Outsiders of Hagnopolis: unbelief, fear, and religion in Thomas More's Utopia

Abstract

This paper deals with unbelief and its relationship with fear and religion in Thomas More's Utopia. It stresses the fact that Epicurean and radical Aristotelian theses challenged Christian notions about immortality, Providence, and divine Judgement. The examples of Niccolò Machiavelli and Pietro Pomponazzi, contemporaries of More, are set to show a heterodox connection between these theses and the notion of fear of eternal punishment. More's account of the Utopian religion, on the contrary, distinguishes between human fear and religious fear. This distinction enables him to highlight the threat to spiritual and civic life posed by those who deny the soul and divine retribution.