Utopian Thinking in the Christian Tradition

This week we are looking at the Christian tradition and how that has contributed to the development of utopian thought.  We are examining three different themes around this general topic in our readings.  We are reading the teachings of Jesus as reported in the gospel of Matthew.  We are examining ideals of early Christian communities as reflected in the Acts of the Apostles, I Corinthians, the Epistle to the Ephesians, and finally we are considering apocalyptic (end of time) images as found in the books of Daniel and Revelation.

Pick two proto-Utopian themes in two of our selected sets of readings and discuss them.  What ideals do you see articulated here, and how do they contribute to the development of utopian ideas?  Do they contradict or complement each other?  Explain.