Editing Utopia (section)

==Mythical and religious utopias==
{{Further|Palingenesis|Apocatastasis}}
[[File:Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights - The Earthly Paradise (Garden of Eden).jpg|thumbnail|right|upright|''The Earthly Paradise – [[Garden of Eden]]'', the left panel from [[Hieronymus Bosch]]'s ''[[The Garden of Earthly Delights]]'']]
In many cultures, societies, and religions, there is some myth or memory of a distant past when humankind lived in a primitive and simple state but at the same time one of perfect happiness and fulfillment. In those days, the various [[mythology|myth]]s tell us, there was an instinctive harmony between humanity and nature. People's needs were few and their desires limited. Both were easily satisfied by the abundance provided by nature. Accordingly, there were no motives whatsoever for war or oppression. Nor was there any need for hard and painful work. Humans were simple and [[piety|pious]] and felt themselves close to their God or gods. According to one anthropological theory, hunter-gatherers were the [[original affluent society]].

These mythical or religious archetypes are inscribed in many cultures and resurge with special vitality when people are in difficult and critical times. However, in utopias, the projection of the myth does not take place towards the remote past but either towards the future or towards distant and fictional places, imagining that at some time in the future, at some point in space, or beyond death, there must exist the possibility of living happily.

In the United States and Europe, during the [[Second Great Awakening]] (ca. 1790–1840) and thereafter, many radical religious groups formed utopian societies in which [[faith]] could govern all aspects of members' lives. These utopian societies included the [[Shakers]], who originated in England in the 18th century and arrived in America in 1774. A number of religious utopian societies from Europe came to the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, including the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness (led by [[Johannes Kelpius]] (1667–1708), the [[Ephrata Cloister]] (established in 1732) and the [[Harmony Society]], among others. The Harmony Society was a [[Christian theosophy]] and [[Pietism|pietist]] group founded in [[Iptingen]], [[Germany]], in 1785. Due to religious persecution by the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran Church]] and the government in [[Württemberg]],<ref name="Sutton1">Robert Paul Sutton, ''Communal Utopias and the American Experience: Religious Communities'' (2003) p. 38</ref> the society moved to the United States on October 7, 1803, settling in [[Pennsylvania]]. On February 15, 1805, about 400 followers formally organized the Harmony Society, placing all their [[Common ownership|goods in common]]. The group lasted until 1905, making it one of the longest-running financially successful communes in American history.

The [[Oneida Community]], founded by [[John Humphrey Noyes]] in [[Oneida, New York]], was a utopian religious [[Intentional community|commune]] that lasted from 1848 to 1881. Although this utopian experiment has become better known today for its manufacture of Oneida silverware, it was one of the longest-running communes in American history. The [[Amana Colonies]] were communal settlements in [[Iowa]], started by radical German [[pietists]], which lasted from 1855 to 1932. The [[Amana Corporation]], manufacturer of refrigerators and household appliances, was originally started by the group. Other examples are [[Fountain Grove, California|Fountain Grove]] (founded in 1875), Riker's Holy City and other Californian utopian colonies between 1855 and 1955 (Hine), as well as [[Sointula]]<ref>{{cite web | title = Finnish Utopian Settlements in North America | author = Teuvo Peltoniemi | url = http://www.sosiomedia.fi/utopia/na_settlements.pdf | publisher = sosiomedia.fi | year = 1984 | access-date = 2008-10-12 | archive-date = 2010-10-26 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101026020303/http://www.sosiomedia.fi/utopia/na_settlements.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref> in [[British Columbia]], Canada. The [[Amish]] and [[Hutterites]] can also be considered an attempt towards religious utopia. A wide variety of [[intentional communities]] with some type of faith-based ideas have also started across the world.

