration.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Franklin |first=A. Mildred |date=9 January 1950 |title=Communism and Dictatorship in Ancient Greece and Rome |journal=The Classical Weekly |location=Baltimore, Maryland |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |volume=43 |issue=6 |pages=83–89 |doi=10.2307/4342653 |jstor=4342653}}</ref> The 5th-century [[Mazdak]] movement in [[Persia]] (modern-day Iran) has been described as ''communistic'' for challenging the enormous privileges of the [[noble class]]es and the [[clergy]], criticizing the institution of [[private property]], and striving to create an egalitarian society.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Ehsan Yarshater |last=Yarshater |first=Ehsan |date=1983 |chapter-url=https://www.the-derafsh-kaviyani.com/english/mazdak.pdf |chapter=Mazdakism (The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Period) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611075040/http://www.derafsh-kaviyani.com/english/mazdak.html |archive-date=11 June 2008 |access-date=10 June 2020 |title=[[The Cambridge History of Iran]] |volume=3 |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=991–1024 (1019)}}</ref><ref name="Ermak 2019">{{cite book |title=Communism: The Great Misunderstanding |last=Ermak |first=Gennady |year=2019 |publisher=Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp |isbn=978-1-7979-5738-8}}</ref> At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, generally under the inspiration of [[religious text]].{{sfn|Lansford|2007|pp=24–25}} In the medieval [[Christian Church]], some [[monastic]] communities and [[religious order]]s shared their land and their other property. Sects deemed heretical such as the [[Waldensians]] preached an early form of [[Christian communism]].<ref name="Busky 2002 p. 33">{{cite book |last=Busky |first=D.F. |title=Communism in History and Theory: From Utopian socialism to the fall of the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group|Praeger]] |series=[[ABC-CLIO]] ebook |issue=v. 3 |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-275-97748-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-bi65fwN7kC&pg=PA33 |access-date=18 April 2023 |page=33 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="Boer 2019 p. 12">{{cite book |last=Boer |first=Roland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L8KODwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 |title=Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |year=2019 |isbn=978-90-04-39477-3 |series=Studies in Critical Research on Religion |page=12 |author-link=Roland Boer |access-date=18 April 2023}}</ref> As summarized by historians Janzen Rod and Max Stanton, the [[Hutterites]] believed in strict adherence to biblical principles, church discipline, and practised a form of communism. In their words, the Hutterites "established in their communities a rigorous system of Ordnungen, which were codes of rules and regulations that governed all aspects of life and ensured a unified perspective. As an economic system, communism was attractive to many of the peasants who supported social revolution in sixteenth century central Europe."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Janzen |first1=Rod |last2=Stanton |first2=Max |title=The Hutterites in North America |date=18 July 2010 |edition=illustrated |location=Baltimore |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lgUbHUXmrvYC&pg=PA17 |page=17 |isbn=9780801899256 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> This link was highlighted in one of [[Karl Marx]]'s early writings; Marx stated that "[a]s Christ is the intermediary unto whom man unburdens all his divinity, all his religious bonds, so the state is the mediator unto which he transfers all his Godlessness, all his human liberty."<ref>{{cite book |title=Jesus in History, Legend, Scripture, and Tradition: A World Encyclopedia: A World Encyclopedia |last1=Houlden |first1=Leslie |last2=Minard |first2=Antone |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |year=2015 |isbn=9781610698047 |location=Santa Barbara |page=357}}</ref> [[Thomas Müntzer]] led a large [[Anabaptist]] communist movement during the [[German Peasants' War]], which [[Friedrich Engels]] analyzed in his 1850 work ''[[The Peasant War in Germany]]''. The [[Marxist]] communist ethos that aims for unity reflects the [[Christian universalist]] teaching that humankind is one and that there is only one god who does not discriminate among people.