Community of goods is not an arrangement. It is the shape of a saved life.
Peter Riedemann argued in 1540 that private property is what the fall actually consists of — the taking to oneself of what God made common — so surrendering it is not generosity but repentance. Hutterites have held it without a break since 1528, which no other Christian community has managed.
Peter Riedemann wrote the Account of Our Religion, Doctrine and Faith in a Hessian prison between 1540 and 1542, and it remains the Hutterite confession. Its argument about property is stronger than the usual Christian counsel of generosity: created things were given to all in common, and the act of taking them to oneself is the substance of the fall, so restoring them to common use is repentance rather than charity. In practice the colony owns the land, the machinery, the vehicles and the houses; individuals own clothing and small personal effects and receive a small annual allowance for incidentals. The system is not poverty — Hutterite colonies are large, mechanised, debt-managing agricultural enterprises, some running hog barns, feed mills and manufacturing operations — and that combination of individual propertylessness with corporate wealth is exactly what makes it durable and what makes the departure of a member so hard.
Now since all God's gifts — not only those that are spiritual but also the material things — are given to us not for us to hold them for ourselves alone but to share with others, the community of goods is nothing other than the restoring of what was made common by God.
Peter Riedemann, Rechenschaft unserer Religion, Lehr und Glaubens (Account of Our Religion, Doctrine and Faith), written in prison 1540-42 (rendered)Condensed from the standard English translation. Riedemann's Account is still the Hutterite confession of faith.
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