A paper written for Paideia III class.

Idleness and luxury are often understood merely as failures to work, but Thomas More and Martin Luther understand them as something more serious: a failure to fulfill one’s proper duties. In Utopia, More describes a society where everyone is expected to work for the good of the community, while those who live in luxury are seen as detrimental to society.

Several decades later, Luther addresses a different kind of neglect in his preface to the Large Catechism. Christians, and even pastors, can become complacent about the Catechism, believing that they have learned enough and no longer need the discipline of continued instruction. Luther argues instead that Christians should continually exercise themselves in the Catechism rather than consider themselves too knowledgeable to need further instruction.

Although More’s Utopia and Luther’s Large Catechism address different kinds of responsibility, both writers condemn idleness because it represents a neglect of one’s proper duties to others. More presents disciplined labor as necessary for the common good of society, while Luther presents continual instruction in the Catechism as necessary for the good of the Christian and the Church. The relationship between these two works becomes clearer when their treatments of duty, discipline, and idleness are compared.

More presents labor in Utopia as a responsibility that each citizen owes to their community. The Utopians organize their society so that everyone contributes through their own trade, while idleness is deliberately discouraged. The syphogrants’ chief and only business is to make sure that “no one sits around in idleness” and that everyone works diligently at their trade (More 52). This expectation shows that work in Utopia is viewed as a social duty instead of a means of supporting oneself. A person who refuses to work is not only wasting their time, but also fails to contribute what they owe to the community.

This also sheds greater light on what More writes in Book I, “Living in idleness and luxury without doing society any good no longer satisfies them; they have to do positive harm” (More 19). A person who consumes the benefits of society without contributing anything in return becomes a burden upon it. Idleness becomes a failure to meet responsibility. The idle person takes from the commonwealth without fulfilling their own obligation to it.

Luther does not specifically condemn luxury in his Preface; rather, he illustrates a different form of spiritual laziness and complacency. Even those who are supposed to teach the faith can become convinced that they have learned enough and therefore no longer need to study the Catechism. Luther particularly rebukes pastors who become careless about their instruction, writing that “they should never assume that they have finished learning the parts of the catechism or know it well enough in all points” (Concordia 478). For Luther, knowledge of the Catechism is not something that a Christian simply acquires and then leaves behind. It is something that must continually be practiced and learned.

Luther even writes, “Can we finish learning in one hour what God Himself cannot finish teaching?” (Concordia 480). Luther connects diligence with the Christian vocation. The Catechism is not just information a pastor or Christian needs to possess, but it is a discipline in which he must continually exercise himself. Luther even presents himself as a student of the catechism even though he is the teacher.

His point is that no Christian becomes so knowledgeable that he is above continued instruction. To cease learning because one believes he has learned enough is itself a kind of idleness. Whereas More’s idle person neglects his duty to the commonwealth by refusing to work, Luther’s complacent Christian neglects his duty to God and his neighbor by refusing to continue in the study of God’s Word.

The Christian life should reflect that daily exercise in the Catechism. The study of the Catechism is not merely a spiritualized way of dealing with idleness; rather, it forms the Christian for faithful living in his vocations. Yet, like all good things, the Catechism can be misused when taken to an extreme. A Christian who only studies the Catechism while neglecting his duties toward his neighbor falls into a form of idleness himself. Attention to God’s Word informs and directs his service to his neighbor. Thus, the faithful Christian both studies God’s Word and serves his neighbor. When either is neglected, there are real consequences, as the idle citizen in Utopia demonstrates.

The difference between More and Luther is significant: More is concerned with the external duties citizens owe society, while Luther is concerned with the spiritual discipline required of Christians. Yet both understand idleness as a failure to fulfill one’s proper responsibilities. In Utopia, the citizen contributes through his labor. In Luther’s Preface, the Christian continually exercises himself in the Catechism. Thus, both authors present discipline as necessary for a healthy community: More’s commonwealth requires diligent workers, while Luther’s Church requires diligent Christians who continually learn, practice, and live according to the faith they have received.

Works Cited

Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions: A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord. Edited by Paul Timothy McCain, Edward A. Engelbrecht, Robert C. Baker, and Gene Edward Veith, Concordia Publishing House, 2009.

More, Thomas. Utopia. Edited by George M. Logan, translated by Robert M. Adams, Cambridge University Press, 2016.

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