Chapter 12 REDEMPTION AND THE CITY

正如我们在上一章中看到的，神出人意料地呼召以色列去服侍异教城市巴比伦——要在他们被掳期间，寻求那城的繁荣。从某种意义上说，神的子民至今仍未真正从这种被掳的状态中归回。在本章中，我们将看到这种“被掳模式”如何帮助我们理解新约时代（甚至是今日）教会与城市之间的关系——以及神最终如何解决城市所承载的巨大张力。¹

在被掳期间，以色列不再是一个拥有政府和律法的民族国家。相反，它以一种“逆文化的团体 (countercultural fellowship)”形式，存在于其他民族国家之中。从许多方面来说，这也是新约教会的形态，正如彼得和雅各所暗示的，他们称信徒为“散住的十二个支派”（雅各书 1:1）和“寄居者”（彼得前书 1:1）。彼得两次使用 parepidemoi 这个词来指“寄居者”——这个词有时被翻译为“旅居的外侨”。Parepidemoi 是指那些属于一个国家，却长期居住在另一个国家的人。他们的首要忠诚属于原本的祖国，那里的文化也塑造了他们的信仰和生活方式；但与此同时，他们也作为居住国的一份子，全然参与当地的生活。

换句话说，这些“旅居的外侨”既不像原住民，也不是游客。他们虽然没有永久扎根，却也不是只路过的旅人。

RESIDENT ALIENS AND CULTURE
在一篇关于彼得前书的文章《温柔的差异》中，米罗斯拉夫·沃尔夫指出，彼得所设想的那种介于逼迫与吸引 (persecution and attraction)、宣教与服事 (evangelism and service) 之间的张力，并不完全符合历史上任何一种基督与文化产生关系的模式。与那些主张改造文化，或提倡教会与国家联盟、类似基督教国度的模式不同，彼得认为福音始终会令人反感，永远不可能被这个世界完全接受或认可。这对那些希望建立一个本质上是基督教文化的基督徒来说，是一个警示。同时，与那些仅强调宣教、对影响文化极为悲观的模式不同，彼得却期待基督信仰和实践中的某些方面在任何异教文化中都会极具吸引力，从而促使人们归荣耀于神。²

如今，基督徒被认为是“属天的耶路撒冷的公民”（加拉太书 4:26；参 腓立比书 3:20）。事实上，耶稣在一个意义深远的声明中告诉祂的跟随者，他们是“山上的城”（马太福音 5:14）。每一个属基督的群体，都是神在地上各个城市中的“城”——祂的城。他们是被更新的神的子民（参 以赛亚书 32:14；但以理书 9:16）。他们最终的忠诚是归于神和祂的国度，但正如彼得和雅各使用的称呼那样，信徒并不是在属世的城市里“创新而过”。这种态度正反映了神对被掳到巴比伦的犹太人所要求的平衡姿态。

犹太人被掳到异教城市时，并不是要怀恨、消极地等待离开的那一天，而是要积极地参与当地的生活，在其中劳作、为之祈祷。同时，他们也不该被巴比伦文化同化而失去自己作为神圣洁子民的独特身份。神呼召他们为祂的荣耀，去承受和拥抱城市带来的张力——而这正是今天的基督徒同样被呼召去做的。

“寄居者”总会同时面对称赞与误解。耶稣教导说，基督徒的“好行为”应当让外人看见（马太福音 5:16），但祂也警告说，信徒要预备好面对误解与逼迫（5:10）。彼得也以类似的方式呼吁基督徒在异教社会中活出一种使人“看见你们的好行为，便在鉴察的日子归荣耀给神”的生命（彼前 2:12），但同样提醒他们要预备好忍受逼迫。彼得与耶稣都指出，这些“好行为”（希腊文中不仅指道德良善，也包括服事他人的行动）将使一些外邦人归荣耀于神。

尽管存在这些相似性，基督教会与犹太人在巴比伦被掳时期仍有两个重要的不同：

第一，犹太人在巴比伦几乎完全是通过生儿育女、繁衍家庭的方式“人数增多”（耶利米书 29:6）。而教会也必须在异教城市中作为神的新群体不断增长，但这种增长特别是通过传福音和门徒训练来实现的（使徒行传 6:1, 7；9:31；12:24）。此外，我们也可以看到旧约和新约之间，神对宣教呼召的一个重大转变。在旧约中，宣教是向心的（centripetal），也就是说，万邦被呼召“前来”看到以色列所展现的神荣耀（申命记 4:6-8），并一同敬拜神。而在新约中，宣教则成为离心的（centrifugal）——从中心向外扩展。神的子民被差派出去，将福音传遍世界（马太福音 28:16-20；使徒行传 1-2）。巴比伦的被掳和约拿的宣教使命，都是这种未来宣教模式转变的预表。

