City of God

One figure who unites all branches of the Western Church, at least those that recognize the need for worked-out theology, as opposed to the do-it-yourself kind, is St Augustine of Hippo (354–430). His great body of teaching is of course fundamental to Catholic theology, but it was important for the Reformation thinkers as well.

Augustine spent his later life, a full 35 years, as Bishop of Hippo in what is now Algeria, working tirelessly to build up the church. People at the time may have looked forward to a continuing growth in faith and the practice of Christianity in that area, as it was only natural to do. But there were dark clouds on the horizon. Rome, the greatest city in the western world and the centre of Christianity, was sacked by the Visigoths in 410. Then in the spring of 430 the Vandals, who were non-orthodox Arian Christians — meaning that they did not believe that Christ is consubstantial and coeternal with the Father — laid siege to Hippo. Augustine died on 28 August, possibly from the effects of the siege. Not longer afterwards the Vandals burnt the city. The Roman Empire won the region back a century later and held it for a century and a half, till in 698 it fell to the Muslims; and it has of course remained Muslim ever since.

Demolition of the Old Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford

It’s so easy to think that life will continue just the same in the future as it is now. Our church will flourish under its inspirational leaders. We will go on holidaying in the Mediterranean each year to catch a bit of sun. If we get sick the kindly doctor will be there for us. And even: there’ll always be a helpful railway employee at the station if we need to know the train times. I suppose most Ukrainians were just living a relaxed life until the day that the Russians occupied the Crimea in 2014. But in fact we are always living in a time of crisis. It’s happening far away today, but it may well be happening here at home tomorrow.

What is the Christian writer to do? Well, of course there’s a strong argument for business as usual. Keep calm and carry on. People need to find normality in a book when it’s been removed from everyday life. A cosy mystery is just the ticket when life is far from cosy. Yes, St Augustine carried on tirelessly teaching and preaching in those darkening days of the 410s and 420s, just as if the catholic church in North Africa would continue for ever.

But Augustine also wrote his great book, The City of God, to console Christians shocked by the sack of Rome, and also to defend Christianity against the accusation by many Romans that Christianity was the cause of Rome’s decline. He portrayed human history as a conflict between the City of God and the Earthly City, the former consisting of those who forgo earthly pleasures to dedicate themselves to the eternal truths of God, the latter represented by those who have immersed themselves in the cares and pleasures of the present, passing world. (I have not read the book myself; I am partly quoting from Wikipedia here.)

So if we are Christians who have the gift of writing, and we are confronted by crisis all around us, we have a difficult path to tread. Is there a danger that merely to continue to write as if life is just as it was, and ever will be, is to pass by on the other side? Can we lift our metaphorical pens, or press our actual keys, in some way to speak up for the wounded wayfarer by the roadside? Can we imitate Augustine in our small way to bring our faith to bear on the current crises of humanity?