From the Archives Love Amidst the Brokenness The fall of Rome was the 9/11 of the ancient world; Alaric, its Osama bin Laden. As the "eternal city" crumbled, Augustine of Hippo pointed Christians to the City of God—the eternal church on pilgrimage through a world that is not our home. By Timothy George, from issue 94: Building the City of God in a Crumbling World
September 11, 2001, is frequently compared to December 7, 1941, as a day that will "live in infamy." But a more appropriate analogy might be August 24, 410, when the city of Rome was besieged and pillaged by an army of 40,000 "barbarians" led by the Osama bin Laden of late antiquity, a wily warrior named Alaric. More …
Christianity Fever Through a century of political turmoil and disillusionment, waves of Chinese intellectuals have come to Christ. by Stacey Bieler and Carol Lee Hamrin
As for Me and My House The house-church movement survived persecution and created a surge of Christian growth across China. by Tony Lambert
Worshiping Under the Communist Eye The birth of an "official" Chinese church helped Christianity thrive in public under political constraints. by Ryan Dunch
From Foreign Mission to Chinese Church Missionaries in China were hampered by pressures from home, mistakes in leadership, and identification with the West, but they planted the seeds that would someday yield an astonishing harvest. By Daniel H. Bays
"Mankind is divided into two sorts: such as live according to man, and such as live according to God. These we call the two cities… The Heavenly City outshines Rome. There, instead of victory, is truth" —Augustine of Hippo
August 24, 410: Alaric and the Goths sack Rome. Pagans blamed pacifist Christians and their God for the defeat. Augustine, in his massive City of God, repudiated this claim and blamed Rome's corruption instead (see issue 67: Augustine)
Augustine never wanted to be a priest. When Valerius, bishop of Hippo, urged him during a sermon to accept ordination, the congregation literally pushed him to the front of the church. Augustine, feeling God had "laughed him to scorn," wept from the shame of having once mocked the church and its leaders. (The congregation thought he was disappointed at being made a priest rather than a bishop.)
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