The Utopian Commonwealth

The book remains a beguiling wonder, nonetheless. It splendidly reflects its times and the ingenious mind of its author yet invites us to recognise its abiding challenge. The insular commonwealth of utopia may be no place rather than the good or beautiful place but the book itself is most definitely a good and beautiful masterpiece of the 16th century. For more, and his readers, the culminating section of the book would have mattered above all else, engaging with one of the great theological debates of the age.