The City of God and The City of Man

Dan Doyle

According to St. Augustine, history is shaped by the ongoing spiritual struggle between two imposing symbolic societies: the City of God and the City of Man. The defining elements of the City of God are love of God, self-sacrifice, humility, and a willingness to surrender to divine wisdom. In this city, the citizens actively seek an ever-deepening relationship with God and neighbor, peace, and they live with absolute hope in heaven and eternal life.

On the other hand, the City of Man is characterized by self-love, pride, and all kinds of material pleasures. Its citizens are driven by a desire for the things of the world like wealth, fame, power, even domination. In reality, these two “cities” are intermingled in the world of our daily lives. People belong to one or the other of these “Cities” based on who or what they love the most. It is always a matter of choice. And choices have consequences, seen or unseen. According to Scripture and Christian teaching, the two cities will be finally separated at the Final Judgment. So, which city do we choose to live in?

Paul gives another way to look at this reality in his Letter to the Galatians. “Brothers and sisters, if you are guided by the Spirit (the City of God), you are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18). If, on the other hand, you choose to live outside of the guidance of the Spirit (the City of Man), you will be under the law and its punishments. Paul then gives us a powerful description of the driving forces, the attitudes, and the ‘loves’ that underlie the City of Man: “Immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outburst of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drunkenness, and the like” (vs.19-21). Do these sound familiar? We do not have to look hard to see that these motivations and attitudes are prevalent in our world. We see these attitudes lived and acted out at all levels of society, from the family to the nation, and the world. This is the sense of the City of Man in Augustine’s theology.

The Medieval writer, John Bunyan, gave us another term for this City of Man and its traits; he called it “Vanity Fair”, a raucous marketplace proffering every worldly enticement and distraction possible, all of which, if we choose to follow them, lead us off of the narrow path to the Kingdom of God. There is also the famous passage in the Book of Ecclesiastes that reveals this City of Man reality. It starts by saying: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity…There is nothing new under the sun…” (Eccl. 1:1-11). The ancient tragedians of Greece recognized that pride is always the reason for the tragic fall of even the most noble among us, and their fall always causes great damage to the innocent around them. We see the same revealed to us in Shakespeare’s great works of tragedy: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello. Many choose these pseudo ‘values’ of the City of Man. We, too, often choose the City of Man; often this choice is the source of all of our sorrows, sufferings, and fears.

As Christians, though we live in the City of Man, we are shown the difference between the City of Man and the City of God by the Word of God himself in Jesus Christ. The Son of God tells us and shows us in word and deed that he is the way, the truth, and the life that leads to the eternal joy, peace, and freedom of the Kingdom of God. If we follow the Spirit, if we willingly surrender to the Spirit and follow the example of Jesus Christ, even through we might have to struggle mightily through difficult times, Paul tells us that we will begin to experience the “fruits of the Spirit, which he lists as: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (v. 22). Paul understands how difficult, even painful, this can be, that it will involve our willingness to “crucify” our fleshly, City of Man passions and desires. But because the effort is great, the rewards will be even greater.

The Psalmist tells us of the rewards for our willingness to follow the Spirit, even though we are in the world. “Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does prospers” (Ps. 1: 1-3). For those who choose, rather, to give themselves over to the ways of the City of Man, there is this: “Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes” (vs. 4-6).

This ever-present choice is before all of us who have come to know and to love Jesus Christ, the Word of God. Do we choose the City of Man? Or do we choose the City of God? We know that, though we are in the world, the City of Man, we are not to be of it. Let us choose, then, to live in the way of the City of God, even as the City of Man beckons us from all sides. “I put before you life and death, God’s blessing and God’s curse; choose one” (Deut. 30:19).