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St. Thomas More’s Utopia

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The Catholic Thing Courses recently finished Augustine’s City of God. There, Robert Royal led a guided tour of two cities: the City of God, which participates in heavenly peace, and the City of Man, which prospers or not depending on its denizen’s ability to live in concord with each other.  More’s Utopia, written a millennium later, extends the conversation (literally in dialogue) as to what constitutes the ideal commonwealth. Written by More in mid-career, before service in King Henry VIII’s court, it posits all the right questions and offers some paradoxical answers. C. S. Lewis once quipped that all agree that Utopia is a great book, but hardly any two agree as to why. We will explore this great work’s themes, riddles, and meanings, hidden and otherwise.

Course book: For this course we recommend all students obtain a copy of the course book. We will be using the Cambridge Third Edition of Utopia. You may either access a free copy here or purchase a hard copy at Amazon.

Course Time and Dates: 7:00 – 8:00 PM EST; 3/1, 3/8, 3/15, 3/22

Attend Live Session: Each Live session will automatically stream from this webpage, but be sure to login at least 5 minutes prior. The Live stream will not require Zoom or any needed login credentials other than logging into your TCT Courses account. We recommend a strong internet connection and making sure your volume is on, if for any reason you have trouble contact Hannah Russo at [email protected].

Recorded Sessions: All sessions will be recorded and will be made available to all enrolled students a few days later, to access simply scroll down and select the desired session. As with all TCT Courses your online access to this course never expires.

Note: Music in video sessions is by Thomas Tallis.

Robert James Conrad Jr.

INSTRUCTOR

Robert James Conrad Jr. is a  judge of the U. S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. He is the author of John Fisher and Thomas More: Keeping Their Souls While Losing Their Heads (2021), which recounts the stories of the two great Catholic saints who were executed by King Henry VIII. “[More and Fisher] were. . .servants of the one true God who spoke through his Word and his Church.  Their shared conviction was that … God was truth, and that his Church was a truth-telling institution.”