Christian Communism follows a theological view with the teachings of Jesus Christ, which mainly supports religious communism and other social systems. According to many communistic ideas and evidence from the Bible, many Christians established their own communist societies following the resurrection of Jesus.
Christian Communism follows the koinonia concept, which directly translates to a typical or shared life, with voluntary sharing of goods and services. The non-Abrahamic predecessors, or the Church Fathers, earlier maintained the human society, preaching Christianity to follow social order in the community. The early Acts of Apostles were also considered to establish the early form of communism, later supported by late historians.
In the 16th century, due to the influence of writers like Thomas More, society started basing their property ownership in Utopia, which was mainly administered by applying reason.
The basis of Christian Communism was on the biblical tests in the 2nd and 4th Acts, marking the beginning of the first communist society. The understanding was based on Luke 12:33, where Jesus demanded all his disciples to sell their possessions and alms to the poor, ultimately helping them in their livelihood to lead a better life.
However, Christian communism does not merely depend on the principles put forth by the early Apostles. Many early Christians also claim that most Christian communities are deeply rooted in the anti-capitalist ideas in their faith. Although the concept of modern capitalism was not introduced during those times, the Christian faith was solely against the love of money and greed and also pointed to helping the poor and needy.
Communism and Marxism
Many ideologies of Christian communism do not entirely agree with various aspects of Marxism, like dealing with the social and the communist society and its doctrines. However, many Christian communities share some political goals and characteristics of Marxism. For instance, replacing the ideas of capitalism with socialism is one of the main points that the later communists also followed in society.
Many young Christians like Louis Althusser and Denys Turner were some of the Christian philosophers. They merged the coherence of Marxism and Christianity and encouraged people to adopt Marxism in their belief system.
The Marxist community also aims at unifying all groups of people together, preaching that humankind is one and there is only one God who does not discriminate against people based on various factors. This concept directly relates to the Christian Universalists.