Chapter 11 THE TENSION OF THE CITY

Many Christians today, especially in the United States, are indifferent or even hostile toward cities. Some think of them as a negative force that undermines belief and morality, while others see them as inconsequential to Christian mission and living. It may also be true that some young Christians are adopting a romanticized view of the city.¹ But the attitude of the biblical authors is quite different. The biblical view of cities is neither hostile nor romantic. Because the city is humanity intensified — a magnifying glass that brings out the very best and worst of human nature — it has a dual nature.2

This is why the Bible depicts cities as places of perversion and violence and also as places of refuge and peace. Genesis 4 and 11 depict city builders as those in the line of Cain (the first murderer). Genesis also depicts the evil of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet Psalm 107 speaks of a group of wandering people “finding no way to a city where they could settle… and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord… He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. Let them give thanks to the Lord” (vv. 4–8). The psalmist depicts life for people without a city as a bad thing.

The assumption behind this psalm is that the city is a place where human life thrives — it is a positive social form. The depiction of the city in the Bible is therefore finely nuanced. It highlights how the capacities of this positive social form can be realized for God’s glory yet also demonstrates how it can be a vehicle for enhancing human rebellion against God. And as we will see in chapter 12, the city plays a pivotal role in the arc of redemptive history.

In this chapter I want to look at this tension between the city’s God-exalting promise and its man-exalting shadow. We will find this dual nature played out in the pages of Scripture and mirrored in our contemporary world, for in most ways our cities are still today as they have always been.

THE CITY DEFINED

But first we must ask: What do we mean by a city? Today, a city is usually defined in terms of population size. Large population centers are called “cities,” smaller ones “towns,” and the smallest “villages.” We must be careful, however, not to impose our current cultural understanding of city onto the biblical term. The most common Hebrew word for city, ir, meant any human settlement surrounded by some fortification or wall.3 Most ancient cities numbered only about one thousand to three thousand in population but the residents were tightly packed within the city wall. Therefore, according to the Bible, the essence of a city was not the population’s size but its density. A city is a social form in which people physically live in close proximity to one another.

Psalm 122:3 refers to this density: “Jerusalem, built as a city should be, closely compact.”5 In a fortified city, the people lived close to one another in small residences on narrow streets. City life was street life — physical human presence at all times and in all places. In fact, most ancient cities were estimated to be five to ten acres in size, containing an average of 240 residents per acre. By comparison, the island of Manhattan in present-day New York City houses only 105 residents per acre — with high-rises! After Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem’s city wall, there were far too many vacant homes for Jerusalem to flourish as a city (Neh 7:4). In other words, the city wasn’t densely populated enough to function as a city should. So 10 percent of the nation was commanded to move into the city to fill it (Neh 11:1). When cities first arose, they created a distinct kind of human life within their walled, protected space. Out of this dense proximity flowed three signal features that mark urban human life.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
The contrasts drawn here between city, suburb, and town are generalized, and in many places in the world the distinctions are blurred. For example, the New York City borough of Queens consists of many formerly independent towns and suburbs that became engulfed by urban growth and so share some characteristics of both suburbs (e.g., low density, reliance on the automobile, detached single-family housing) and cities (e.g., diversity, mixed land use). This means that places like the strongly Asian-populated town of Flushing, New York (technically part of New York City) are more than simple neighborhoods and need a city vision of their own. The outer rings of many of the older European cities are much like this — with distinctly “urban suburbs.”

SAFETY AND STABILITY

First, because early cities had walls, a city meant greater safety and therefore stability. Cities’ primary importance lay in their resistance to hostile forces, whether opposing armies, marauders, blood feud avengers, or wild animals. The walled safety of a city allowed for a far more stable life than was possible outside the city, and this led to the growth of human civilization. Civilized literally means “citified.” When the Israelites were conquering Canaan, they were amazed at the strength of its fortified cities (Deut 1:28; 9:1; Josh 14:12), and as they settled the land, they built cities for themselves (Num 32:16-42). It should not surprise us that in the Bible the city is used as a metaphor for confidence (Prov 21:22; cf. Deut 28:52). Proverbs 25:28 tells us that a man without self-control is like a city without a wall. Cities were places where life was not dangerously out of control.