第二，尽管犹太人与巴比伦社会有所接触，但他们仍严格遵守摩西律法，因此在衣着、饮食等方面，始终与巴比伦人有文化上的区别（例如但以理书 1:8）。单单是饮食规定就基本决定了犹太人必须与外邦人分开用餐。在《使徒行传》中，神甚至必须通过一个强烈而具体的异象来改变彼得，使他愿意接受进入一位外邦士兵家中的邀请（10:28-29）。在基督里，这些礼仪性和文化性的规条已不再适用（马可福音 7章；使徒行传 15:1-35）。耶稣主动与税吏和罪人一同吃饭，作为祂事工的一部分。这些新约的教导使基督徒可以比当时的犹太人更自由地参与城市文化的生活。然而，这种自由也使得基督徒更容易被同化或妥协。因此，作为天国未来的公民，基督徒必须清醒看见并避开文化中的偶像与不义，同时也享受神普遍恩典带来的美善。

那么，为什么我们今天要将耶利米书第29章的劝勉应用在教会生活中呢？在圣经中，神的子民曾以三种不同的形式存在。从 亚伯拉罕 开始，他们以一个基于血缘的庞大家族形式存在。从 摩西时代 起，他们成为一个民族国家，拥有律法、君王和军队，通过民事惩罚来执行神的律法。而在 被掳时期，神的子民则成为分散在多国中的团体（即会堂），以信仰团契的形式存在。在那段时间内，神的律法不再以民事法的形式执行——不顺从的人会被逐出会众，但不会被处死。

JONAH’S MISSION
约拿书预示了新约中“向外差派信徒”的离心式宣教使命，而不是旧约那种“呼召外邦人归来”的向心式使命。约拿是旧约中唯一被差遣到异教城市、呼召其悔改的先知。神最后的话语令人震撼——祂呼召约拿去爱那座美索不达米亚的大城尼尼微，因为那里有极其众多属灵上瞎眼的居民（约拿书 4:10-11）。³

THE “CRUCIALITY” OF CITY MINISTRY IN THE BIBLE
早期教会在城市中的事工之所以如此有效，Wayne Meeks 在《第一批城市基督徒》（The First Urban Christians）以及 Harvie Conn 在其多本著作中都作了详细分析。他们指出了三个“关键”因素：

文化上的关键性（Cultural cruciality）：
在乡村，也许你能使村里为数不多的一两个律师信主；但若想影响整个法律界，你必须走进城市——那里有法学院、法律期刊出版社，以及这个行业中具影响力的关键机构。

全球性的关键性（Global cruciality）：
在乡村，你可能只能接触到单一的族群，因为农村地区在社会结构上通常较为单一。然而在城市中传福音，你能接触到几十个不同的国家和族群。事实上，你可以借助一地通用的语言（lingua franca）来传递福音。这样，福音就能透过移民回流、探亲或留在原籍的方式，传回许多不同的文化当中。

个人层面的关键性（Personal cruciality）：
在乡村，人们生活在一个更抗拒变革、更加保守和传统的文化中；但在多元与高度流动的城市环境中，城市居民更开放于新观念——包括福音！城市的压力与多样性环境甚至能使最抗拒福音的人，对新的思维方式和生活方式产生开放态度。

被掳归回之后，犹太人重新成为一个民族国家。然而，新约并没有以这种方式设想基督教会的存在。相反，它呈现的是一个延续中的教会——由天下万国中分散的人所组成（使徒行传第2章），正如以色列在被掳时期的状态一样（参 雅各书 1:1；彼前 1:1）。因此，我们有理由认为，教会在当今时代应当与世上的城市建立关系的方式，不应像亚伯拉罕、摩西或大卫时代那样，而应效法被掳时期神子民的做法。

CITY MINISTRY IN THE EARLY CHURCH

在早期教会中，神的救赎使命已不再围绕某一个特定的城市，如耶路撒冷或巴比伦展开。世上的每一座城市都成了神宣教的首要目标。《圣经意象辞典》在“城市”一词的条目中写道：

在《使徒行传》第17章，保罗前往雅典——希腊罗马世界的知识中心；第18章，他去了哥林多——帝国的商业重镇之一；第19章，他到达以弗所——或许是罗马世界的宗教中心，是众多异教信仰的汇集地，尤其以帝王崇拜著称，有三座罗马皇帝的神庙。到了《使徒行传》结尾，保罗终于抵达了罗马本身——这个帝国在军事和政治上最具权力的中心。约翰·斯托得（John Stott）总结道：“保罗似乎有意按着策略，一步一步地前往一个又一个关键的城市中心。”⁵