Anthropologist Richard Sosis examined 200 communes in the 19th-century United States, both religious and secular (mostly [[Utopian socialism|utopian socialist]]). 39 percent of the religious communes were still functioning 20 years after their founding while only 6 percent of the secular communes were.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sosis|first=Richard|title=Religion and Intragroup Cooperation: Preliminary Results of a Comparative Analysis of Utopian Communities|journal=[[Cross-Cultural Research]]|publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]]|volume=34|issue=1|year=2000|pages=70–87|doi=10.1177/106939710003400105|s2cid=44050390|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/450a/edd9d7e55e9237ee092b0a86b3af986b46bf.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125154257/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/450a/edd9d7e55e9237ee092b0a86b3af986b46bf.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 25, 2020|access-date=January 7, 2020}}</ref> The number of costly sacrifices that a religious commune demanded from its members had a linear effect on its longevity, while in secular communes demands for costly sacrifices did not correlate with longevity and the majority of the secular communes failed within 8 years. Sosis cites anthropologist [[Roy Rappaport]] in arguing that [[ritual]]s and laws are more effective when [[Sanctification|sacralized]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sosis|first1=Richard|last2=Bressler|first2=Eric R.|title=Cooperation and Commune Longevity: A Test of the Costly Signaling Theory of Religion|journal=[[Cross-Cultural Research]]|publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]]|volume=37|issue=2|year=2003|pages=211–239|doi=10.1177/1069397103037002003|citeseerx=10.1.1.500.5715|s2cid=7908906}}</ref> Social psychologist [[Jonathan Haidt]] cites Sosis's research in his 2012 book ''[[The Righteous Mind]]'' as the best evidence that [[religion]] is an [[Evolutionary psychology of religion|adaptive solution]] to the [[free-rider problem]] by enabling [[cooperation]] without [[Kin selection|kinship]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Haidt|first=Jonathan|author-link=Jonathan Haidt|title=The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion|publisher=[[Vintage Books]]|location=New York|year=2012|pages=298–299|title-link=The Righteous Mind|isbn=978-0307455772}}</ref> [[Evolutionary medicine]] researcher [[Randolph M. Nesse]] and theoretical biologist [[Mary Jane West-Eberhard]] have argued instead that because humans with [[Altruism (biology)|altruistic]] tendencies are preferred as social partners they receive [[Inclusive fitness|fitness advantages]] by [[social selection]],{{refn|group=list|name=socialselection|<ref name="Nesse 2019 pp. 172–76">{{cite book|last=Nesse|first=Randolph|author-link=Randolph M. Nesse|title=Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry|publisher=[[Dutton (imprint)|Dutton]]|year=2019|pages=172–176|isbn=978-1101985663}}</ref><ref name="West-Eberhard 1975">{{cite journal|last=West-Eberhard|first=Mary Jane|title=The Evolution of Social Behavior by Kin Selection|journal=[[The Quarterly Review of Biology]]|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|year=1975|volume=50|issue=1|pages=1–33|doi=10.1086/408298|jstor=2821184|s2cid=14459515}}</ref><ref name="West-Eberhard 1979">{{cite journal|last=West-Eberhard|first=Mary Jane|title=Sexual Selection, Social Competition, and Evolution|journal=[[Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society]]|publisher=[[American Philosophical Society]]|year=1979|volume=123|issue=4|pages=222–34|jstor=986582}}</ref><ref name="Nesse 2007">{{cite journal|last=Nesse|first=Randolph M.|author-link=Randolph M. Nesse|title=Runaway social selection for displays of partner value and altruism|journal=[[Biological Theory (journal)|Biological Theory]]|year=2007|volume=2|issue=2|publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]]|pages=143–55|doi=10.1162/biot.2007.2.2.143|s2cid=195097363|citeseerx=10.1.1.409.3359}}</ref>}} with Nesse arguing further that social selection enabled humans as a species to become extraordinarily [[Cooperation|cooperative]] and capable of creating [[culture]].<ref name="Nesse 2009">{{cite book|last=Nesse|first=Randolph M.|author-link=Randolph M. Nesse|chapter=10. Social Selection and the Origins of Culture|editor-last1=Schaller|editor-first1=Mark|editor-link1=Mark Schaller|editor-last2=Heine|editor-first2=Steven J.|editor-link2=Steven Heine (psychologist)|editor-last3=Norenzayan|editor-first3=Ara|editor-last4=Yamagishi|editor-first4=Toshio|editor-last5=Kameda|editor-first5=Tatsuya|title=Evolution, Culture, and the Human Mind|place=Philadelphia|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|year=2009|pages=137–50|isbn=978-0805859119}}</ref>

