All thinkers
Ruler / statesman · Early modern
St. Thomas More
1478–1535 · Christian humanism
Saint
Latin
Martyr; canonized 1935; patron of statesmen and politicians (2000).
Lawyer, humanist, Lord Chancellor of England and friend of Erasmus, More wrote Utopia as a satire on the pride and greed of Christian Europe and defended the Church's faith and unity in controversy with Tyndale and Luther. He resigned rather than approve Henry VIII's divorce and was beheaded for refusing the oath of supremacy, dying “the King's good servant, but God's first.”
Why he matters: He is the martyr of conscience rightly understood: not private judgment against the Church, but fidelity to the Church's known teaching against the state. His wit, his family life and his Tower writings make holiness in public life credible.
Reading
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UtopiaSt. Thomas More · Read it as the satire it is, not a program.
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A Dialogue of Comfort against TribulationSt. Thomas More · Written in the Tower awaiting death.
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The Life of Sir Thomas MoreWilliam Roper · By his son-in-law; short, intimate and the source of Bolt's play.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.
Settled teaching
Its center
Open question
Beyond teaching, not condemned
Condemned error
I
God and Being · What is, and whence it is.
Can reason know that God exists?
Natural theology
Fideism or agnosticism
Natural theology
II
Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.
Faith and reason: who has the last word?
Between
Rationalism
Fideism
Is truth objective?
Objective truth
Relativism and pragmatism
Objective truth
Who interprets revelation?
Living Tradition and Magisterium
Private judgment
Living Tradition and Magisterium
How should Scripture be read?
Fundamentalist literalism
Critical reductionism
Fundamentalist literalism
What is theology for?
A wisdom ordered to loving
A science ordered to knowing
A wisdom ordered to loving
Does doctrine develop?
Always the same, in the same words
Always the same, in the same words
A living development
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift?
A gift to be baptized
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem
A gift to be baptized
III
The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.
Is there a spiritual soul?
Immortal spiritual soul
Mind is brain
Immortal spiritual soul
Are you free?
Free will
Determinism
Free will
How fallen is human nature?
Between
Totally depraved
Basically good
Person and community
Collectivism
Individualism
Collectivism
Marriage, sex and the body's meaning
Given by nature and grace
Given by nature and grace
Defined by consent and identity
What is suffering for?
A share in the Cross
An evil to be relieved
A share in the Cross
IV
The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.
Is morality objective and knowable?
Natural law
Relativism
Natural law
Are some acts always wrong?
Intrinsically evil acts
Consequentialism
Intrinsically evil acts
Rules or character?
Morality of virtue and beatitude
Morality of obligation
Morality of virtue and beatitude
What is conscience?
Conscience bound to truth
Autonomous conscience
Conscience bound to truth
What is happiness?
Beatitude in God
Earthly flourishing
Beatitude in God
V
Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.
How are we made right with God?
Infused, transforming grace
Forensic imputation
Infused, transforming grace
Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity?
The man Jesus of Nazareth
The eternal Word made flesh
The man Jesus of Nazareth
VI
Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.
Church and state
Social kingship of Christ
Laicism
Social kingship of Christ
The economic order
Socialism
Socialism
Laissez-faire capitalism
Where does authority come from?
Authority from God
Social contract
Authority from God
Reform or tradition?
Guided by tradition
Remake by reason
Guided by tradition
The nation and the Church
Nation does not matter
Nation or race first
Nation does not matter
May the state restrain false religion?
Between
The confessional state: error has no rights
Civil liberty for every religion
Which form of government best suits a Christian people?
Monarchy and hierarchy
Monarchy and hierarchy
Democracy and participation
May a Christian take up the sword?
Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence
Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence
Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty
VII
Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.
Icons and images
Veneration of images
Iconoclasm
Veneration of images
The office of Peter
Universal and immediate primacy
Conciliarism
Universal and immediate primacy
What do the sacraments do?
Efficacious ex opere operato
Signs only
Efficacious ex opere operato
When the Pope speaks
Every word binds
Resist and judge
Every word binds
Holy Orders and the Church's constitution
A clerical Church
A clerical Church
Reformable by the people
Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters?
The Gospel in each people's own forms
One form everywhere
The Gospel in each people's own forms
Contemplation or action?
Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy
Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy
Contemplation: the one thing needful