保罗在以弗所的事工揭示了城市宣教的若干优势。在《使徒行传》19章1节我们读到：“亚波罗在哥林多的时候，保罗经过上边的地方，就来到以弗所。”斯托得指出，在那一带，几乎所有的道路都通往以弗所。同样地，所有的大城市都是区域性和社会性的交通枢纽。保罗到了以弗所后，租用了“推喇奴的讲堂”（第9节）。斯托得解释说，这所讲堂是一间学校，中午时分常常空着两三个小时，人们那时会吃饭和休息。⁷ 保罗就在那段时间传讲福音，进行“dialegomenos”（辩证式对话），他不仅讲道，还与听众对话、辩论，回应他们的问题与反对意见。他向他们证明耶稣就是弥赛亚。“这事有两年之久，叫一切住在亚西亚的，或犹太人、或希利尼人，都听见主的道”（第10节）。因为他的事工发生在这座区域性大城市中，几乎所有吕家谷（Lycus Valley）的人都能接触到福音的传讲。

斯托得观察到：“亚西亚所有居民，不论是买卖、探亲、泡澡堂、看竞技、看戏剧，还是敬拜女神（亚底米），都会不时来到以弗所。”通过影响这座城市，保罗就影响了整个社会的各个阶层，正如《歌罗西书》所显示的那样。在这封书信中，保罗继续关怀那些位于吕家谷城市中的门徒——老底嘉、希拉波立、歌罗西（西 4:13-16）——他们很可能是因保罗在以弗所的事工而信主的，尽管保罗本人从未亲自拜访过那些地方。这显示出：只要在城市中心展开福音事工，就能够有效地影响整个区域和周边社会。斯托得引用 J.A. Alexander 的见解指出，《使徒行传》呈现的是福音“透过在帝国关键位置逐步建立辐射中心或影响力源点”的传播模式。¹⁰ 斯托得总结说：

AS THE CITY GOES, SO GOES THE CULTURE
在他的著作《基督教的兴起》中，社会学家罗德尼·斯塔克（Rodney Stark）探讨了早期基督徒接触城市居民、以影响更广泛文化的战略意义：

对于那些充满无家可归者与贫困人口的城市，基督教带来了慈善与盼望；
对于那些充满新来者与陌生人的城市，基督教提供了建立关系的立基；
对于那些充满孤儿寡妇的城市，基督教带来了一个崭新且扩展的家庭概念；
对于那些因种族冲突而四分五裂的城市，基督教提供了社会团结的新基础……

几世纪以来，人们都在没有基督教神学或社会结构的帮助下，忍受各类灾难。因此，我绝不是在暗示古代世界的苦难是基督教出现的原因。我要论证的是：一旦基督教出现，它在应对这些长期问题上展现出的卓越能力迅速显明出来，并在其最终的胜利中扮演了关键角色……因为基督徒所带来的，不仅仅是一场城市运动，而是一种全新的文化。¹²

早期教会在很大程度上是一场以城市为中心的运动，赢得了罗马帝国城市中的人民归向基督，而大多数乡村地区依然保持着异教信仰。然而，正因为基督教信仰征服了这些城市，它最终也征服了古代希腊—罗马世界。城市的走向决定了文化的走向。¹³ 为什么？城市中的精英阶层固然重要，但基督教会并不只关注他们。当时如同今日，城市中充满了贫穷的人，而城市基督徒对穷人的关怀是显而易见且令人震撼的。基督徒正是透过城市，在赢得精英的同时也深深地认同并服事穷人，从而改变了历史与文化。

理查德·弗莱彻（Richard Fletcher）在《野蛮人的归信》（The Barbarian Conversion）一书中指出，公元500年至1500年间，在基督教传入欧洲的过程中，也发生了同样的事。¹⁴

THE COMMON-GRACE CITY
圣经学者梅瑞狄斯·克莱因（Meredith Kline）指出，《创世记》中文化的发展是随着城市的发展而出现的：

“城市不应被视为堕落人类的邪恶发明……在起初，人类被设定的终极目标就是使人类文化发展为城市的形式……人类历史的存在本应有一个城市结构。创造之初所赐予的文化使命，其实就是建造城市的使命。如今，在人类堕落之后，城市仍然是一种恩典，它为被逐出乐园、被驱逐到荒凉旷野中的堕落人类提供了避难之所……即便在堕落的世界中，‘普遍恩典之城’仍带有医治与补救的益处。城市将资源、力量与才能聚集在一起，不仅为了共同发展受造世界的资源，也为了共同抵御攻击，以及作为福利的行政社群，去救济因土地受咒诅而陷入贫困的人。”¹²

