The Last Letters of Thomas More - Softcover

Thomas More

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802843948 ISBN 13: 9780802843944

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans-Lightning Source, 2001

Synopsis

Written from the Tower of London, these letters of Thomas Moore still speak powerfully today. The story of Thomas Moore, recently told in Peter Ackroyd's bestselling biography, is well known. In the spring of 1534, Thomas Moore was taken to the Tower of London, and after fourteen months in prison, the brilliant author of Utopia, friend of Erasmus and the humanities, and former Lord Chancellor of England was beheaded on Tower Hill. Yet Moore wrote some of his best works as a prisoner, including a set of historically and religiously important letters. The Last Letters of Thomas Moore is a superb new edition of Moore's prison correspondence, introduced and fully annotated for contemporary readers by Alvaro de Silva. Based on the critical edition of Moore's correspondence, this volume begins with letters penned by Moore to Cromwell and Henry VIII in February 1534 and ends with Moore's last words to his daughter, Margaret Roper, on the eve of his execution. Moore writes on a host of topics-prayer and penance, the right use of riches and power, the joys of heaven, psychological depression and suicidal temptations, the moral compromises of those who imprisoned him, and much more. This volume not only records the clarity of Moore's conscience and his readiness to die for the integrity of his religious faith, but it also throws light on the literary works that Moore wrote during the same period and on the religious and political conditions of Tudor England.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas Moore, Ph.D., wrote the phenomenal #1 bestsellers "Care of the Soul" and "SoulMates" as well as many other successful books. Moore was a Catholic monk for twelve years and later became a psychotherapist, earning degrees in theology, musicology, and religion. Moore now lectures extensively throughout North America.

de Silva is a Catholic priest. He teaches theology at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, Merrimack, New Hampshire, works with the Spanish-speaking community at St. Gabriel's Church in Brighton, and is the spiritual director for the Spanish Charismatic Renewal in Boston.

From Library Journal

De Silva (theology, Thomas More Coll. of Liberal Arts) has gathered together the letters Thomas More wrote to Margaret Roper, Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell, Dr. Wilson, and others two years before his execution. Any More enthusiast will treasure this collection beyond measure, as it offers a clear window onto the soul of one of history's noblest figures. The statesman's plight becomes the reader's very own: confined in the Tower of London, awaiting the inevitable chopping block. What emerges most poignantly from the letters is More's selfless integrity as distinct from the stubborn individualism so often attributed to him. According to de Silva's own lucid and informative introduction, "More did not exhibit an individualism or an autonomy of the 'I' that has no room for anything else...he simply knew that to take the oath [to Henry VIII] would mean the loss of his own self, his own spiritual integrity." Endnotes elaborate on cultural, political, and religious allusions that would otherwise confuse one unfamiliar with the time period. This book makes for a fine supplement to Peter Ackroyd's recent biography, The Life of Thomas More (LJ 6/1/98). Essential for academic libraries; highly recommended for large public libraries.DLoren Rosson III, Nashua P.L., NH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans-Lightning Source
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0802843948
• ISBN 13: 9780802843944
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 222
• Editor: Alvaro De Silva