ipl-logo

Discussion Of Church And Government In Thomas More's Utopia

865 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Critical analysis of Martin Luther speech

In Thomas More’s, Utopia, he discusses what he believes a society should look like. Many authors have responded to More in praise or disagreement. While they agree on some topics, there are several topics on which More and Luther have very different perspectives due to their differing beliefs and core values. Martin Luther would agree and disagree with More in regards to government and individual freedom, disagree with society and human nature, and disagree with religion.
Luther would agree and also disagree with More’s vision of individual freedom and government. In Utopia, there is no room for individual freedom, citizens have some freedom until they break a law, then they would become a slave. A slave in Utopia is treated differently than …show more content…

More thinks his ideal society is the best way to run people, while Luther states in The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms that there is not a “best” form of government. Luther is not as concerned with the authority of men and more concerned about the commandments of God. Luther and More’s views of church and state do agree. Both Luther and More believe that the church and the government should be separate. In Utopia there is church, but it is not involved with any governing authority. Luther says in The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms right hand kingdom, the church, shouldn’t be involved in government. The Left hand kingdom, the government, are the ones to punish and to have …show more content…

The way people live together in this novel is what makes More’s Utopia so different from any other society. His Utopia is structured with reason; it is peaceful with minimal conflict. The people of Utopia are not greedy. They have no need or want for luxury or excess money. All citizens must learn how to farm and work 6 hours a day. They do have the opportunity to advance somewhat in the community: “When you’ve learned one trade properly, you can, if you like, get permission to learn another- and when you’re an expert in both, you can practice whichever you prefer, unless one is more essential to the public” (More 56). All citizens have housing with the ability to grow food and have equal amounts of everything. This creates contentedness among the society they live in community with one another, taking only what one needs. For the most part everyone is on equal playing ground. The reason behind this practice seems to ensure that they all have plentiful resources and to meet their needs. The major difference between More and Luther is their views on human nature. More thinks people are good and not greedy. He takes away everything that could possibly make them greedy or anything that makes up a unique individual. Luther believes human’s nature is inherently bad and that we are only good when we read scripture and obey God’s commandments. More’s society would ideally work for Luther’s beliefs because of his

Show More
Related
481 Words | 2 Pages

Luther believed that God’s justice does not require good works and religious rituals to receive salvation. (Cole and Symes 426) Luther believed, “Humans are saved by God’s grace alone, which God offers as an utterly underserved gift to those whom he has predestined for salvation. Because this grace comes to humans through the gift of faith, men and women are “justified” (i.e., made worthy of salvation) by faith alone. (Cole and Symes 426) Luther further believed, “Those whom God has justified through faith will manifest that fact by performing works of piety and charity; but such works are not what saves them.

Read More
692 Words | 3 Pages

Martin Luther and his followers seized the right to read and interpret the bible in a new way, that paid the way for Reformation. Martin Luther challenged the church. He criticized the churches ideas and practices. He sought no revolution, but he tried to persuade church leaders to make reforms. Luther believed that gods free gift of forgiveness did not depend on taking sacriments or performing good deeds.

Read More
568 Words | 3 Pages

(Martin Luther, Doc. 4) In document 5 even, it says how the peasants lutheran beliefs say everyone are brothers and sister and that the rich should share with the poor, and the extremist thought of this belief could spark a tremendous revolt such as this

Read More
2030 Words | 9 Pages

This is to clarify to the people the exact knowingness of their religion. When he went around visiting various churches he began to notice that no matter where he went most everyone had been baptized and were receiving the body and blood of Christ, yet they didn’t even know the Our Father, the Ten Commandments, or the Creed. This was very hurtful to Luther. He knew that all of these people were taking their Christian liberty for granted, and he wanted to put an end to this. It was not the peoples fault per say, but they weren’t able to get help.

Read More
227 Words | 1 Pages

Luther believed that salvation was achieved by the grace of god and not by doing the work that the church demanded. The Reformation was so much more than a religious revolution even though it started out with a religious nature, it exceeded pass religion.

Read More
134 Words | 1 Pages

Agyen, I enjoyed reading your discussion post and found your take on the Reformers to be informative and well thought out. I thought Calvin was the most committed to living a biblical life but do disagree that Luther was not committed to biblical Christianity. I feel that he was committed but in ways that weren’t as bold as Calvin. Luther seemed to have less hesitation on making his ideas become reality in his time. Our text states, “Luther is flamboyant, vivid, impulsive, immensely readable, frequently exaggerating his true position or contradicting what he said elsewhere in order to put over a point forcefully”

Read More
565 Words | 3 Pages

These beliefs compare to those of transcendentalists in that both value individualism. Transcendentalists encourage others to think for themselves, which will promote peace and harmony in a community. “People can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right,” (Transcendentalism). Martin Luther didn’t conform to a society that said it was okay to segregate people based on race. Instead, he spoke up for what he believed in and he did it peacefully.

Read More
1003 Words | 5 Pages

Luther saw this and he said this is not what Christianity was supposed to be. He believed that people were supposed to do good to gain the benefits of redemption. Luther believed that everything was dependent on faith, not good work, and that people did not need priests or teachers to access

Read More
815 Words | 4 Pages

Martin Luther didn't agree with many of the practices and beliefs of the Catholic Church. He didn't agree on some of the practices of the clergy like simony, the sale of church offices, nepotism, the giving away of church offices to family members, and pluralism, the holding of more than one church office at a time. He also was really against the sale of indulgence, documents sold by the Catholic Church lessening penance or time in purgatory. He thought that the church was only selling indulgences to earn more money and that indulgence didn't really do what they promised. He also didn't like the fact that people didn't read the Bible and thought that

Read More
1706 Words | 7 Pages

While this was clearly two-sided, my favorite Thomas More comment towards Luther is: “throw back into your paternity’s shitty mouth, truly the shit-pool of all shit, all the muck and shit which your damnable rottenness has vomited up and to empty out all the sewers and privies onto your

Read More
1409 Words | 6 Pages

Luther’s doctrine eliminated the inequality between the clergy and the laity and people of higher and lower classes and allowed for anyone to participate in religious practices regardless of their social and economic status. This resulted in a moving away from what had been a traditional social and political structure and a moving towardsmore modern ideas that allowed everyone an equal opportunity to participate in a variety of political issues. In hindsight we see that the disagreements that rose up between people and the church left behind several benefits as European society continued to move

Read More
134 Words | 1 Pages

Knowing how society reacted to Martin Luther’s theses give a better

Read More
1085 Words | 5 Pages

Starting from the statement that Christians receive salvation through faith and the grace of God. Luther also stated, “The churches rituals did not have the ability to save souls. ”Also Luther talked about how the Church and the Pope make errors often. This had gone from a need for reforming indulgences to a whole

Read More
1560 Words | 7 Pages

Although distinct, both Machiavelli and Luther delve into the entrenched systems of government in which they live and

Read More
1506 Words | 7 Pages

Luther's problem with the selling of indulgences was the fact that they were sold out of greed robbing people of their money and they were getting nothing out of it. Luther's problem with the people not being allowed to read the bible was that they needed to know what was said in the bible because back then the bible was in Latin and no one could understand it except for church officials. This also relates to the sale of indulgences because if every commoner were allowed to read the bible they would know indulgences were completely unnecessary and did absolutely nothing. Luther also thought the church had too much power which was true, they could persecute anyone because they weren’t Catholic and they had political power basically making the king's

Read More

More about Discussion Of Church And Government In Thomas More's Utopia

Related Topics

Open Document