CONSUMMATION: CULTIVATING THE CITY

从旧约的先知开始，神对未来得赎世界的描绘就是一座城市。在《启示录》21–22章中，当神的创造与救赎旨意完全实现时，我们看见的结果的确是一座城市——有城墙、有城门、有街道。从某种意义上来说，这座城市与我们如今的城市不同，它更像是一座“园中之城”，在人的密集与多元所带来的荣耀益处，与自然之美与和平之间达成完美的平衡。神的老敌人巴比伦的城市最终被推翻，神的子民则在和平与繁荣中昌盛（启18）。

这座圣城最令人惊奇的地方在于，它并不是从零开始建造的。在城中有一条水晶般清澈的河流流淌，而河的两岸长着“生命树”，结出果子，树叶可以医治万民，使他们脱离神圣约咒诅所带来的一切后果（启22:1–3）。这座城市，其实正是我们在《创世记》中看到的那座园子，同样有一条中心河流，和生命树的存在（创2:8–10），但如今它已被扩展、被重塑，成为神的园中之城。它是伊甸园，却是被忠心地耕耘与栽培过的——是“神的伊甸”之旨意的实现。¹⁵ 实际上，《创世记》第二章中用来形容“园子”的词语，并不是指荒野，而是指“公园”¹⁶——一种在城市或王宫附近可见的精心照料的土地。

为什么这点很重要？神吩咐亚当和夏娃“治理这地”（创1:28），通常被称为“文化使命”。这是呼召人类“在世界中从事工作，反映神在世界中的作为”¹⁷——去发展文化，建造文明，以荣耀神。园艺（人类最初的职业）是文化发展的范式。园丁既不会任由土地荒芜，也不会摧毁它，而是重新整理，使之产出食物与植物来供人类生活使用。他“耕耘”土地。（culture“文化”与cultivate“耕耘”同源。）每一种职业在某种意义上，都是对伊甸园最初耕耘行为的回应与延续。艺术家使用感官与人类经验的原材料创作音乐与视觉媒介、文学与绘画、舞蹈、建筑与戏剧。技术人员与建筑者则使用物质世界的原材料，将其重新创造性地编排，以促进人类的生产力与繁荣。

既然我们被呼召以这样的方式创造文化，而城市又是文化生产最活跃的地方，我相信建造城市是完成文化使命的关键部分。

如前所述，这种“城市—文化—人类繁荣”的联系在《创世记》第4章就已有迹象。该隐“建造了一座城”（4:17），而紧接着，我们就看到艺术、农业、技术的发展——这些都是神呼召人类进行文化创造的初步表现。即便该隐建城的动机是悖逆的，但城市本身所蕴含的力量却是美善的。从城市诞生的最初，张力便已经存在。

文化使命、人类未能按神的设计履行这一使命、它与城市建造之间的关系、人类之城与神之城之间的渐进发展——这些剧情线索在《启示录》的结尾处被一一解决。虽然第一位亚当未能忠实地回应神的呼召，但第二位亚当——耶稣基督——将成全第一亚当的使命。他将拯救一群子民，治理这地，并建立一个荣耀天父的文明（林前15:22–25）。既然圣经启示我们，城市是第二亚当所成就工作的最终结果，我们就有理由认为，这正是神起初赐给第一亚当文化使命时的原意。换句话说，神呼召亚当与夏娃扩展伊甸园的疆界；而当神的旨意最终得以完全成就，耶稣替我们成就文化使命之时，伊甸园就成为了园中之城。

许多基督徒以为，基督救赎的最终目的，是将我们带回一个乡村式的伊甸世界。在这样的假设下，基督徒的使命被简化为单纯的传福音与门训。但《启示录》并不这么说。神对人类努力的旨意，是要建立文明——也就是城市——来荣耀祂，并管理祂在受造世界中预备的无尽奇妙与丰富。这一洞见使得哈维·康恩（Harvie Conn）写道：文化使命“同样也可以称为城市使命”¹⁸。

城市是一种本质上积极的社会形态，它有着复杂的历史，却拥有美丽的未来。随着救赎历史的发展，我们看到神的子民起初是城市之外的游牧者，是城市的叛逆者（巴别）。然后神引导他们成为城市的建设者与重建者（耶路撒冷）、爱城的流亡者（巴比伦）。到了新约时代，神的子民成为城市的宣教士（事实上，新约几乎没有描写非城市背景的基督信仰）。最后，当神的未来以城市的形态降临时，祂的子民终于可以真正“安居”。城市中因罪而来的败坏与扭曲最终被克服与修复；文化使命完成了；城市生活的所有潜能最终被释放出来，用来事奉神。所有神的子民都将在祂的圣城中事奉祂。

