Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is opposed to the coercive authority of governments and nation states. Anarchists believe that replacing the coercive power of governments with free, voluntary associations will lead to greater human flourishing. There is much diversity among anarchists, and many different types of anarchism. But they are all united in their opposition to the coercive power of the state.
Historically, the Church has often been perceived (not without reason) as an institution that legitimizes and upholds the authority of oppressive governments. In the minds of many people, both Christian and non-Christian, Christianity and anarchism are therefore ideologies that are in direct conflict. However, if one is able to look past the sordid history of the Church’s collusion with political power in the Medieval and Modern periods and to examine what the New Testament and early Church fathers had to say about politics, one will find the Christianity and anarchism are not as incompatible as one might think. Although Christians cannot just uncritically adopt secular anarchist thought (just as Christians cannot uncritically adopt any secular political ideology), there are significant resonances and intersections between anarchism and the political teachings of the New Testament that make Christian anarchism as reasonable position for a Christian to take. Numerous theologically orthodox modern Christians have espoused Christian anarchism, including influential French Christian author Jacques Ellul and American Catholic social activist Dorothy Day.
Christian Theology and Anarchism
Anarchism is associated in many people’s minds with violence, due to the actions of some anarchist terrorists. However, not all anarchists are violent. While some anarchists advocate the use of violence in an effort to directly and immediately abolish governments, most anarchists advocate a more evolutionary approach that attempts to live out anarchist principles and to gradually move society in an anarchist direction. Anarcho-pacifism is a form of anarchism that completely rejects the use of violence in any situation. Anarcho-pacifists believe that violence and the state are inextricably interconnected; the very definition of the state is the entity that maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. Therefore, to oppose the state necessarily means opposing violence, and opposing violence necessarily means opposing the state. Since, as I argue in this previous post, the New Testament demands that Christians be pacifists, anarcho-pacifism is the form of anarchism that resonates most strongly with Christianity.
Some secular anarchists are completely opposed to any hierarchical institutions and to any authority, including the authority of God, as expressed by the anarchist slogan, “No gods, no masters.” Obviously, such an extreme, atheistic form of anarchism is incompatible with Christianity. Christians are Divine monarchists, who believe that God has rightful authority over the whole world, and that submitting to God’s Lordship is central to what morality is all about. Furthermore, God’s word commands Christians to submit to the authority of their church leaders (1 Thess 5:12-13; Titus 2:15) and Christian children to submit to the authority of their parents (Eph 6:1, Col 3:20). Christians therefore recognize that there are legitimate forms of human authority and hierarchy, and that a radical individualist anarchism is incompatible with Christian faith.
However, the basic essence of anarchism, opposition to the coercive authority of governments and nation states, has strong resonances with New Testament political theology. The basic political message of the New Testament about worldly governments is that they have been dethroned and deligitimized by the establishment of God’s Kingdom. Since Jesus is Lord over all creation and has won the victory over the powers and authorities of this world (1 Cor 2:6; Eph 6:12; Col 1:15-16, 2:15; 1 Pet 3:22), any claim of political authority by a worldly government is an act of rebellion against the rightful political ruler of the world. Furthermore, since Jesus is a crucified Lord who calls His followers to renounce all violence, this means that the violent, coercive acts by which all worldly governments establish and maintain their authority are illegitimate; therefore, their authority is illegitimate. The Divine monarchism taught in the New Testament therefore points towards an attitude of anarchism with regard to the governments of this world.
At the same time, Christians must reckon with those passages of the New Testament that tell them to submit to the governing authorities (Rom 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17). As I have argued in this previous post, these passages do not teach that the violent, coercive actions of secular governments are morally legitimate or that secular governments have any legitimate lordship or authority per se. Rather, they teach that, in between Jesus’s First and Second Comings, God allows secular governments to continue to exist so that they can provide a relative measure of order and security that gives the Church the opportunity to proclaim the gospel. Therefore, Christians should show respect to secular governments, and, insofar as it is consistent with the demands of Christian discipleship, submit to them.
