Utopians practiced many religions but all were tolerated.
Day 3 · 목표 ⭐
More's Utopia practiced something almost unimaginable in sixteenth-century Europe: genuine religious pluralism where citizens worshipped freely, provided they did not use religion to persecute those who believed differently.
2Reading· 오늘의 본문
We · Yevgeny Zamyatin · 1924
In the island of Utopia, the air itself seemed to carry a sense of peace. This peace was rooted in a simple, profound law: all religions were respected. A person could worship the sun in a quiet garden at dawn, while their neighbor chanted prayers to an ancient god in a temple at noon. No one was forced to believe, and no one was mocked for their faith. The Utopians understood that the heart's path to the divine was personal. Their society's strength came not from a single, enforced truth, but from the shared agreement to live together in harmony. This mutual tolerance was the golden thread holding their ideal world together, making persecution a forgotten word.
B2 · 128 wordsavg 25.6 w/s
Thomas More's Utopia presents a societal framework where religious doctrine is deliberately separated from civic cohesion. The island's foundational principle is not theological uniformity but a pragmatic, legally enshrined tolerance. Citizens are free to pursue diverse spiritual paths—sun worship, monotheism, nature veneration—provided their practices do not infringe upon the public peace or seek to persecute dissenters. This construct is revolutionary for its sixteenth-century context, positing that social stability derives from mutual respect for private belief, not from state-mandated faith. More uses this ideal to critique the religious fractiousness of his own Europe. The Utopian structure suggests that a pluralistic society's strength lies in its conscious choice to elevate communal harmony over dogmatic conquest, making the public sphere a neutral ground where conviction and coexistence are carefully balanced. What makes Utopia endure as a work of literature is precisely this refusal to offer easy consolation — it demands that readers sit with the discomfort of a world that does not resolve neatly, and find their own position within it.
C1 · 170 wordsavg 34.0 w/s
3Vocabulary· 핵심 어휘 & 연습
pluralism
다원주의
Utopia's religious pluralism allowed sun-worshippers and monotheists to live side-by-side.
worshipped
숭배하다, 예배하다
The citizens worshipped freely in their own chosen manner.
provided
~하는 조건으로, 단
All beliefs were allowed, provided they did not cause social strife.
persecute
박해하다
It was a grave crime to use religion to persecute others in Utopia.
genuine
진정한, 참된
The island enjoyed a state of genuine religious peace.
Activity 1 · 빈칸 채우기5 questions
1. Every hour of D-503's life was carefully ____ by the Table of Hours.
2. The ____ of privacy did not exist in the One State.
3. Individual names were ____ and replaced with numbers.
4. The glass walls guaranteed there was no ____ for citizens.
5. The State was ____ declared to represent perfect happiness.