Early-church praxis: Selling land and possessions – A socio-historical study of Acts 2:45, 4:32–37

This article attempts to rethink the early church praxis of selling the land and possessions in response to some of the problems the 1st century church were confronted with. Hence, this article attempts to answer the questions: what were the social, economic, and religious factors that led to the se...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hervormde teologiese studies Vol. 79; no. 2; pp. 1 - 7
Main Author: Hombana, Mphumezi
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Pretoria African Online Scientific Information Systems (Pty) Ltd t/a AOSIS 2023
AOSIS (Pty) Ltd
University of Pretoria
AOSIS
Subjects:
Audiences
Christianity
Church history
Culture
early church
Economic aspects
Economic factors
Exploitation
Farmers
graeco-roman world
Hellenistic
Inequality
Land
Landowners
luke-acts
Political systems
poor
Possession (Law)
possessions
Poverty
Practice (Philosophy)
Praxis
Praxis (Philosophy)
Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
Religion
Religious aspects
Resources
rich
Roman civilization
Social aspects
Social factors
Society
socio-economic
socio-historical
south african church
Tax reform
Taxation
South Africa
Europe
inequality
possessions
early church
socio-historical
poor
land
rich
socio-economic
Graeco-Roman world
poverty
South African Church
Luke-Acts
ISSN:0259-9422, 2072-8050, 2072-8050
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This article attempts to rethink the early church praxis of selling the land and possessions in response to some of the problems the 1st century church were confronted with. Hence, this article attempts to answer the questions: what were the social, economic, and religious factors that led to the selling of land and possessions in the early church, and what were the implications of this practice for the community, including issues related to exploitation, inequality, and long-term sustainability of resources? This article argues that the church in South Africa must lead the conversation and learn from the early church good example to respond to social ills of our time. This is without undermining the complexities that are part of this programme of action. This article is committed to socio-historical reading of the texts under inquiry as the means to respond to the questions raised in this study. Contribution This article seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate on issues of land, possessions, and poverty in a South African context. It attempts to explore possible implications on issues that concern this article for churches in South Africa.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0259-9422
2072-8050
2072-8050
DOI:10.4102/hts.v79i2.8727