Book Review: General Politics: Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel

DOI10.1111/1478-9302.12016_7
Date01 May 2013
Published date01 May 2013
AuthorDaniel Duggan
Subject MatterBook Review
book aims to give an account of the practical and
traceable actions through which people attained their
liberty and of the theories that inspired or inf‌luenced
them. As such, the author distances himself from the
literature that understands freedom as natural and
analyses the processes by which people liberated them-
selves from various oppressions. The history of
(Western) human beings shows that, rather than being
naturally and originally free, people have always needed
to be liberated and have conceptualised freedom in
order to attain it.
Proceeding in chronological order,the author begins
by taking into consideration pre-revolutionary liberty,
that is, the freedom people built before the ‘inaugura-
tion of liberté’ (p.26). The author explores neo-Roman
processes of liberation from Rome and the implication
of divine rights over the political thoughts that arose
before the eighteenth century. In doing so, Caro gives
an understanding of how the process towards pre-
revolutionary liberty began when civil laws came to be
understood as subject to human judgement.Thus, laws
could be understood as tyrannical and as subjects of
reconsideration when unjustly limiting people’s
freedoms.
The book then analyses the origins of revolutionary
freedoms and the various theories explaining those
processes of liberation. The author understands libera-
tion as an ‘ongoing conf‌iguration of frenetic practices
and effects’ (p. 71) rather than a one-time revolutionary
affair.Those efforts are upheld by the secrets and ambi-
guities of freedom, where the people f‌ighting for their
own freedom can appeal to an undetermined pre-
existent natural liberty that they are repeatedly called to
defend through history. The f‌inal part of the book
offers an insight into the development of freedom,
where the author theorises possible future patterns of
human efforts to defend and attain liberty.
The author’s perspective is fascinating: Caro engages
analytically with relevant political thought and builds a
solid argument while referring to concrete historical
examples. However, the book suffers from a lack of
analytical engagement with the Hegelian suggestion
that every thesis is conceptualised together with its
antithesis, and that only as such can it lead to a syn-
thesis. In other words, the libertarian efforts that
required a theoretical conceptualisation of freedom
could only be generated under oppression or tyranny.
Only oppressed people can strive towards (and there-
fore conceptualise) liberation and freedom, and only as
such can they change the equilibrium between their
vision of freedom and current oppressions. As Caro
recognises, freedom and oppression have always coex-
isted; his work then could also be understood in terms
of an analysis of the changing social equilibrium
between contrasting social interests.
Beniamino F. Cislaghi
(University of Leeds)
Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary
on the Gospel by Alexandre Christoyannopoulos.
Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2010. 336pp., £40.00, ISBN
9781845 401931
Anarchism and religion have traditionally been thought
of as adversaries. A consequence of this has been that
theologians, anarchists and political theorists have
neglected the important tradition of Christian anar-
chism. Alexandre Christoyannopoulos aims to help
rectify this by providing a theory of Christian anar-
chism.This is done by weaving together the views of a
range of thinkers from the best-known Christian anar-
chist, Leo Tolstoy, to lesser-known f‌igures such as
Dorothy Day and Nicolas Berdyaev.
Christoyannopoulos suggests that a coherent body of
thought argues that Christianity logically implies anar-
chism, on the grounds that an acceptance of God’s
authority necessarily leads to the rejection of all human
authority. In providing an outline of Christian anar-
chism some of the disagreements among Christian
anarchists, such as on civil disobedience, are discussed.
Christian Anarchism adopts a mostly descr iptive
approach, although some ref‌lections are provided, for
example on Christian anarchists’ unique contribution
to political thought.
The f‌irst part of the book discusses why Christian
anarchists have rejected the state by examining scrip-
ture, particularly the Sermon on the Mount. This is
followed by a discussion of how the church and the
state have historically rejected the teachings of Jesus.
The second part examines how Christian anarchists
believe they should interact with the state, and how
they can bring about a stateless vision of society.Before
concluding, Christoyannopoulos cites various examples
of pre-modern and modern Christian anarchists. Chris-
tian Anarchism will be of interest to Christians, theolo-
gians, anarchists and historians of political thought.
BOOK REVIEWS 231
© 2013 TheAuthors. Political Studies Review © 2013 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2013, 11(2)

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