Utopia - Thomas More

1. Overview

1.1. Thomas More's Utopia is a Christian-humanist view of an ideal society.

1.2. More does not simply offer a theoretical view, but provides specifics for how to create this world .

1.3. Utopia offers a Christianized form of Plato's Republic.

2. Christian Synthesis

2.1. The Chrisitan aspect of the synthesis is Christ's gospel of caring for the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden.

2.2. The Platonic, Republican tradition is the Greek aspect of the synthesis.

2.3. More wrote Utopia with a comedic tone, allowing him to speak his truth while telling a deeper story.

3. Humor and Parody

3.1. Utopia means nowhere.

3.2. The community political system is called a Sty.

4. Property Division

4.1. Communal ownership, there is no private property.

4.2. There is almost complete religious freedom.

5. Work in Utopia

5.1. Communistic lifestyle.

6. Use of Slaves

6.1. The slaves are either from other countries or are the Utopian criminals. Therefore there is punishment for being a criminal in Utopia

7. Government

7.1. Communistic in a sense.

7.2. Everyone is equal (They all wear the same thing).

8. Utopia a social critique of Great Britain

8.1. Used humor and parody in order to avoid getting attacked by the king.

8.2. Since Utopia was an opposite of Great Britain, he was criticizing it.

8.3. Calling Great Britain imperfect since it was more of a monarchy.

9. Happiness

9.1. The people of Utopia find happiness by Jesus.