Christians, therefore, cannot agree with utopian anarchists, who believe that if they could just overthrow the government, they would be able to create a perfect society. From a Christian perspective, such an attitude is naive because it does not reckon with the reality of the sinfulness of humanity. A realistic appraisal of the sinfulness of humanity tells us that if we did actually overthrow the government, then, inevitably, some violent group would arise to fill the power vacuum and to establish a new de facto government. As long as we live in a Fallen world, therefore, the actual establishment of an anarchist society is virtually unobtainable.
However, not all anarchists are utopian anarchists. Philosophical anarchism is a form of anarchism that argues that the state does not have legitimate moral authority, while at the same time recognizing the need for some minimal form of government as a necessary evil. This resonates strongly with the political message of the New Testament that the kingdoms of this world have been dethroned, but that, for the time being, it is necessary that they continue to exist in order to serve God’s purposes. Christians, then, should be philosophical (or theological?) anarchists, regarding the state as a necessary evil. Unlike secular anarchists, though, Christians can do this having the certain hope that one day, when Jesus comes again to make all things new, this evil will be eradicated, replaced by the reign of the Kingdom of God over the whole earth.
Anarchism and Ethics
So, what does it look like for Christians to live out the principles of Christian anarchism? First, it means that Christians should resist the ever-present temptation to use the violent, coercive power of the state in order to control others and to forcibly impose their will on society. They should reject both the political program of the religious right, which tries to use the government to turn America into a “Christian nation,” and that of the religious left, which tries to use the government to forcibly establish “God’s kingdom.” When they are wronged by others, Christians should lovingly try to persuade them to make up for what they have done, rather than filing a lawsuit against them. The only time a Christian should file a lawsuit is when the government violates Christians’ Constitutional rights, and a lawsuit against the government is necessary in order to push back against this illegitimate expansion of governmental power. And Christians should call the police only in the most extreme circumstances, when someone’s life is in danger.
Second, it means Christians should be opposed to the ever-accelerating expansion of the size and power of the government and its control over people’s lives. Christians should reject the widespread assumption in our culture that every problem in society can and should be dealt with by the government. They should emphasize (and model in their own lives) the responsibility of individuals and communities to make the world a better place and they should emphasize the importance of the cultivation of the virtues, without which real solutions to the root causes of society’s problems are unobtainable.
Third, it means Christians should work to strengthen the family and the Church as institutions that can be centers of resistance to the ever-expanding control of the nation state over the lives and bodies of those who happen to live within its borders. It is a well-established fact that many pervasive problems in our society today are at root caused by the disintegration of the family brought about by the sexual revolution. These social problems are used as justification for why the government needs to continuously expand in order to intervene and fix these problems. But the clumsy, bureaucratic actions of the state can never replace the natural function of the family as the foundation of a healthy society. Christians must be agents of resistance against both the sexual revolution and the individualism of American culture, and work to strengthen the institution of the family, without which a healthy society cannot exist. And Christians must stand up against the government when it attempts to violate parents’ rights and take away control of the education of their children.
Even more so than the family, the Church can be an institution that is a center of resistance against the power and control of the state. If Christians find their national and political identity in the Church as their political community, regarding themselves as “resident aliens” who just happen to be living within American society, then nationalism, jingoism, and blind devotion to and obedience to the state could be greatly reduced. If the Church, as a political community, recovers and strengthens biblical church discipline, then the Church will be able to stand as a disciplined people capable of challenging the state. If the Church actually carries out its mission of self-sacrificially helping those in need, then the felt need for the state to expand and to intervene in society in order to try to fix societal problems would be eliminated, or at least greatly reduced. If the Church visibly lives out its identity as the firstfruits of God’s peaceable Kingdom, in which violent coercion is not needed because righteousness naturally flows out of people’s godly characters, it can be a witness to the state that there is a better way of life that God will soon establish over the whole earth, a way of life in which secular governments and nation states have no place. Bearing witness to the reality and beauty of God’s coming Kingdom is what Christian anarchism is all about.