Books

'Thomas More On Statesmanship' by Gerard B. Wegemer

Reviewed by Michael Casanova

Contents - Dec 2001 - Buy a copy now Editorial: A Christmas reflection - Peter Westmore Tenth Synod of Bishops' statement - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Church leaders say 'No human cloning' - AD2000 Report East Timor: how the Church is rebuilding a shattered nation - Peter Westmore Obituary: Thomas Kendell (1929-2001) R.I.P. - The passing of a great Catholic educator - Nicholas Kendell St Vitus Cathedral, Prague, and Europe's Christian heritage - Stephen W. Carson Books: 'Soul Survivor' - Philip Yancey book launch at Thomas More Centre - Bill Muehlenberg Books: De Lubac's writings in English translations - Tracey Rowland Letters: 'Familiaris Consortio' 20th anniversary - John Barich Letters: Huge response - Dolores Lightbody Letters: St Thérèse - Fr Jim Dunne CSsR Letters: Pipe-dream - Arnold Jago (Dr) Letters: Refugees - John McLean Books: 'Meaninglessness: The Solutions of Nietzsche, Freud and Rorty' by Michael Casey - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: 'Thomas More On Statesmanship' by Gerard B. Wegemer - Michael Casanova (reviewer) Books: AD Books 'Top Ten' Books: 'Desire Of The Everlasting Hills' by Thomas Cahill - Michael Daniel Books: The Prayer Of Jabez' by Bruce Wilkinson - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: Daily Gospel 2002, Bible Diary 2002 - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) New Titles from AD Books Reflection: St Thérèse's 'little way' - Kate Cleary

THOMAS MORE ON STATESMANSHIP
by Gerard B. Wegemer
(The Catholic University of America Press, Washington DC, 1996, 262pp, $39.95. Available from AD Books)

In October last year, Pope John Paul proclaimed Saint Thomas More Patron of Statesmen and Politicians. In order to understand why, I recommend reading this book.

In Thomas More on Statesmanship, one will gain a number of insights into More's life: that after his formal education he dedicated himself to 15 years of study in political science and philosophy as well as continuing to study and lecture in law; that he was so successful in his practice of law that he earned 40 times the average wage; that he spent seven years in the King's service before he matched this income; that it was because he worked against royal absolutism, not only as guilelessly as a dove but as wisely as a serpent, that the King and his enemies had to be rid of him.

The facts of St Thomas' life reveal many reasons why he has been chosen as the patron of statesmen. But here is a book that supplies other vital reasons.

The publications of a saint who has studied for so long and written so profusely are obviously worth pursuing. And if St Thomas is patron of statesmen and politicians, it surely would be of value to find out what he had to say about such people and public life in general.

This book is the first to examine Thomas More's complete works in view of his concept of statesmanship and, in the process, to link More's humanism, faith and legal and political vocations into a coherent narrative.

St Thomas was against divorce, not merely marital but also that divorce of the spiritual and temporal from which this present time suffers. As Pope John Paul said, "What enlightened his conscience was the sense that man cannot be sundered from God, nor politics from morality." More believed in faith and reason. "For in man, reason ought to reign like a king, and it does reign when it makes itself loyally subject to faith and serves God. For to serve Him is to reign."

There are many insights into both the great writers that More valued so highly and into his own writings. Anyone who reads More's book Utopia will discover how he placed in the Utopians so many attitudes dialectically opposed to those of Aristotle, Cicero, St Augustine and to his own deepest convictions.

One finds in Thomas More on Statesmanship More's teachings on virtue, humility, perseverance and how these should be applied to social action. He was a philosopher, but a very practical one: "But there is another philosophy, more practical for statesmen, which knows its stage, adapts itself to the play at hand, and performs its role neatly and appropriately."

St Thomas is the great inspirer of people working for the common good. Thomas More on Statesmanship is just the book for those wishing to discover this inspiration.

Michael Casanova is a Melbourne Catholic writer

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 14 No 11 (December 2001 - January 2002), p. 16