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION

  1. 凯勒写道：“教会如今与世上的城市互动时，不应像亚伯拉罕、摩西或大卫时期的神子民那样，而应像被掳时期的以色列人那样。”
    基督教会如今的处境与当年被掳到巴比伦的以色列人有哪些不同？又有哪些相似之处？这对今天教会的使命有何影响？
  2. 从《使徒行传》第17章起直到整卷书的结束，保罗有策略地前往罗马世界的各个中心城市：知识中心（雅典）、商业中心（哥林多）、宗教中心（以弗所）、政治中心（罗马）。在你所在的本地环境中，哪些地方是权力与影响力的中心？你所在的教会是否正在有策略地接触这些不同的文化影响力中心？
  3. 凯勒写道：“当时如同今日，城市中充满了贫穷人，而城市基督徒对穷人的承诺，是显而易见且引人注目的。”你认为这句话在今天的教会中是否仍然属实？如果是，请举一个例子；如果不是，我们该如何重新拾回这份属灵的遗产？
  4. 凯勒写道：“园艺（人类最初的职业）是文化发展的一个范式。园丁既不会任由土地原封不动，也不会摧毁它。他会重新整理，使其结出供人类使用的食物与植物。他‘耕耘’土地。（culture‘文化’与cultivate‘耕耘’同源。）每一种职业在某种意义上……”

As we saw in the last chapter, God unexpectedly calls Israel to serve the pagan city of Babylon - to seek its prosperity-while living in exile there. And in a sense, the people of God have yet to return from that state of exile. In this chapter, we will see how this exilic model helps us understand the relationship of the church to the city in New Testament times, and even today — and how God plans to resolve the great tension of the city at the end of time.¹

During the exile, Israel no longer existed in the form of a nation-state with a government and laws. Instead, it existed as a countercultural fellowship contained within other nation- states. In many ways, this is also the form of the New Testament church, as Peter and James suggest when they address believers as “the Dispersion” (Jas 1:1 ESV) and “exiles” (1 Pet 1:1 ESV). Twice Peter uses parepidemoi as a word for “exiles”—a word we sometimes translate as “resident aliens.” Parepidemoi were citizens of one country and yet full-time residents of another. Their primary allegiance was to another country, and that country’s culture was formative for their beliefs and practices. Yet they lived in their country of residence as full participants in its life. In other words, “resident aliens” lived neither as natives nor as tourists. Though they were not permanently rooted, neither were they merely travelers who were just passing through.

RESIDENT ALIENS AND CULTURE

In an article on 1 Peter titled “Soft Difference,” Miroslav Volf shows how the tension Peter envisioned between persecution and attraction and between evangelism and service does not fit neatly into any of the historic models of relating Christ to culture. Unlike models that call for a transformation of culture or a Christendom-like alliance of church and state, Peter expects the gospel to always be highly offensive and never completely embraced or accepted by the world. This is a caution to those Christians who hope to bring about an essentially Christian culture. And unlike models that call solely for evangelism and are highly pessimistic about influencing culture, Peter nonetheless expects some aspects of Christian faith and practice to be highly attractive in any pagan culture, thus influencing people to praise God.2

Christians are now considered citizens of “the Jerusalem that is above” (Gal 4:26; see Phil 3:20). Indeed, in a significant statement, Jesus tells his followers that they are a “city on a hill” (Matt 5:14). Communities of Christ-followers are God’s “city” within every earthly city. They are the renewed people of God (see Isa 32:14; Dan 9:16). Their ultimate allegiance belongs to God and his kingdom, yet, in keeping with the term used by Peter and James, believers are not just “passing through” their earthly cities. This reflects the same balanced attitude that Jewish exiles were called to have toward Babylon. The Jewish exiles were not to hate the pagan city as they bided their time, waiting for the day of their departure. They were to be fully involved in its life, working in it and praying for it. At the same time, they were not to adopt its culture or lose their distinctive identity as God’s holy people. God called the Jewish exiles to accept and embrace the tension of the city for the sake of God’s glory — and this is exactly what today’s Christians are called to do as well.

Resident aliens will always live with both praise and misunderstanding. Jesus taught that Christians’ “good deeds” are to be visible to the pagans (Matt 5:16), but he also warns his followers to expect misunderstanding and persecution (v. 10). In a similar way, Peter calls Christians to live in the midst of pagan society in such a way that others will see their “good deeds and glorify God” (1 Pet 2:12), but he warns them to expect persecution nonetheless. Both Peter and Jesus indicate that these “good deeds” (which in the Greek meant not merely personal morality but also acts of service to others) will lead at least some pagans to glorify God.

