Utopian communication (Thomas More's 'Utopia')

The Reformation was in part a conflict about communication: not only about which church had the authority to transmit doctrine or how doctrine should be transmitted, but also, more broadly, about how God communicates with humanity. This paper examines how the complex treatment of rhetoric in Thomas More's Utopia anticipates his concept of God's accommodative shaping of revelation as outlined in his later polemical writings against reformers such as Martin Luther and William Tyndale.