The [[Book of Revelation]] in the Christian [[Bible]] depicts an [[Christian eschatology|eschatological]] time with the defeat of [[Satan]], of [[Evil]] and of [[Sin]]. The main difference compared to the [[Old Testament]] [[Mosaic covenant|promises]] is that such a defeat also has an [[ontology|ontological]] value: "Then I saw 'a [[new Heaven and New Earth|new heaven and a new earth]],' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea...'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away"<ref>{{bibleverse|Rev|21:1;4|NIV}}</ref> and no longer just [[gnosiology|gnosiological]] ([[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah]]: "See, I will create/new heavens and a new earth./The former things will not be remembered,/nor will they come to mind".<ref>{{bibleref2-nb|Isaiah|65:17|NIV}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1=Joel B. Green |editor-link=Joel B. Green |editor2=Jacqueline Lapsley |editor3=Rebekah Miles |editor4=Allen Verhey |title=Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8fxBvvFu2l8C |year=2011 |publisher=[[Baker Publishing Group|Baker Books]] |location=[[Ada Township, Michigan]] |isbn=978-1-4412-3998-3 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8fxBvvFu2l8C&dq=%22promise+of+a+renewal+of+all+creation,+a+hope+present+in+OT+prophetic+literature+(Isa.+65:17%22%22but+portrayed+most+strikingly+through+Revelation's+vision%22%22divine+king+of+creation+promises+to+renew+all+of+reality%22&pg=PA190 190] |quote=This goodness theme is advanced most definitively through the promise of a renewal of all creation, a hope present in OT prophetic literature (Isa. 65:17–25) but portrayed most strikingly through Revelation's vision of a "new heaven and a new earth" (Rev. 21:1). There the divine king of creation promises to renew all of reality: "See, I am making all things new" (Rev. 21:5).}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1=Steve Moyise |editor2=Maarten J.J. Menken |title=Isaiah in the New Testament. The New Testament and the Scriptures of Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_MqRBQAAQBAJ |year=2005 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-567-61166-6 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_MqRBQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Isa.+65:17%22%22John+emphasizes+the+qualitatively+new+state+of+affairs+that+will+exist+at+God's+new+creative+act.+In+addition+to+the+passing+of+the+former+heaven+and+earth,+John+also+asserts+that+the+sea+was+no+more+in+21:1c%22&pg=PA201 201] |quote=By alluding to the new Creation prophecy of Isaiah John emphasizes the qualitatively new state of affairs that will exist at God's new creative act. In addition to the passing of the former heaven and earth, John also asserts that the sea was no more in 21:1c.}}</ref> Narrow interpretation of the text depicts Heaven on Earth or a Heaven brought to Earth without [[sin]]. Daily and mundane details of this new Earth, where God and [[Jesus]] rule, remain unclear, although it is implied to be similar to the biblical Garden of Eden. Some theological philosophers believe that heaven will not be a physical realm but instead an [[incorporeal]] place for [[souls]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, Chapters 1-68 |url=http://reluctant-messenger.com/2enoch01-68.htm |access-date=14 May 2017 |website=The Reluctant Messenger |archive-date=26 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221026132404/https://reluctant-messenger.com/2enoch01-68.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>[[File:Lucas_Cranach_the_Elder_-_The_Golden_Age_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg|thumbnail|right|''The Golden Age'' by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]]]]

===Golden Age===

The [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] poet [[Hesiod]], around the 8th century BC, in his compilation of the mythological tradition (the poem ''[[Works and Days]]''), explained that, prior to [[Ages of Man|the present era]], there were four other progressively less perfect ones, the oldest of which was the [[Golden Age]].

===Scheria===

Perhaps the oldest Utopia of which we know, as pointed out many years ago by [[Moses Finley]],<ref>M.I.Finley, World of Odysseus, 1954, 100.</ref> is [[Homer]]'s [[Scheria]], island of the [[Phaeacians]].<ref>Homer Odyssey 6:251-7:155</ref> A mythical place, often equated with classical [[Corcyra]], (modern [[Corfu]]/[[Kerkyra]]), where [[Odysseus]] was washed ashore after 10 years of storm-tossed wandering and escorted to the King's palace by his daughter [[Nausicaa]]. With stout walls, a stone temple and good harbours, it is perhaps the 'ideal' [[Greek colony]], a model for those founded from the middle of the 8th Century onward. A land of plenty, home to expert mariners (with the self-navigating ships), and skilled craftswomen who live in peace under their king's rule and fear no strangers.

