Enter Augustine

My last couple of posts have been critical (first of an article by Barbara Brown Taylor and then of a book James Fowler). I’m breaking from that here, as I read City of God by Augustine of Hippo. I haven’t finished it (not even close), but I’m realizing it would be a long time before my next post if I were to wait until then.

Augustine wrote in a different time. Today, you simply couldn't say in print that some women (virgins, no less) had the pride of their virginity exposed when they were raped by an invading army. It wouldn't help to say that other virgins who were raped, truly humble ones, were not defiled in God's eyes because of their purity of heart.

My hunch is that Augustine is particularly relevant for the church today (not necessarily because of his analysis of pride and virginity). The analogy between the Roman Empire and the present-day United States I've heard a number of times. I'm just repeating it. The sack of Rome and 9/11 have to have some parallels.

The distinction between a powerful empire that is Christian in culture (Rome and America), and the City of God was a pressing one then, and now. Augustine writes from within the empire, even a place of some power. He writes to an educated reader and draws learnedly from the literary and philosophical canon of his reader. He writes of God's hope -- a political vision -- as the polity around him disintegrates. I look forward to hearing what he has to say....