Because of this stability, systems of law and order were able to develop first in urban settings. Early cities had gates where the elders sat and decided cases according to the rule of law. Outside the gates, disputes were settled by the sword, which led to blood feuds, destruction, and social disorder. The wall and the gate made it both necessary and possible to develop systems of jurisprudence so matters could be settled fairly, without violence. God commanded the Israelites to build “cities of refuge” to which individuals who killed someone accidentally could flee and plead their case (Num 35:6).

The idea of the city as a place of safety and stability does not immediately strike modern readers as intuitive. We may accept that cities were safe places in earlier times, but today we think of cities as places of high crime. The latest studies indicate that this concept — that higher crime is inevitable in cities — is a mistake. And we must broaden our definition of “the city as safe space.” This concept continues to drive the growth and success of many cities in chaotic parts of the world. Even modern-day cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Gaborone (in Botswana) have thrived because they have established themselves as bastions of the rule of law in disorderly parts of the world, thereby attracting a disproportionate amount of economic investment and human talent.

But another way in which most cities thrive is that they have become places of refuge to which minority groups and individuals can flee from powerful interests. In Bible times, accused criminals could flee blood avengers, seek refuge in the city, and have their case heard by the city elders (Num 35; Deut 19; Josh 20). Even today, economically pressed or politically oppressed people who need to move out of their homeland to achieve a better life usually emigrate to cities. It is in these places of density and proximity that immigrant groups can create “mini-cities” with their own institutions that enable newcomers to enter and learn the ways of the new country. And it’s not just immigrants who feel cities are safe places to live. All demographic minorities (e.g., older single people, racial minorities) feel less conspicuous and odd in cities where more of the people in their group live. Cities, then, continue to thrive today because significant numbers of people perceive them to be safe places to live-in the broadest sense of the term.

DIVERSITY

Second, the biblical understanding of a city also implies greater diversity, which is a natural result of density and safety. In the church in Antioch, we see leaders from different ethnic groups (Acts 13:1) — a natural occurrence when the gospel goes forth in cities, in which many different people groups reside. Because minorities find them to be safe places to live, cities tend to become racially and culturally diverse. And this is not the full extent of their diversity. Cities are marked by diversity not just of population but of land use as well.

Human society requires several elements:

If you think of these elements as components of a pizza (tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, dough), the city is a place where every neighborhood is a slice of pizza. Along with residences, it has places to work, shop, read, learn, enjoy art and music, worship, and play, as well as public government buildings such as town halls and courts. All are mixed and compacted together within walking distance. In ancient times, rural areas and even villages could not provide all these elements; only cities could sustain them all. This is why some define a city as a “walkable, mixed-use settlement.” And in modern times, the dominant arrangement - the suburb — deliberately avoids this urban pattern. Suburbs are normally dedicated to large, single-use zones - so places to live, work, play, and learn are separated from one another and are reachable only by car, usually through pedestrian-hostile zones. Suburbs and rural areas have the pizza ingredients, but not in pizza form. It is tomatoes here, dough there, and pepperoni over there. 10

CITIES INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

In his book The Triumph of the City, Edward Glaeser writes the following:

The only reason why companies put up with the high labor and land costs of being in a city is that the city creates productivity advantages that offset those costs. Americans who live in metropolitan areas with more than a million residents are, on average, more than 50 percent more productive than Americans who live in smaller metropolitan areas. These relationships are the same even when we take into account the education, experience, and industry of workers. They’re even the same if we take individual workers’ IQs into account…

Echoing antiurbanites throughout the ages, Mahatma Gandhi said that “the true India is to be found not in its few cities, but in its 700,000 villages” and “the growth of the nation depends not on cities, but [on] its villages.” The great man was wrong. India’s growth depends almost entirely on its cities. There is a near-perfect correlation between urbanization and prosperity across nations. On average, as the share of a country’s population that is urban rises by 10 percent, the country’s per capita output increases by 30 percent. Per capita incomes are almost four times higher in those countries where a majority live in cities than in those countries where a majority of people live in rural areas.2

PRODUCTIVITY AND CREATIVITY

Third, in the Bible, cities were places of greater productivity and creativity. As we will see below, human culture — technology, architecture, the arts - began to develop as cities were built (see Gen 4; 11). The city features street life and marketplaces, bringing about more person-to-person interactions and exchanges in a day than are possible anywhere else. The more often people of the same profession come together, the more they stimulate new ideas and the faster these new ideas spread. The greater the supply of talent, the greater the productivity of that talent, and the demand for it follows. As a testimony to this fact, the purpose of modern conventions is connection — a place where people connect with expertise, peers, money, and other resources - and the best way to facilitate these connections is to create a temporary city! All the connections lead in the end to creativity — new alliances, ideas, art, and movements.