[[Plutarch]], the Greek historian and biographer of the 1st century, dealt with the blissful and mythic past of humanity.

===Arcadia===

From [[Sir Philip Sidney]]'s prose romance ''[[Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia|The Old Arcadia]]'' (1580), originally a region in the [[Peloponnesus]], [[Arcadia (utopia)|Arcadia]] became a [[synonym]] for any rural area that serves as a [[pastoral]] setting, a ''[[locus amoenus]]'' ("delightful place").

===The Biblical Garden of Eden===

[[File:Apocalypse 38. A new heaven and new earth. Revelation cap 21. Mortier's Bible. Phillip Medhurst Collection.jpg|thumb|right|''A new heaven and new earth'',<ref>{{bibleverse|Rev|21:1|NIV}}</ref> Mortier's Bible, [[c:User:Phillip Medhurst|Phillip Medhurst]] Collection]]The [[Hebrew Bible|Biblical]] [[Garden of Eden]] as depicted in the [[Old Testament]] [[Bible]]'s [[Book of Genesis]] 2 ([[King James Version of the Bible|Authorized Version of 1611]]):

{{poemquote|And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the [[Tree of life (biblical)|tree of life]] also in the midst of the garden and the [[Tree of the knowledge of good and evil|tree of knowledge of good and evil]]. [...]
And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. [...]
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; [...] And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man.}}

According to the exegesis that the biblical theologian [[Herbert Haag]] proposes in the book ''Is original sin in Scripture?'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Haag |first=Herbert |author-link=Herbert Haag |title=Is original sin in Scripture? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zO_YAAAAMAAJ |year=1969 |publisher=[[Sheed and Ward]] |location=New York|isbn=9780836202502 }} [[German language|German]] or. ed.: [https://books.google.com/books?id=EnWRSQAACAAJ 1966].</ref> published soon after the [[Second Vatican Council]], Genesis 2:25 would indicate that [[Adam and Eve]] were created from the beginning naked of the [[divine grace]], an originary grace that, then, they would never have had and even less would have lost due to the subsequent events narrated.<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|2:25|NIV}}</ref> On the other hand, while supporting a continuity in the Bible about the absence of [[preternatural]] gifts ({{langx|la|dona praeternaturalia}})<ref>{{in lang|de}} Haag, Herbert (1966). pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=nUMaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22dona+praeternaturalia%22 1, 49ff.]</ref> with regard to the [[Serpents in the Bible#Eden|ophitic event]], Haag never makes any reference to the discontinuity of the loss of access to the tree of life.

===The Land of Cockaigne===

The Land of [[Cockaigne]] (also Cockaygne, Cokaygne), was an imaginary land of idleness and luxury, famous in medieval stories and the subject of several poems, one of which, an early translation of a 13th-century French work, is given in [[George Ellis (poet)|George Ellis']] ''Specimens of Early English Poets''. In this, "the houses were made of barley sugar and cakes, the streets were paved with pastry and the shops supplied goods for nothing." London has been so called (see [[Cockney#Cockaigne|Cockney]]) but Boileau applies the same to Paris.<ref>Cobham Brewer E. ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'', Odhams, London, 1932</ref> [[Schlaraffenland]] is an analogous German tradition. All these myths also express some hope that the [[idyll]]ic state of affairs they describe is not irretrievably and irrevocably lost to mankind, that it can be regained in some way or other.

One way might be a quest for an "earthly paradise"&nbsp;– a place like [[Shangri-La]], hidden in the [[Tibet]]an mountains and described by [[James Hilton (novelist)|James Hilton]] in his utopian novel ''[[Lost Horizon (novel)|Lost Horizon]]'' (1933). [[Christopher Columbus]] followed directly in this tradition in his belief that he had found the Garden of Eden when, towards the end of the 15th century, he first encountered the [[New World]] and its indigenous inhabitants.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

