Tolstoy's 'How Much Land Does A Man Need'

“An obsession with possessions enslaves us to the demon of worry. Jesus invites us to change our priorities, focus on the kingdom, and share with the needy” (Kraybill, 2011, p.101). A man’s wealth will be measured by the love, kindness and empathy he has for the poor and the hungry in Gods kingdom. For this matter Jesus wants the wealthy to humble themselves and receive their blessing by offering opportunities to the poor instead of being greedy and celebrating their own wealth.

of oppression, understanding the central core of the Gospels as Jesus' identification with the poor

Greedy people are some of the most disoriented people on Earth. These snobby people may have a lot of “treasures” here, but when they die, most likely not. Keeping all of your items and possessions to yourself is weak. God should come first overall of the meaningless things you “own.” He put you here on Earth, to love Him, not put idols before Him. Greed is very selfish because you could give

Money brings the inequality of possessions, also called “the haves and the have not’s.” We may all be equal in the eyes of God, but here on earth some eyes grow green with envy. Children come home from daycare complaining that Little Jimmy’s truck was bigger than his, husbands and fathers are forever eying the Jones; new corvette, and entire wars have erupted over the “you have it and I’m gonna get it” mentality. Inequality of possessions is not bad though many passages in the Bible teach that even in heaven there are different degrees of rewards. Even God’s spiritual gifts are not given equally to each of us, but this does not mean He loves one person more than the other. It is what we do with

Luke’s Gospel greatly emphasizes the social justice aspect of Christian living. Throughout the third book in the New Testament, the story and history of Jesus Christ is written, and Luke preserves the many sayings of Jesus warning that those with material possessions have a

K.H. Connell, in his paper “Land and Population in Ireland, 1780-1845”, describes and explains the significant population growth in Ireland prior to the famine of 1845 and how the uses of the Irish land changed with the population growth.

28). He describes wealth as a “…blessing to mankind,” (Gladden, 8). Gladden’s perspective of causality dissents from Weber and Sellers; he believes that, “…one effect invariably produced by Christianity upon an uncivilized people receiving it is to multiply the wealth of that people,” (Gladden, 5). He argues, Protestantism, and ultimately Christianity, cause people to desire material goods (Class notes, Feb. 28). Thus, Christianity cannot be against capitalism without contradicting itself (Gladden, 8). Gladden’s evidence for his argument stems from the Bible. Gladden contends that there are statements in the Old Testament in which “…the possession and the increase of wealth are adduced as proofs of the favor of God,” (Gladded, 6). Wherefore, the New Testament supplements this argument by clarifying that is expected for men to accumulate wealth and possessions, but also God admonishes people valuing material goods over spiritual good, but not material wealth itself (Gladden,6). That is, people are meant to value spiritual well-being over material goods, but also remember they are commanded to be “fruitful” on earth and thus produce and amass wealth (Gladden, 7). Finally, Gladden realizes capitalism is not the problem; the problem is the unequal distribution of wealth (Class Notes, Feb. 28). He says, “No possible system will remove all

Hart describes early Christians as a group of extremists, with an unrealistic set of priorities economically, civically, socially, and even in ways religiously. Hart goes into great detail of his evidence of this by examining the position of the first Christians on the accumulation of wealth. In his findings from the original koine Greek text, Hart points out that the idea that accumulating wealth is not inherently bad as long as we don’t abuse it is not, in fact, the position the first Christians had. While he did concede that modern Christian’s have come to understand this false idea as a “truism”, he points out that the original language and attitude of the first Christians towards

The author perpetuates his Christian viewpoint that it is not Godly to strive towards riches, or to obtain an abundance of material possessions on earth, but more important to seek the rewards in Heaven (Lines 27-28). Additionally, the Bible teaches, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV). His perception is that every man should be being Christ-like by heading Jesus’ warning, “You, my

(Luke 10:25-37). Jesus taught this so that Christians would treat everyone the way that they would want to be treated. In Luke 6:20-26, Jesus said. “That the poor were special to him and that their suffering would be rewarded in heaven.” He also went on to say, “The rich who ignored the suffering of the poor would be punished.” One of Jesus’ most important teachings on poverty was in Matthew 25:31-46. To the affect Jesus said “Whenever you help anyone in need you are helping me.” Christians believe that when they help someone they are helping Jesus and that they will be rewarded for it. These are the main Christian teachings on wealth and poverty.

He is mentioned to by Paul as "Luke the beloved physician" (Col. 4:14). Luke fixed forth the humanity of the Son of Man and cites it in chronological order the life of Christ. Being a physician, he is more precise when using language. For example, when he indicates a leper he uses the identical medical term to describe the circumstance, for example "full of leprosy" (Luke 5:12). Luke’s gospel is particularly focused towards an individual named Theophilus and is focused on the complete story and past events of Jesus Christ from his birth and ministry to his crucifixion and resurrection. A major theme in Luke’s gospel shows how important the poor were to Jesus and how we should not neglect the poor. Examples of this are seen when the book talks about the distinctive beatitudes “blessed you are poor…hunger now...weep now...” and the distinctive woes “woes to you that are rich...that are full...that laugh now…” which overall say, money and power will tend to bring judgement upon you. In addition, the gospel of Luke refers to certain parables like the Rich man and Lazarus. This sends a message to warn the rich who tend to trust in their riches more than in God, wealth tends to pull us away from God and that if we neglect the poor and prioritize our riches more we will go to hell. Asking oneself- is your existence a blessing for the

Although Christianity was well known throughout the affluent classes, Jesus’s philosophies touched the hearts of the plebeians. The self-proclaimed Messiah often spoke of money and riches not being needed in the afterlife, and that God measures you not on how much money you have but on your values you showed throughout your life. This touched the working class’s heart as it informed them that there is hope for a better life that everyone can achieve but not a lot deserve. Therefore, this was the main reason why Christianity was spread as quickly as it could.

your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the

When it came to the Theology of Prosperity we discovered that it boiled down to this: those who have money, health, and are essentially successful in every facet of life have been rewarded for their faith in God. This theology predicts that those who are not successful in every aspect of their lives, whether it be financially, martially, health, general well-being, have not been completely faithful to God. The Theology of Prosperity (Also referred to as ‘Prosperity Gospel,’

​Consequently, a man who is “poor” in material possessions many times is “rich” in character, which is spiritually defined as the nine fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.  Having friends and family members who grew up poor and who worked hard to survive to obtain material possessions, their character was strengthened or made “rich” as a result of it. They had to do the jobs that many rich people would never do, such as being a maid, construction worker, janitor and many more domestic type jobs. Although they differ in terms of definition, being “rich” and being “poor” in character can be one of the same as “poor” in spirit or humble.  For example, my great grandmother was an Indian who was very poor, but you never would have known it because she was humble, kind, loving and a peaceful woman who always shared everything she had.