So ever since the beginning of recorded history, cities have been the centers of cultural intensity — for better or for worse. And what makes a city a city is not so much population size but proximity. Edward Glaeser writes, “Cities are the absence of physical space between people.”11 This is what gives the city its distinctiveness and potency among all other human living arrangements.

THE CITY THROUGHOUT THE OLD TESTAMENT

We have said the Bible has a balanced understanding of how both good and evil operate in a city. We will call this the “tension” of the biblical view of the city. The tension takes time to come into focus, as the city plays a definite role at every stage in the history of salvation. As redemptive history progresses, the Bible moves from a largely negative view of the city (emphasizing the city’s rebellion) to a more positive one (emphasizing the city’s strengths, power, and strategic importance). To illustrate, we turn to a detailed study of the city in early biblical history.

THE PRIMEVAL CITY

The first occurrence of the word city (‘îr) in the Bible is in Genesis 4:17, where Cain, after committing fratricide and being sent away from the presence of the Lord, settles east of Eden in the land of Nod (Gen 4:16). Cain, the rebel, then builds a city.12 This has led some to see “a possible reflection of the antiurban bias in Genesis.”13 But this association misses the subtleties of the narrative. First, the founding of the city comes as the result of Cain’s search for security in the world and of God’s granting his request (Gen 4:14–15). In other words, the city is seen as a refuge, even from the very beginning. In addition, Genesis 4:17-22 links the founding of the city with the beginnings of the creation of culture. Immediately after Cain establishes city life, we see the first development of the arts in the musicianship of Jubal (v. 21) and of technology in the tool making of Tubal-Cain (v. 22). Architecture, agriculture, the arts, and technology all begin when cities begin. Cities are places of human productivity.

This list of cultural expressions would have been shocking to Israel’s ancient Near Eastern neighbors who believed that cultural advances like the sciences, writing, and the arts were the product of divine or mythological characters. The historical, human nature of their origins runs counter to the prevailing cultural view of the ancient Near East. In the Genesis narrative, we see man becoming a contributor under God in the ongoing work of creation, through the development of culture. We learn that city life is not to be seen as simply a punishment for humanity after the banishment from the garden. Rather the city has inherent capacities for bringing human beings together in such a way that enhances both security and culture making.

However, as can be seen in the line of Cain, these capacities, under the influence of sin and rebellion against God, can be generators of great evil. The song of Lamech, Cain’s descendant, shows the Cainite city dwellers using all their advances to form a culture of death (Gen 4:23 - 24). Here is the first clear indicator of the dual nature of the city. Its capability for enormous good - 1 — for the culture-making creation of art, science, and technology — can be used to produce tremendous evil. Henri Blocher does not consider it a coincidence that the first mention of anti-God culture making is tied to the first instance of city building, but he warns against drawing the wrong conclusion:

It is no doubt significant that [in Genesis 4] progress in arts and in engineering comes from the “city” of the Cainites. Nevertheless, we are not to conclude from this that civilization as such is… the fruit of sin. Such a conclusion would lead us to Manichaeism or to the views of Jean-Jacques Rousseau… The Bible condemns neither the city (for it concludes with the vision of the City of God) nor art and engineering.14

Blocher may be responding to writers such as Geerhardus Vos, who in his Biblical Theology points to “the problem of the city” and asserts that “the city, while an accumulator of the energies of culture, is also an accumulator of potencies of evil (Amos 3:9; Micah 1:5).”15 Sometimes these seats of culture making can be established to bring glory to God’s name (1 Cor 10:31) and therefore be a means of serving God and neighbor (e.g., Bezalel in Exod 31:3-5), or they can be erected to “make a name for ourselves” (Gen 11:4), resulting in a culture of human pride, self-salvation, violence, and oppression (Gen 4:17-24). Vos adds that what makes the human city fallen is not its density of population (indeed, this is what makes it an “accumulator of the energies of culture”), but its “spirit of rebellious self-dependence over against God.”16 A horse is a more valuable animal than a mouse, yet a crazed horse is capable of far more damage than a crazed mouse; so too a city’s strengths under sin can unleash more destructive evil. As the Genesis narrative unfolds, we see that warring with the city’s great potential is a profound bent toward corruption and idolatry.

