Utopia, The Perennial Heresy (Hardcover, New edition)

The utopian is generally regarded as a harmless visionary, of course, whose system of thought suffers largely from a naivete about things as they really are. In this work, Thomas Molnar disputes this view and shows that the utopian thinker can be (and often has been) extremely dangerous. Thus it may surprise many that Molnar sees Teilhard de Chardin and Karl Marx sharing the same ideological umbrella, despite the theological differences between them. Going further, the author argues strongly that utopianism is a persistent historical phenomenon seriously at odds with that Christian realism which remains as one of the supports of Western civilization. For the utopianoreligious or atheisticoaims, despite all disclaimers, at the deification of man. Further, in Thomas Molnar's cogent thesis, utopian doctrines implicitly deny the central Christian understanding of original sin. The perfection which they seek and the abstract Man of whom they speak alike conflict with the Christian understanding of the free human will and a personal, transcendent God. Co-published with The Intercollegiate Studies Institute.