Private and Corporate Vocations in Utopia by Thomas More

Private and Corporate Vocations in Utopia by Thomas More

Thomas More believed in private and corporate vocations. His beliefs are evident in his book Utopia. He said that everybody has a vocation and it is their responsibility to live up to what gifts they have been given by God. Private vocations exist with the individual person. Married, single, or religious life? Also, what kind of job one does is considered a vocation because you must use your God given gifts to perform your job correctly. Corporate vocations exist within the community and what kind of society exists.

In Utopia, a perfect society exists in which everybody has a vocation that creates a corporate vocation making a perfect society. Utopia means "no place." This meaning can be easily comprehended because there is no such thing as a perfect society. So it wouldn't exist anywhere, no place. In Thomas More's utopian society, everyone has a purpose to add to the community's vocation, which is how the private and corporate vocations are linked together. Also in this utopian society, people live together in harmony. This is because every person needs the next person to survive.

Everyone has a religion, but beyond that they can do what they want. Whether it is a farmer like most people, married, single, or a religious person. It's hard to say whether or not every person would take his or her religion to the same extent as the other, but they all have a religion that keeps the peace between the people.

Thomas More sees physical labor as very important. Not only to survive, but so that everyone contributes to society. Idleness can be a disease. There must be a balance to work. Everybody in Utopia does some farming. Farming was considered a ver...

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...dy rests and stays happy and content with other people an their surroundings. Everybody has to rest if they are human and by doing it all on the same day they come together and pray which helps to keep the harmony in society.

Thomas More hates war, as do most people. But you must have an army constantly training to avoid war. Having a well-trained army will scare enemies and keep people from attacking them. This is yet another corporate vocation. Everyone in the army has a private vocation to protect the city and the people within so this creates another corporate vocation. The army protects the farmers and religious and the farmers provide food for the soldiers and the religious pray for the army as well as the farmers. So it all comes together into one large corporate vocation. Regarding the book itself, it ends with worship because it is the way to live.