International Journal of Cultic Studies Vol. 4, 2013 55
produced, they never changed their relationship
to the products they created they remained
alienated from their work and the products they
created. Moreover, they attempted to return to
an earlier form of communism, rather than forge
a new one, which was what Bax observed of the
Anabaptists.139 Nonetheless, each group did
experience an “Israelite stage” in which they
were able to enforce and implement their
communal and religious ideologies.
Resistance or Reintegration
Marx, Engels, Bax, and Bernstein generally
agreed that communal religious movements
were doomed to fail by either being destroyed or
losing their revolutionary spirit. The three
groups examined in this paper all came to
violent ends. The Essenes of Qumran were
decimated by the Romans.140 Imperial forces
eventually surrounded Munster and, after a
lengthy siege, slaughtered its Anabaptist
inhabitants.141 And residents of Jonestown met
their end in a mass murder-suicide ritual.142
Bernstein reasoned that communal religious
movements failed because no industrial working
class existed to provide the critical mass for a
successful revolt.143 Instead, he believed most
of the people in these groups would become
political reformers or their existence would
progress society closer to socialism.144
Conversely, Bax felt that this degradation to
political reform was a negative development. In
his analysis of Christian socialism he stated that,
over the long term, “…either their Christianity
ousts their Socialism, or their Socialism ousts
their Christianity.”145 According to Bax,
Christian Socialist groups tended to lose their
revolutionary spirit and degrade to passive
resistance.146 The Brethren, the Hutterian
Brethren, the Mennonites, the Baptists, and the
139 Bax, Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists, pp. 284–285.
140 Crossan and Reed, pp. 200–201 VanderKam, p. 165.
141 Cohn, p. 279.
142 Kent, p. 31 Mathews, pp. 12–14.
143 Bernstein, Cromwell and Communism, pp. 89, 170.
144 Bernstein, Cromwell and Communism, p. 281.
145 Bax, “Christianity and Socialism.”
146 Bax, “Christianity and Socialism.”
Quakers,147 for instance, are examples of
pacified Anabaptism.148
In addition, Bax claimed communal religious
movements failed because they attempted to
reinstate a form of communism that was
incompatible with their contemporaneous
societies. In his analysis of the Anabaptists, he
offered this:
The dream of the impoverished
townsman of a millennial kingdom [the
Münster uprising], based on mediaeval
domestic communism and animated by
the ideals of the small artificer of the
time, was in itself as hopeless as the
corresponding dream of the peasant—
ten years [the Peasants War] before,
which also aimed at harking back to an
idealized form of a condition of things
that had passed away. The lines of
social development were moving in
quite another direction.149
Consequently, the Anabaptists’ attempt to
recreate the communism of the early church and
the Essenes’ endeavor to return Israel to the
purity of the first Temple period were
fruitless.150
The situation in Jonestown was more complex.
Unlike the leaders of the Essenes and
Anabaptists, Jones was familiar with Marxist
social theory.151 Therefore, Jones did not
attempt to hearken back to a previous form of
socialism, as Bax understood. Rather, he was
trying to carve out an example for future
communist movements.152 The events in
Jonestown, however, failed to generate any
socialist reform in America, as Jones had
hoped,153 and as Bernstein had predicted.
Rather, the outsider’s response to Jonestown was
that its inhabitants had been duped by a
147 For more on Bernstein’s interpretation of the Quakers, see Kent,
“The Quaker Ethic and the Fixed Price Policy.”
148 Cohn, p. 280.
149 Bax, Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists, pp. 284–285.
150 Crossan and Reed, pp. 199–200 Engels, “The History of Early
Christianity,” p. 218.
151 Hall, p. 26.
152 Hall, p. 236 Reiterman with Jacobs, p. 348.
153 Hall, pp. 284, 286–287 Scheeres, p. 234.
produced, they never changed their relationship
to the products they created they remained
alienated from their work and the products they
created. Moreover, they attempted to return to
an earlier form of communism, rather than forge
a new one, which was what Bax observed of the
Anabaptists.139 Nonetheless, each group did
experience an “Israelite stage” in which they
were able to enforce and implement their
communal and religious ideologies.
Resistance or Reintegration
Marx, Engels, Bax, and Bernstein generally
agreed that communal religious movements
were doomed to fail by either being destroyed or
losing their revolutionary spirit. The three
groups examined in this paper all came to
violent ends. The Essenes of Qumran were
decimated by the Romans.140 Imperial forces
eventually surrounded Munster and, after a
lengthy siege, slaughtered its Anabaptist
inhabitants.141 And residents of Jonestown met
their end in a mass murder-suicide ritual.142
Bernstein reasoned that communal religious
movements failed because no industrial working
class existed to provide the critical mass for a
successful revolt.143 Instead, he believed most
of the people in these groups would become
political reformers or their existence would
progress society closer to socialism.144
Conversely, Bax felt that this degradation to
political reform was a negative development. In
his analysis of Christian socialism he stated that,
over the long term, “…either their Christianity
ousts their Socialism, or their Socialism ousts
their Christianity.”145 According to Bax,
Christian Socialist groups tended to lose their
revolutionary spirit and degrade to passive
resistance.146 The Brethren, the Hutterian
Brethren, the Mennonites, the Baptists, and the
139 Bax, Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists, pp. 284–285.
140 Crossan and Reed, pp. 200–201 VanderKam, p. 165.
141 Cohn, p. 279.
142 Kent, p. 31 Mathews, pp. 12–14.
143 Bernstein, Cromwell and Communism, pp. 89, 170.
144 Bernstein, Cromwell and Communism, p. 281.
145 Bax, “Christianity and Socialism.”
146 Bax, “Christianity and Socialism.”
Quakers,147 for instance, are examples of
pacified Anabaptism.148
In addition, Bax claimed communal religious
movements failed because they attempted to
reinstate a form of communism that was
incompatible with their contemporaneous
societies. In his analysis of the Anabaptists, he
offered this:
The dream of the impoverished
townsman of a millennial kingdom [the
Münster uprising], based on mediaeval
domestic communism and animated by
the ideals of the small artificer of the
time, was in itself as hopeless as the
corresponding dream of the peasant—
ten years [the Peasants War] before,
which also aimed at harking back to an
idealized form of a condition of things
that had passed away. The lines of
social development were moving in
quite another direction.149
Consequently, the Anabaptists’ attempt to
recreate the communism of the early church and
the Essenes’ endeavor to return Israel to the
purity of the first Temple period were
fruitless.150
The situation in Jonestown was more complex.
Unlike the leaders of the Essenes and
Anabaptists, Jones was familiar with Marxist
social theory.151 Therefore, Jones did not
attempt to hearken back to a previous form of
socialism, as Bax understood. Rather, he was
trying to carve out an example for future
communist movements.152 The events in
Jonestown, however, failed to generate any
socialist reform in America, as Jones had
hoped,153 and as Bernstein had predicted.
Rather, the outsider’s response to Jonestown was
that its inhabitants had been duped by a
147 For more on Bernstein’s interpretation of the Quakers, see Kent,
“The Quaker Ethic and the Fixed Price Policy.”
148 Cohn, p. 280.
149 Bax, Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists, pp. 284–285.
150 Crossan and Reed, pp. 199–200 Engels, “The History of Early
Christianity,” p. 218.
151 Hall, p. 26.
152 Hall, p. 236 Reiterman with Jacobs, p. 348.
153 Hall, pp. 284, 286–287 Scheeres, p. 234.
