Humanity’s Struggle for a City of God: From Plato to Thomas More [RTF Lecture Matt Ehret]

In this third installment of a trilogy of lectures on the topic of ’Humanity’s Struggle for a City of God’, Matt Ehret recapitulates the story with the migration of the Babylonian oligarchy and it’s network of cults to Persia, and thence to Rome after Alexander the Great’s victory over his father Philip of Macedon and the leading forces of Persia. This parasitic growth of oligarchical migration was contrasted with the opposing struggle to establish upon this earth, a society premised on Natural Law, Justice and Goodness as advocated by Solon, Plato and later Cicero who each attempted to create institutions capable of creating philosopher kings. Such was the fight waged by Augustine of Hippo as outlined within his City of God, and such was the objective of Charlemagne’s advisor Alcuin who led the Augustinian reforms of the Carolingian Renaissance of the 8-9th century AD. We follow the growth of Augustinian Statecraft to the halls of the Abbasid Dynasty of Haroun al Rashid, the Jewish Khazarian Kingdom and the Tang Dynasty of China which established a win-win foreign policy premised around peaceful cooperation of diverse cultures, rather than divide-to-conquer wars or wealth extraction. Why was this beautiful ecumenical alliance of cultures sabotaged by the newly reconstituted oligarchy then centering itself upon a new host within Venice? How did Thomas More play a vital role in the combat to purge this center of evil from the face of the earth 1000 years after Augustine died during the 1509 League of Cambrai? What was More doing when he wrote his own Platonic tract called ’Utopia’ in 1516? These questions and much more will be answered in this lecture. Click here for part one (Plato’s Republic vs Klaus’ Great Narrative: Who Guards the Guardians?) Click here for part two (St Augustine’s City of God vs the Rot of the Roman Empire) Supplementary reading: 1) The 1508 League of Cambrai and The BRI Today: How Not to Repeat History 2) The Forgotten Jewish-Christian-Muslim Alliance and China’s Silk Road 3) How Jesus Christ and His Followers Saved Civilization (p. 16 of Campaigner 1980) 4) Cynthia Chung’s How to Conquer Tyranny and Avoid Tragedy: 5) Pierre Beaudry’s History books: Support the Rising Tide Foundation’s work by any of the following ways: 1) Make a donation on Paypal, Patreon or Wordpress 2) Subscribe to Matt and Cynthia’s Substacks at 3) Buy some books! 4) Subscribe to our telegram channel at