===The Peach Blossom Spring===
The ''[[Peach Blossom Spring]]'' ({{lang-zh|c=桃花源|p=Táohuāyuán}}), a prose piece written by the Chinese poet [[Tao Yuanming]], describes a utopian place.<ref>{{cite book| last=Tian| first=Xiaofei| title=The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature| year=2010| publisher=Cambridge University Press| location=Cambridge| isbn=978-0-521-85558-7| page=221| chapter=From the Eastern Jin through the Early Tang (317–649)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Berkowitz| first=Alan J.| title=Patterns of Disengagement: the Practice and Portrayal of Reclusion in Early Medieval China| year=2000| publisher=Stanford University Press| location=Stanford| isbn=978-0-8047-3603-9| page=225}}</ref> The narrative goes that a fisherman from Wuling sailed upstream a river and came across a beautiful blossoming peach grove and lush green fields covered with blossom petals.<ref name=zh182>{{cite book| last=Longxi| first=Zhang| title=Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West| year=2005| publisher=Cornell University Press| location=Ithaca| isbn=978-0-8014-4369-5| page=182}}</ref> Entranced by the beauty, he continued upstream and stumbled onto a small grotto when he reached the end of the river.<ref name=zh182/> Though narrow at first, he was able to squeeze through the passage and discovered an ethereal utopia, where the people led an ideal existence in harmony with nature.<ref name=zh182-3>{{cite book| last=Longxi| first=Zhang| title=Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West| year=2005| publisher=Cornell University Press| location=Ithaca| isbn=978-0-8014-4369-5| pages=182–183}}</ref> He saw a vast expanse of fertile lands, clear ponds, mulberry trees, bamboo groves and the like with a community of people of all ages and houses in neat rows.<ref name=zh182-3/> The people explained that their ancestors escaped to this place during the civil unrest of the [[Qin dynasty]] and they themselves had not left since or had contact with anyone from the outside.<ref name=zh183>{{cite book| last=Longxi| first=Zhang| title=Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West| year=2005| publisher=Cornell University Press| location=Ithaca| isbn=978-0-8014-4369-5| page=183}}</ref> They had not even heard of the later dynasties of bygone times or the then-current [[Jin dynasty (265–420)|Jin dynasty]].<ref name=zh183/> In the story, the community was secluded and unaffected by the troubles of the outside world.<ref name=zh183/>

The sense of timelessness was predominant in the story as a perfect utopian community remains unchanged, that is, it had no decline nor the need to improve.<ref name=zh183/> Eventually, the Chinese term ''Peach Blossom Spring'' came to be synonymous for the concept of utopia.<ref>{{cite book| last=Gu| first=Ming Dong| title=Chinese Theories of Fiction: A Non-Western Narrative System| year=2006| publisher=State University of New York Press| location=Albany| isbn=978-0-7914-6815-9| page=59}}</ref>

===Datong===

[[Great Unity|Datong]]({{zh|c=大同|p=dàtóng}}) is a traditional Chinese Utopia. The main description of it is found in the Chinese [[Classic of Rites]], in the chapter called "Li Yun"({{zh|c=禮運|p=Lǐ yùn}}). Later, Datong and its ideal of 'The World Belongs to Everyone/The World is Held in Common' Tianxia weigong({{lang-zh|c=天下爲公|p=Tiānxià wèi gōng}}) influenced modern Chinese reformers and revolutionaries, such as [[Kang Youwei]].

===Ketumati===

It is said, once [[Maitreya]] is [[Reincarnation#Buddhism|reborn]] into the future kingdom of [[Ketumati]], a utopian age will commence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Patry |first1=Denise |last2=Strahan |first2=Donna |last3=Becker |first3=Lawrence |title=Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GFa0uSleDNwC&dq=ketumati+utopia&pg=PA58 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |year=2010 |page=58 |isbn=9781588393999 |access-date=2023-03-20 |archive-date=2023-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230715214854/https://books.google.com/books?id=GFa0uSleDNwC&dq=ketumati+utopia&pg=PA58 |url-status=live }}</ref> The city is described in [[Buddhism]] as a domain filled with palaces made of gems and surrounded by [[Kalpavriksha]] trees producing goods. During its years, none of the inhabitants of [[Jambudvipa]] will need to take part in cultivation and hunger will no longer exist.<ref>{{cite book |last=Maddegama |first=Udaya |title=Sermon of the Chronicle-to-be |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Eua4CFFGBoC |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |year=1993 |pages=32–33 |isbn=9788120811331 |access-date=2023-03-20 |archive-date=2023-06-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230615183151/https://books.google.com/books?id=8Eua4CFFGBoC |url-status=live }}</ref>