Many Christians feel like the sky is falling. For some, what is falling is a Christian America. For others, it is a democratic America. Either way, we experience anxiety.

Might Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, who lived in the 4th century, offer some insight into how to respond to our situation? 

I think he can since he wrote during a time that resonates with ours, even though it was so long ago. Augustine wrote “The City of God” when the Roman Empire was collapsing from “barbarian” invasions. 

Many Christians then felt like the sky was falling. Since Christianity had been the official religion of the empire for over a century, they thought the kingdom of God had come to earth in the form of the empire. 

The collapse of the empire created a crisis that raised profound questions. The central question was how God could allow this to happen to the kingdom of God.

Augustine answered the first question by saying that God did not, in fact, let the kingdom of God collapse. He made the case in Book XIV, chapter 28, where he urged his readers to distinguish between the earthly city, defined by love of self and the heavenly city, defined by love of God.

In short, to the Christians who thought the empire was the kingdom of God, Augustine said, “No, it wasn’t.” They had confused the two cities. 

They should never have confused the empire with God’s rule in the first place. He reminded them that Christians are only pilgrims in this world.

That answer raises another question, however. If we are just passing through, how should we live since the nation is not the kingdom?

Augustine’s answer is in Book XIX, chapters 17 and 26. There, he wrote that even though the loves of the earthly city are directed toward the self rather than God, the earthly city has its own integrity. It seeks its own form of peace. 

He, therefore, instructed his readers to enjoy and use this earthly peace. Moreover, echoing Jeremiah’s advice to the exiles in Babylon, Augustine told his readers to engage the earthly peace so that it “bear upon the peace of heaven” insofar as it does not inhibit our love of God.

What, then, can we learn from Augustine? To the Christians who argue that we must restore a Christian America, Augustine reminds us that the United States is not the kingdom of God. No nation state has been or ever will be the kingdom of God.

To the Christians who say our primary task is to save democratic practices and institutions, he reminds us that we can responsibly do so, but only if doing so does not distract us from the love of God. 

To all Christians, he says, do not confuse God’s rule with any human rule. That seems like sound advice to me, regardless of the time period in which we live.