For most of the rest of Genesis, the city is seen in a negative light. The city is mentioned in connection with the accursed Ham (Gen 10:12). The next substantive appearance is in Genesis 11:4 when the people dwelling in the plain of Shinar (11:2) gather together to build a city. The naming of Shinar is significant because of its associations with Babylon (see Gen 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2). It is in this city that the people gather as one and say to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” The writer of Genesis states:

HISTORY OR MYTH?

Jewish scholar Nahum Sarna states:
The list [in Gen 4:17 - 22] constitutes a silent polemic against the mythological concepts of the ancient world, which attributed the advance of culture to divine or semidivine figures. Mesopotamian tradition knew of the seven Apkallu, or mythical sages, half-fish and half-man, who rose out of the sea to reveal to man the sciences, the social system, writing, and art… For Egyptians, it was the god Thot who invented the scales and the balances; Osiris who taught humans agriculture and the arts of life; and Ptah who was the special patron of artists, artificers, and men of letters. In the Ugaritic-Phoenician area, the god Koshar, the divine artisan and smith, was credited with the discovery of the use of iron and the fishing tackle. In the Greek sphere, it was Athena who invented the plough and the rake and who taught both the useful and the elegant arts, while Apollo founded towns and invented the flute and the lyre.

This phenomenon, known as euhemerism or the divinization of the benefactors of humanity, was common to the ancient world. In [Gen 4:17-22] it is tacitly rejected. The development of human culture is demythologized and historicized… Man became a copartner with God in the world of creation. At the same time, the ascription of the origins of technology and urban life to Cain and his line constitute an unfavorable, or at least a qualified, judgment of man’s material progress on the part of the Narrator, a recognition that it frequently outruns moral progress and that human ingenuity, so potentially beneficial, is often directed toward evil ends.17

They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar [again, the city is depicted as the place of technological achievement]. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. (Genesis 11:3-5, emphasis mine)

The spirit of the line of Cain reaches its climax in this effort to build the city of Babel. The new city and its tower are designed to help residents gain an identity apart from service to God. Here we see the essence of how cities can magnify our sinful drive for self-glorification and self-salvation. The efforts of the people working together for their own glory attract the notice of God, who reacts by confusing their language and scattering them “from there over all the earth,” lest they succeed in their plans. The result of God’s judgment was that they “stopped building the city” (v. 8).

THE PATRIARCHS AND THE CITY

The rest of Genesis continues to highlight the dark side of the city — particularly the infamous Sodom and Gomorrah. Again, God “goes down” to judge Sodom (Gen 18:21), just as he did with Babel. Babel, later called Babylon in the Bible, comes to serve as the archetype for urban culture arrayed against God (see Isa 13:19). The Sodom narrative stands in the midst of a long period in which we see city dwellers opposed to God, while God’s people remain rural nomads. God called Abram to leave Ur, one of the great cities of the day, and remain a shepherd all his life. Genesis shows us that Abram’s nephew Lot made a grave mistake in choosing urban life. While he remained a righteous man within Sodom and was distressed by the sinful lifestyle there, the behavior of his wife and daughters showed that Lot’s decision to live in a city without a believing community led to spiritual disaster for his family.18

Nevertheless, we later learn that Abraham’s refusal to enter the cities of his time and place lay in his longing for God’s city: “By faith Abraham… lived in tents… For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb 11:8-10). If the city as a social form is intrinsically bad for human beings or for our faith, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be idealized as the source of Abraham’s sustaining hope. Cities in the service of human self-aggrandizement may work to unravel and destroy the world God made and to contest his lordship over it. But as we will see, the city form, in service to God, actually fulfills the will of God for human life.

