The City of God
As the western Roman Empire was declining, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) wrote his enormously influential book The City of God. Augustine recognized that all human organizations, all Cities of Men, eventually fail and disappear. The only institution that was permanent, he argued, was the City of God. He said,
Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly city by the love of self, leading to contempt of God, and the heavenly city by the love of God, leading to contempt of self. The former glories in itself, the latter in the Lord.
He and the other church fathers attempted to understand the nature of the City of God, and to comprehend how it differed from human organizations. In doing so they created a theology that was appropriate for their times. This theology not only considered what the City of God may look like, it provided a physical explanation for our universe. For example, heaven is above us and hell is beneath the surface of the Earth. Explanations such as these were successful. Indeed, we still say “Heavens above!”, even though we are perfectly aware that the Earth is a sphere.
We are now going through a similar process, although the details are very different. Three hundred years ago we learned how to exploit the vast amounts of fossil fuel energy located beneath our feet. First it was coal ― oil and natural gas followed. We created a City of Man such as had never been seen before ― a time of unprecedented prosperity and population growth. But now resource depletion, climate change and biosphere destruction are leading to irreversible decline. The 300-year party is winding down ― the city that we have built is failing.
What we have not done is to develop a theology that fits our times ― a theology that is based on an understanding of the physical world and the manner in which we have exploited that world. We need a new generation of church leaders to figure out what the City of God may look like in our times. We need a theology that ‘speaks to our condition’.