Despite these similarities, the Christian church differs from the Jewish exiles in two significant ways. First, the Jews “increase in number” in Babylon almost exclusively by having children and growing families (Jer 29:6). The church must also multiply and increase in the pagan city as God’s new humanity, but this happens especially through evangelism and discipling (Acts 6:1, 7; 9:31; 12:24). We also see a significant shift in God’s call to mission between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, mission was centripetal; the flow was in toward the center. Israel was called to be an obedient people, becoming a society that displayed God’s glory for the nations to see (Deut 4:6-8). The nations were called to look and to “come in” and worship God. But in the New Testament, mission becomes centrifugal — moving outward from the center. The people of God are sent out to the world to proclaim the gospel (Matt 28:16-20; Acts 1-2). The Babylonian exile and Jonah’s mission are foreshadowings of this future change.

Second, despite their engagement with Babylonian society, the Jews still kept the Mosaic code, so that their dress, food, and other practices continued to set them culturally apart from the Babylonians (see, e.g., Dan 1:8). Their dietary laws alone virtually dictated that Jews eat separately from pagans. In the book of Acts, God has to send Peter a vivid and forceful vision to get him to even consider accepting an invitation to enter a Gentile soldier’s home (10:28-29). In Christ, these ceremonial and cultural regulations and distinctions become obsolete (Mark 7; Acts 15:1-35). Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners as a strategy for ministry. Adopting these New Testament teachings frees Christians to participate in a city’s culture more fully than the Jews in Babylon could. However, this freedom also makes the danger of assimilation and compromise more acute for Christians. As future citizens of heaven, Christians must see and avoid the idolatries and injustices of their culture, even as they continue to enjoy its common-grace blessings.

So why should we apply the exhortations of Jeremiah 29 to the church today? In the Bible, we see the people of God living in three configurations. From Abraham’s day onward, God’s people existed as an extended biological family. From the days of Moses, they existed as a nation-state, with laws and a king and an army to enforce those laws by civil sanctions. During the exile, however, God’s people existed as a dispersed fellowship of congregations (synagogues) living in many different nation-states. God’s laws did not take a civil form during that period - the disobedient were expelled from the congregation, but they were not executed.

JONAH’S MISSION

The book of Jonah foreshadows the centrifugal New Testament mission (sending believers out) rather than the centripetal Old Testament mission (calling nonbelievers in). Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet sent to a pagan city to call it to repentance. God’s final statement is striking. The Lord calls Jonah to love the great pagan city of Nineveh because of the vast number of its spiritually blind inhabitants (Jonah 4:10-11).3

THE “CRUCIALITY” OF CITY MINISTRY IN THE BIBLE

Many of the reasons that city ministry was so effective in the early church have been outlined by Wayne Meeks in The First Urban Christians and by Harvie Conn in his many books. They identify three “crucial” factors:

  1. Cultural cruciality. In the village, someone might win its one or two lawyers to Christ. However, if you want to win the legal profession, which will influence all lawyers, you must go to the city, where you will find the law schools and the law journal publishers—the key institutions of influence in that profession.
  2. Global cruciality. In the village, someone can win over the single people group living there, since rural areas are often sociologically homogeneous. But if you share the gospel in a city, you can reach dozens of different national and ethnic groups. Indeed, you can reach them through one language—the lingua franca of that place. The gospel then travels back into many different cultures through immigrants who return to visit or remain in their homelands.
  3. Personal cruciality. In the village, people live in a culture that tends to resist change and is more conservative and traditional. However, because of the diversity and mobility of the cities, urbanites are more open to new ideas—such as the gospel! The pressure and diversity of the city environment make even the most gospel-hostile people open to new ways of thinking and living.

After the exile, the Jews went back to being a nation-state. Yet the New Testament does not envision the Christian church in this way. Instead, it shows that the church continues to exist as a dispersion of people from every nation under heaven (Acts 2), just as Israel did in the exile (see Jas 1:1; 1 Pet 1:1). Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that the church should continue to relate to the human cities of our time, not as the people of God did under Abraham, Moses, or David, but as they did during the time of the exile.

CITY MINISTRY IN THE EARLY CHURCH

In the early church, God’s redemptive mission no longer centered on a particular city such as Jerusalem or Babylon. All of the cities of the world become primary targets of God’s mission. The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery in its article on “City” states the following:

In Acts 17, Paul travels to Athens, the intellectual center of the Greco-Roman world. In Acts 18, he goes to Corinth, one of the commercial centers of the empire. In Acts 19, he arrives in Ephesus, perhaps the Roman world’s religious center, the hub of many pagan cults and particularly of the imperial cult, with three temples for emperor worship. By the end of Acts, Paul has made it to Rome itself, the empire’s capital of military and political power. John Stott concludes, “It seems to have been Paul’s deliberate policy to move purposefully from one strategic city-centre to the next.”5

