How did the economic order of early Christianity differ from modern capitalism?

Early Christian economic life was oriented away from private accumulation and toward the common good, and the Fathers recognized this as a defining feature of apostolic Christianity. John Chrysostom (390 AD) lamented that church offices had been renamed after secular estates — lands and houses — rather than their apostolic vocations: feeding the hungry, protecting orphans, hosting strangers, defending the wronged. The standard he held up was the Jerusalem community of Acts, where possessions were shared so that "there was not a needy person among them" (Acts 4:34). Cyprian's economic ethic was equally direct: breaking bread with the hungry and clothing the naked were not optional charity but salvific acts through which "the glory of God shall surround thee." Clement of Alexandria engaged the wealthy directly in *Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved?*, arguing that wealth is not inherently sinful but that attachment to it is — and that giving to the poor creates a mutual dependence between giver and receiver that subverts self-sufficiency. Augustine added the eschatological frame: earthly repositories of gold are spiritually dangerous unless redirected toward eternal community; the humble poor who confess their need are heard by God, while the boasting rich are not. What these writers share is a rejection of the assumption that individual accumulation serves the social good — the theological inversion of capitalism's core premise.