<ref>{{cite book |last=Halfin |first=Igal |year=2000 |title=From Darkness to Light: Class, Consciousness, and Salvation in Revolutionary Russia |location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |publisher=[[University of Pittsburgh Press]] |page=46 |isbn=0822957043}}</ref> [[File:Hans Holbein, the Younger - Sir Thomas More - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Thomas More]], whose ''[[Utopia (More book)|Utopia]]'' portrayed a society based on common ownership of property]] Communist thought has also been traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer [[Thomas More]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Surtz |first=Edward L. |date=June 1949 |title=Thomas More and Communism |journal=PMLA |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=64 |issue=3 |pages=549–564 |doi=10.2307/459753 |jstor=459753 |s2cid=163924226}}</ref> In his 1516 [[treatise]] titled ''[[Utopia (More book)|Utopia]]'', More portrayed a society based on [[common ownership]] of property, whose rulers administered it through the application of [[reason]] and [[virtue]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Nandanwad |first=Nikita |date=13 December 2020 |url=https://retrospectjournal.com/2020/12/13/communism-virtue-and-the-ideal-commonwealth-in-thomas-mores-utopia/ |title=Communism, virtue and the ideal commonwealth in Thomas More's Utopia |magazine=Retrospect Journal |location=Edinburgh |publisher=[[University of Edinburgh]] |access-date=18 August 2021}}</ref> Marxist communist theoretician [[Karl Kautsky]], who popularized Marxist communism in Western Europe more than any other thinker apart from Engels, published ''Thomas More and His Utopia'', a work about More, whose ideas could be regarded as "the foregleam of Modern Socialism" according to Kautsky. During the [[October Revolution]] in Russia, [[Vladimir Lenin]] suggested that a monument be dedicated to More, alongside other important Western thinkers.<ref name="Papke 2016">{{cite journal |last=Papke |first=David |year=2016 |url=https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=utopia500 |title=The Communisitic Inclinations of Sir Thomas More |journal=Utopia500 |issue=7 |access-date=18 August 2021 |via=Scholarly Commons}}</ref> In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, where a [[Puritan]] religious group known as the [[Diggers]] advocated the abolition of private ownership of land. In his 1895 ''Cromwell and Communism'',{{sfn|Bernstein|1895}} [[Eduard Bernstein]] stated that several groups during the [[English Civil War]] (especially the Diggers) espoused clear communistic, [[agrarianist]] ideals and that [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s attitude towards these groups was at best ambivalent and often hostile.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Elmen |first=Paul |date=September 1954 |title=The Theological Basis of Digger Communism |journal=Church History |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=207–218 |doi=10.2307/3161310 |jstor=3161310 |s2cid=161700029}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Juretic |first=George |date=April–June 1974 |title=Digger no Millenarian: The Revolutionizing of Gerrard Winstanley |journal=[[Journal of the History of Ideas]] |location=Philadelfia, Pennsylvania |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=263–280 |doi=10.2307/2708927 |jstor=2708927}}</ref> Criticism of the idea of private property continued into the [[Age of Enlightenment]] of the 18th century through such thinkers as [[Gabriel Bonnot de Mably]], [[Jean Meslier]], [[Étienne-Gabriel Morelly]], and [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] in France.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hammerton |first=J. A. |title=Illustrated Encyclopaedia of World History Volume Eight |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S4h68smTPGYC&pg=PA4979 |publisher=Mittal Publications |pages=4979 |id=GGKEY:96Y16ZBCJ04}}</ref> During the upheaval of the [[French Revolution]], communism emerged as a political doctrine under the auspices of [[François-Noël Babeuf]], [[Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne]], and [[Sylvain Maréchal]], all of whom can be considered the progenitors of modern communism, according to [[James H. Billington]].<ref name="Billington">{{cite book |last=Billington |first=James H. |year=2011 |title=Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=saTynFUNPD8C |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |page=71 |isbn=978-1-4128-1401-0 |access-date=18 August 2021 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> In the early 19th century, various social reformers founded communities based on common ownership. Unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the religious emphasis with a rational and philanthropic basis.<ref name="britannica">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Communism |date=2006 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |via=Encyclopædia Britannica Online}}</ref> Notable among them were [[Robert Owen]], who founded [[New Harmony, Indiana]], in 1825, and [[Charles Fourier]], whose followers organized other settlements in the United States, such as [[Brook Farm]] in 1841.{{r|Ball & Dagger 2019}} In its modern form, communism grew out of the [[History of socialism|socialist movement]] in 19th-century Europe. As the [[Industrial Revolution]] advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the [[proletariat]]—a new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Engels. In 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]''.{{r|Ball & Dagger 2019}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page