Paul’s ministry in Ephesus reveals several of the strengths of urban ministry. In Acts 19:1 we read, “While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus.” Stott remarks that virtually all the roads in that part of the world went through Ephesus. Similarly, all major cities are the unavoidable crossroads for their regions and societies. Paul entered Ephesus and rented the “lecture hall of Tyrannus” (v. 9). Stott notes that the lecture hall would have been a school that stood vacant for two to three hours at midday when people took a break from work for a meal and rest.7 There Paul did gospel dialegomenos, arguing and persuading his hearers dialogically—not simply by preaching but by making his case that the Messiah was Jesus and engaging with people’s questions and objections. “This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (v. 10). Because Paul’s ministry took place in the region’s major city, virtually everyone in the Lycus River valley would have been exposed to the preaching of the gospel.

Stott observes that “all the inhabitants of Asia visited Ephesus from time to time, to buy or sell, visit a relative, frequent the baths, attend the games in the stadium, watch a drama in the theatre, or worship the goddess [Artemis].” By reaching the city, Paul reached all segments of society, as evidenced in the letter to the Colossians. In this epistle, Paul follows up with disciples in cities along the Lycus Valley-Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossae (Col 4:13-16)—who were likely converted through his Ephesian ministry, even though he had never visited those places personally. This suggests that if the gospel is unfolded at the urban center, you can effectively reach the region and the surrounding society. Stott cites J. A. Alexander’s insight that Acts shows the spread of the gospel “by the gradual establishment of radiating centres or sources of influence at certain salient points throughout a large part of the Empire.”10 Stott concludes:

This process of urbanization… constitutes a great challenge to the Christian church. On the one hand, there is an urgent need for Christian planners and architects, local government politicians, urban specialists, developers and community social workers, who will work for justice, peace, freedom and beauty in the city. On the other, Christians need to move into the cities, and experience the pains and pressures of living there, in order to win city-dwellers for Christ. Commuter Christianity (living in salubrious suburbia and commuting to an urban church) is no substitute for incarnational involvement.11

AS THE CITY GOES, SO GOES THE CULTURE

In his book The Rise of Christianity, sociologist Rodney Stark discusses the strategic importance of the early Christians’ reaching city dwellers to influence the broader culture: To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity…

People had been enduring catastrophes for centuries without the aid of Christian theology or social structures. Hence I am by no means suggesting that the misery of the ancient world caused the advent of Christianity. What I am going to argue is that once Christianity did appear, its superior capacity for meeting these chronic problems soon became evident and played a major role in its ultimate triumph… [for what Christians] brought was not simply an urban movement, but a new culture.2

The early church was largely an urban movement that won the people of the Roman cities to Christ, while most of the rural countryside remained pagan. Because the Christian faith captured the cities, however, it eventually captured the ancient Greco-Roman world. As the city went, so went the culture. 13 Why? The urban elites were, of course, important, but the Christian church did not focus on them alone. Then, as now, the cities were filled with the poor, and urban Christians’ commitment to the poor was visible and striking. Through the cities, Christians changed history and culture by winning the elites as well as by identifying deeply with the poor. Richard Fletcher, in The Barbarian Conversion, shows that this same thing occurred during the Christian mission to Europe from AD 500 to 1500.14

THE COMMON-GRACE CITY

Bible scholar Meredith Kline notes how the development of culture in Genesis arises from the development of cities:

The city is not to be regarded as an evil invention of… fallen man… The ultimate goal set before humanity at the very beginning was that human culture should take city-form… There should be an urban structuring of human historical existence… The cultural mandate given at creation was a mandate to build the city. Now, after the fall, the city is still a benefit, serving humankind as refuge from the howling wilderness condition into which the fallen human race, exiled from paradise, has been driven… The common grace city has remedial benefits even in a fallen world. It becomes the drawing together of resources, strength, and talent no longer just for mutual complementation in the task of developing the resources of the created world, but now a pooling of power for defense against attack, and as an administrative community of welfare for the relief of those destitute by reason of the cursing of the ground. 12

CONSUMMATION: CULTIVATING THE CITY

Beginning with the Old Testament prophets, God’s future redeemed world is depicted as a city. And in Revelation 21-22, when God’s creational and redemptive intentions are fully realized, we see that the result is indeed a city, with walls and gates and streets. In some ways, this city is unlike our current cities, more of a “garden-city” that perfectly balances the glorious benefits of human density and diversity with the beauty and peace of nature. The city of God’s old enemy, Babylon, is finally overthrown, and God’s people thrive in peace and productivity (Rev 18).

