In 1992 Francis Fukuyama wrote The End of History and the Last Man, arguing that liberal democracy is “the end-point of mankind's ideological evolution.” This constituted a rejection of utopian thinking, which, for many, has already been discredited by its totalitarian progenies in the twentieth century. Yet the end of history seems to be coming to an end. Technological optimism, cultural pessimism, integralist hopes, and climate fears all call for a restoration of the concept of a future. The time, then, seems ripe for turning our attention to utopian thinking again. Is utopia an ever-present dimension of deliberative reasoning, or does it have a history? Is utopia the secular transference of religious ideas, such as redemption? What can a utopia be good for, if it cannot be put into practice?

In the second meeting, led by Haidun Liu (Morningside), we will discuss Andrew Willard Jones’ Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX (2017). It is open to undergraduates and recent graduates.