ISRAEL AND THE CITY

With the establishment of Israel in the Promised Land, the biblical depiction of cities becomes more positive. When God settled the Israelites in Canaan, he commanded them to build cities of refuge: “Select… your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee. They will be places of refuge from the avenger, so that a person accused of murder may not die before he stands trial before the assembly” (Num 35:11-12). Why did God command the building of cities? Cities with walls and a gathered population could protect an accused person and conduct a trial in a way that villages and rural areas could not. Without cities, a crime or accident could lead to an endless cycle of violence and reprisals. The safety and density of cities enabled a system of jurisprudence to develop around the rule of law. There the elders could hear and settle cases in peace (Deut 19:11-12). God commands the establishment of cities in Israel to establish justice.

But the biggest change in the city’s role within redemptive history comes with the establishment of Jerusalem. Unlike Babel, established “to make a name for ourselves” (Gen 11:4), Jerusalem becomes the city that is the dwelling place for God’s Name (1 Kgs 14:21). This begins when Jerusalem is captured by David (2 Sam 5), the ark of the covenant is brought to the city (2 Sam 6), and finally the temple is built by Solomon. Jerusalem is appointed to be an urban culture that is a witness to the nations and a symbol of the future City of God (2 Sam 7:8–16). God directs that the temple be built on Zion, an elevated location within the city, so it rises above the city as its “skyscraper.” God’s city is different from human cities (like Babel) where skyscrapers are designed for their builders’ own prosperity and prominence. By contrast, God’s city is “the joy of the whole earth” (Ps 48:2). The city’s cultural riches are produced, not for the glory of the producers, but for the joy of the entire earth and the honor of God. The urban society in God’s plan is based on service, not on selfishness.

THE PROPHETS AND THE CITY

From the time of David onward, the prophets speak of God’s future world as an urban society. Bible scholar J. Alec Motyer writes, “The Isaianic literature could be accurately described as ‘the book of the city.’ “19 He notes that in Isaiah, Jerusalem, Zion, mount/mountain, and city are interchangeable terms showing the city’s centrality in the divine thought and plan.20 At this point the spiritual battle lines of history become clear. The great spiritual conflict of history is not between city dwellers and country dwellers but is truly “a tale of two cities.” It is a struggle between Babylon, representing the city of and Jerusalem, representing the city of God.21 The earthly city is a metaphor for human life structured without God, created for self-salvation, self-service, and self-glorification. It portrays a scene of exploitation and injustice. But God’s city is a society based on his glory and on sacrificial service to God and neighbor. This city offers a scene of peace and righteousness. As Saint Augustine put it, “The humble City is the society of holy men and good angels; the proud city is the society of wicked men and evil angels. The one City began with the love of God; the other had its beginnings in the love of self.”22 man, John concludes his Apocalypse (Rev 22:19) by warning those who take words away (aphele) from “this book of prophecy” that God will take away (aphelei) from them their “share in the tree of life and in the holy city” (kai ek tes poleos tes hagias, emphasis mine). Throughout Revelation, John draws a consistent contrast between “the great city,” Babylon,23 and the city of God, or Jerusalem.24 The former receives the eschatological judgment of God, while the latter receives (and mediates) eschatological blessing and salvation.25

THE CITY OF EXILE

When we get to the book of Jonah, we come to a new phase in the unfolding biblical theology of the city. Throughout Israel’s history, prophets are raised up and sent to preach to God’s people, to call them to repentance and renewal. But Jonah is given a unique mission. For the first time, a prophet is sent to preach to a pagan, foreign city — Nineveh. Jonah’s response is first (in Jonah 1-2) to run away from the city. In chapter 3, after his famous encounter with the great fish, Jonah does preach to Nineveh — and the people respond in repentance. God does not destroy the city as he had warned he would. This response displeases Jonah greatly, and in Jonah 4:10-11, God scolds Jonah for his lack of compassion for the lost people of Nineveh. Listen to God’s argument:

Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” (Jonah 4:10-11 NASB)

Here God makes a case for the importance of the city from the sheer number of the human beings in residence. He is saying, “How can you look at so many lost people and not find compassion in your heart?” This is a critical reason that the city is so important today. We might call it the visceral argument for the city. God “has compassion on all he has made” (Ps 145:9). But of all the things he has made, human beings have pride of place in his heart, because they were made in his image (Gen 9:6; James 3:9). Cities, quite literally, have more of the image of God per square inch than any other place on earth. How can we not be drawn to such masses of humanity if we care about the same things that God cares about?