What is most striking about this holy city is that it has not been built from scratch. In its midst flows a crystal river, and on each side of the river is “the tree of life” that bears fruit and leaves to heal the nations of all the effects of the divine covenant curse (Rev 22:1-3). This city is, in fact, the same garden we see in the Genesis account, which was also marked by a central river and the presence of the tree of life (Gen 2:8-10), but it has been expanded and remade into the garden-city of God. It is the garden of Eden, yet faithfully cultivated — the fulfillment of the purposes of the Eden of God.15 Indeed, the very word used for “garden” in Genesis 2 denotes not a wilderness but a “park,”16 a well-tended plot of land one would find in a city or near a royal palace.

Why is this important? God’s directive that Adam and Eve “rule over” the earth (Gen 1:28) is often called “the cultural mandate.” This is a call for them to “image God’s work for the world by taking up our work in the world.”17 It is a call to develop a culture and build a civilization that honors God. Gardening (the original human vocation) is a paradigm for cultural development. A gardener neither leaves the ground as is, nor does he destroy it. Instead, he rearranges it to produce food and plants for human life. He cultivates it. (The words culture and cultivate come from the same root.) Every vocation is in some way a response to, and an extension of, the primal, Edenic act of cultivation. Artists, for example, take the raw material of the five senses and human experience to produce music and visual media; literature and painting; dance and architecture and theater. In a similar way, technologists and builders take the raw material of the physical world and creatively rearrange it to enhance human productivity and flourishing. Because we are called to create culture in this way, and because cities are the places of greatest cultural production, I believe that city building is a crucial part of fulfilling the mandate.

As we have already pointed out, the first evidence for this connection between the city, the culture, and the flourishing of human beings is found in Genesis 4, where Cain is “building a city” (v. 17). Immediately after the city is built, we see the first development of the arts, agriculture, and technology — the beginnings of the human cultural creativity that God had called for. Even though Cain’s purpose in building the city was rebellious, its power was good. The tension of the city was present from its very start.

The cultural mandate, our failure to fulfill it in accord with God’s design, its connection to city building, and the progressive importance of the city of man to the city of God — all these plotlines resolve at the end of the book of Revelation. Though the first Adam failed to faithfully heed God’s call, the second Adam - Jesus Christ—will fulfill the mandate of the first Adam. He will save a people, subdue the earth, and bring in a civilization that honors the Father (1 Cor 15:22-25). Since the Bible reveals to us that a city is the final result of the work of the second Adam on our behalf, it seems fair to assume this was what God had intended when he gave the cultural mandate to the first Adam. In other words, God called Adam and Eve to expand the borders of the garden, and when God’s will is finally done and Jesus fulfills the cultural mandate on our behalf, the garden of Eden becomes a garden city.

Many Christians assume that the final goal of Christ’s redemption is to return us to a rural, Edenic world. Based on this assumption, the work of Christians is exclusively to evangelize and disciple. But Revelation shows us this is not the case. God’s intention for human endeavor is that it raise up civilizations-cities-that glorify him and steward the endless wonders and riches that God put into the created world. This insight has led Harvie Conn to write that the cultural mandate “could just as easily be called an urban mandate.”18

The city is an intrinsically positive social form with a checkered past and a beautiful future. As redemptive history progresses, we see that God’s people begin as wanderers and nomads outside of cities, and as city rebels (Babel). Then God directs them to be city builders and rebuilders (Jerusalem) and city-loving exiles (Babylon). In New Testament times, the people of God become city missionaries (indeed, New Testament writings contain few glimpses of nonurban Christianity). Finally, when God’s future arrives in the form of a city, his people can finally be fully at home. The fallen nature of the city - the warping of its potential due to the power of sin - is finally overcome and resolved; the cultural mandate is complete; the capacities of city life are freed in the end to serve God. All of God’s people serve him in his holy city.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION

  1. Keller writes, “The church should continue to relate to the human cities of our time, not as the people of God did under Abraham, Moses, or David, but as they did during the time of the exile.” In what ways is the situation of the Christian church different from that of the exiles in Babylon? In what ways is it similar? How does this affect the mission of the church today?
  2. From Acts 17 through the end of the book of Acts, Paul has strategically traveled to the intellectual (Athens), commercial (Corinth), religious (Ephesus), and political (Rome) centers of the Roman world. What are the centers of power and influence in your own local context? How is your church seeking to strategically reach these different centers of cultural influence?
  3. Keller writes, “Then, as now, the cities were filled with the poor, and urban Christians’ commitment to the poor was visible and striking.” Do you believe this is still true of the Christian church? If so, give an example. If not, how can this legacy be recaptured?
  4. Keller writes, “Gardening (the original human vocation) is a paradigm for cultural development. A gardener neither leaves the ground as is, nor does he destroy it. Instead, he rearranges it to produce food and plants for human life. He cultivates it. (The words culture and cultivate come from the same root.) Every vocation is in some way