Gerard B. Wegemer

Of the relatively few Americans who know (or care about) anything of Thomas More’s life, most of their understanding comes from Paul Scofield’s superb portrayal of More in the 1966 movie A Man for All Seasons. Gerard B. Wegemer, an associate professor of literature at the University of Dallas, has spent much of his career studying and writing about More. In Thomas More On Statesmanship Wegemer offers a comprehensive analysis of the entire corpus of More’s extensive writings. In doing so, he explores the literature, philosophy, history, and politics of the Renaissance.

More’s philosophy is difficult to characterize in a few words, partly because his most famous work, Utopia, is deliberately ambiguous; a political satire. Moreover, his positions on many issues discussed in his voluminous correspondence are not always consistent. Perhaps his own self description as “Christian humanist” is a good start to understanding More.

Wegemer’s most perceptive analysis compares More’s philosophy with Augustine’s City of God and Plato’s Republic. More argued for rule of law, limitation and division of political power, separation of church and state, elected representation, and protection of free and public deliberation. He believed a nation's identity was best expressed in its literature and its laws.

To be sure, reading some portions of the book is a bit of a slog. But I am being a bit unfair to Wegemer because I have also been reading Bertrand Russell’s The History of Western Philosophy. To say that Wegemer is not as good a writer as Russell is not exactly harsh criticism: the same could be said of 99.9% or other writers.

(JAB)… (más)