Faith amid turbulence

Cities are often associated with progress and culture. A capital city represents the best, the newest, freshest and most intelligent ideas. Evangelism often focuses on the city. So what if a city goes into decline? There is a great apologist who, many years ago, thought hard about this.

Without doubt, one of the most influential Christian thinkers, after the authors of the New Testament, is Augustine. Born in North Africa in 354 AD, he went on to become a bishop in the church during the decline of the Roman Empire. Not all his ideas are considered Biblical, but we can all learn from his defence of the faith in a time of social turbulence.

Autobiography

Augustine wrote widely on diverse subjects including the Trinity and the interpretation of the book of Genesis. Many have read, at least in an abridged version, his Confessions, which is an early form of autobiography.

It provides an account of his conversion and discipleship. But it also shows his apologetic concerns to defend the faith and provide reasons to believe. In this work he wrote the famous words: ‘You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.’

It is a quotable line because it captures the heart of the human condition. No amount of partners, pleasures or pills can satisfy the longing we have to be in relationship with the God who made us.

The greatest issue Augustine faced was the decline of the Roman Empire. In 410 AD Rome was sacked and ruined by the ‘Visigoths’ (Germanic tribes of western Europe) and some Romans saw this as divine vengeance from the gods for abandoning the old religion. Over the past century Christianity had became the religion of Rome and yet the empire had fallen into ruin.

Engaging with culture

It was easy for critics to blame Christians for the demise of Rome. Christians are easy scapegoats. The fact that Christians have always been a critical voice of conscience in culture allows for them to be portrayed as subversive. In response to this Augustine wrote a great work of Christian apologetics, The City of God. He argues that the fall of Rome resulted from the moral decay of the government rather than the adoption of the Christian faith. But Augustine goes much further than this (it’s a long book!) and provides a blueprint for Christian engagement with culture.

Much of The City of God is in the form of a Bible overview. Augustine retells the story of the Bible from the fall of Adam to the return of Christ. I am going to have to make my own confession here: I find it very hard going to read. However, the gist of Augustine’s point is clear. The history of the world is a tale of two cities.

A tale of two cities

The rise and fall of Rome is the story of the earthly city. Such cities come and go and are destined for destruction. But the City of God is the everlasting city that is the community of God’s people. The City of God is also the tale of two kinds of love. There is a distorted love of the earthly city and the divine love of the City of God. Only one kind of love truly fulfils the longing of the human race.

Augustine’s work provides a model of apologetics that moves far beyond giving a few quick answers to some difficult questions. Instead, Augustine presents a comprehensive vision of the earthly city as a restless place whose citizens only find their rest in the City of God.

If Augustine’s work seems a bit of a stretch for your summer reading then you could try Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory (Zondervan) as a more contemporary example of the same big-vision apologetics. Augustine wrote during a time of great social upheaval and decline. No one reads the works of those pagan critics anymore, but his monumental vision lives on.