Why did God send an Israelite prophet to a pagan city? Some have argued that this is intended to prepare the Jews for the next stage of their own history-the period of exile - in which they will be residing not in Jerusalem but literally in Babel—in Babylon. The importance of Jerusalem had been obvious; it was to be “the joy of the whole earth” (Ps 48:2), a model urban society demonstrating to the world what human life under God’s lordship could be. But what happens when Israel goes to live in a wicked, pagan, bloodthirsty city in Jeremiah 28-29? How will the people of God relate to the great human cities of the earth now?

THE CITY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Some basic sources that cover this topic include the following:

A major part of the Babylonian Empire’s strategy was to eradicate the spiritual identity of its conquered peoples. A defeated nation’s professional and elite classes were often taken to Babylon to live before being allowed to return home.26 Judah had been deported, partially in the hope that the children and grandchildren of the Israelites would assimilate and lose their identity as a distinct people. The false prophet Hananiah, who could not imagine Israel’s life in Babylon long-term, dishonestly prophesied that God would bring Israel back to Jerusalem within two years (Jer 28:3-4). Had the exiles followed Hananiah’s advice, they would have remained disengaged in Babylon, waiting indefinitely for God’s imminent deliverance.

Instead God, through the prophet Jeremiah, contradicts both the Babylonians’ strategy and the false prophet’s counsel. On the one hand, God tells his people to “increase in number there; do not decrease” (Jer 29:6) to retain their distinct community identity and to grow, but he also tells them to settle down and engage in the life of the great city.27 They are to build homes and plant gardens (v. 5). Most striking of all, God calls them to serve the city - to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city” and to “pray to the Lord for it” (v. 7). While living in Babylon, they are not simply to increase their tribe in a ghetto within the city; they are to use their resources to benefit the common good.

This is quite a balance! From Genesis 11 all the way through Revelation, Babylon is represented as the epitome of a civilization built on selfishness, pride, and violence the ultimate city of man. The values of this city contrast absolutely with those of the city of God; yet here the citizens of the city of God are called to be the very best residents of this particular city of man. God commands the Jewish exiles not to attack, despise, or flee the city — but to seek its peace, to love the city as they grow in numbers.

God is still primarily concerned with his plan of salvation. He must establish his people; the gospel must be proclaimed; human beings must be reconciled to him. Yet he assures his people that serving the good of this pagan city is part of this very plan: “If it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jer 29:7). Loving and serving the city not only shows love and compassion; doing so also strengthens the hands of the people of God, who bear the message of the gospel to the world. Because the Jews in exile obeyed this command, they accrued the influence and leverage needed to eventually return to and restore their homeland. God ties, as it were, the fortunes of the people of God to the effectiveness of their urban ministry.

Sadly, there has never been a city on earth that is not saturated with human sin and corruption. Indeed, to paraphrase a Woody Allen joke, cities are just like everywhere else, only much more so. They are both better and worse, both easier and harder to live in, both more inspiring and oppressive, than other places. As redemptive history unfolds, we begin to see how the tension of the city will be resolved. The turn in the relationship between the people of God and the pagan city becomes a key aspect of God’s plan to bless the nations and redeem the world. In the New Testament, we find cities playing an important role in the rapid growth of the early church and in spreading the gospel message of God’s salvation.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION

  1. How would you describe your own attitude toward cities? Indifferent? Hostile? Romanticized? Positive? In what way has this chapter challenged your attitude toward cities? not be drawn to such masses of humanity if we care about the same things that God cares about?” What are some of the reasons that people avoid ministry in the city? What are some of the reasons that they are attracted to urban ministry?
  2. Cities are places of safety, diversity, and productivity. How do each one of these characteristics uniquely define urban culture?
  3. Keller writes, “Cities, quite literally, have more of the image of God per square inch than any other place on earth. How can we
  4. How can you and the community of believers to which you belong work to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city”? What does this look like in your context?