Christian humanism, the Renaissance, and utopianism
Suggested reading
Bevington, D. M., "The Dialogue in Utopia: Two Sides to the Question," in Studies in Philology 58(1961), 496-509 (on the ambiguity of Utopia.)
Bradshaw, Brendan, "More on Utopia," in Historical Journal 24(1981), 1-27 (questions how seriously we should take Utopia.)
Chambers, R. W., Thomas More, London 1935.
[Long the standard biography. Good statement of the Catholic
interpretation.]
Elton, G.R., Reform and Reformation: England 1509-1558, London
1977.
[English historical background]
Erasmus, Desiderius, The essential Erasmus, ed. John P. Dolan,
Mentor Books, New York 1964;
and/
or
Erasmus, Desiderius, Praise of Folly, translated by Betty
Radice, Penguin Classics, 1971;
and/
or
other editions of Erasmus' writings - especially his Praise of
Folly.
[Erasmus was the greatest Christian humanist of the age, and a close
friend of More's.]
Fenlon, Dermot, "England and Europe: Utopia and its Aftermath," in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 25(1975), 115-135 (argues against Utopia's seriousness.)
Guy, John, Thomas More, Hodder Arnold, 2000 (well-researched biography, focusing on the paradoxes of More's personality.)
Hexter, J. H., More's
"Utopia": the biography of an idea, New York 1965.
[Something of a classic, though now very dated]
Kristeller, Paul O., Renaissance Thought: the classic, scholastic
and humanist strains, New York 1961.
[General intellectual background]
Manuel, F.E., and Manuel, E.P., Utopian thought in the western
world, Oxford 1979.
[Full discussion of utopianism]
Marius, Richard, Thomas More, New York 1984.
[Full modern biography.]
Rabil, Albert, ed., Renaissance Humanism, 3 vols., University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1988 (Paperback, 1992.)
[Scholarly essays, worth consulting
for background.]
Skinner, Quentin, The foundations of
modern political thought, 2 vols, Cambridge 1978, vol. 1 (The
Renaissance), especially pp.193-262.
An excellent introduction, but in some key respects replaced by:
Skinner, Quentin, 'Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" and the language of
Renaissance humanism', in Anthony Pagden, ed., The languages of
political theory in early-modern Europe, Cambridge 1987, 123-57; this is
revised in Skinner's "Thomas More's Utopia and the virtue of true nobility," in
Skinner, Visions of Politics, 3 vols., Cambridge, 2002, vol. 2, 213-244.
Surtz, Edward, The praise of pleasure: philosophy, education, and
communism in More's Utopia, Cambridge Mass., 1957.
[Contains much useful information]
Surtz, Edward, The praise of wisdom: a commentary on the religious and moral problems and backgrounds of St Thomas More's "Utopia", Chicago,1957.
Sylvester, R.S., and Marc'hadour, G.P., Essential articles for the
study of Thomas More, Hamden, Conn., 1977.
[Important articles]
|
Questions |
In
what sense was More a humanist, or a scholastic, or both? |
