“Unity” is the word of the day. In his inaugural address, Joe Biden invoked St. Augustine to inspire Americans to come together around certain shared values. As others have recently argued, Biden misreads Augustine in important ways. My argument here is that if we seek political unity and civic health in Augustinian key, then we must account for the primacy of worship in his vision.
As I have argued elsewhere, Augustine’s politics centers on the church. Within this framework, Augustine presumes the political import of true worship and contrasts it to the religion of the empire—which he persistently critiques. This begs the question: Why is proper worship a public good? Most notably in book 10 of City of God, Augustine condemns pagan worship for being divisive, prideful, and ultimately ineffectual. The Roman pantheon, he argues, is simply a projection of the empire which motivates people merely with reference to the attainment of public praise. Therefore, it cannot truly transform persons beyond what is socially approved. In the second half of City of God, Augustine elucidates how true worship effects unity, orders one’s loves, forms participants in virtue, and humbles citizens and their political aspirations.
True religion unifies a people (14.1) because the God who is worshipped is a (or rather, “the”) common good (10.6). This good is inexhaustible and immutable; therefore, it cannot be lost or depleted (12.2; 14.10). The enjoyment of God is available to all people and is not dependent upon one’s unchangeable characteristics or personal achievements; therefore, it is not tribalist, elitist, or competitive. Since God desires that persons enjoy him with each other, worship produces a true community rather than atomistic individuals pursuing private goods. Augustine believes that it is only in Christ that true fellowship is possible. Those who worship Christ share a common object of love which enables a love between them which will last forever.
In relation to this, true worship rightly orders the loves of a people (12.2; 14.13). The sacrifice involved orients participants to their ultimate loyalty. Humanity is permitted to sacrifice solely to God who is the only object worthy of one’s self-offering because God is also the proper object of enjoyment. By seeking one’s supreme joy in God, persons are enabled to love their neighbors rightly (14.9). One is freed from idolizing or instrumentalizing others. Instead of using one’s neighbors to fulfill egoistic desires, the Christian seeks to share her joy in God with others for eternity. This also impacts one’s devotion to political entities; though a Christian is free to serve them, she withholds her ultimate loyalty from them. Christians do not offer any temporal polity, political party, or administration the ultimate sacrifice of themselves; instead the citizens of the city of God worship Christ who calls us to love each other. The enjoyment of God which is enshrined in the worship of the church orients Christians to love others and serve their political loyalties rightly.
True worship forms the citizens of the heavenly city in proper virtue (19.23-25). Only the true God frees people from the power of demons and fundamentally transforms us (10.24). It is in the sacramental fellowship where Christ is found and wherein people participate in his transforming sacrifice. In the ancient world, it was expected of just leaders that they would be able to make the people just. Augustine argues that no human leader can accomplish this. Only Christ—the God-man—is just and the justifier; only he can mediate virtue. This is why Christians offer sacrifices only to God through Christ who can heal, renew, and reconcile his people. The eucharistic sacrifice they perform in worship participates in Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf and flows out into a life of sacrifice characterized by mercy and compassion toward our neighbors.
The true worship of the city of God also humbles its citizens (10.20; 19.27; cf. 5.24, 26). The eucharist reminds God’s people of their sin and lack of self-sufficiency. It also enshrines the “wondrous exchange” accomplished in Christ, which Augustine understands as including the mediation of Christ’s virtue to his people, as mentioned above. The primary virtue which the city of God exhibits is humility, which is also received through Christ who humbled himself. As those justified in Christ, the just society is penitential; its righteousness entails its perpetual confession and request for forgiveness. This flows out into broader social life. As those who know they need mercy, they will show mercy toward others. This will be expressed in moderation in the punishment of criminals and in treatment of political opponents. Humbled citizens of the city of God are self-critical in their political judgments, and thus Christians involved in politics must acknowledge their limits, admit their mistakes, and abandon all attempts that seek to control history or eradicate opposition.
Augustine ties political idolatry to the fear of death and believes that the virtue of humility frees Christians for proper political perspective. The fear of death keeps people from choosing eternal goods, inclining instead toward the lust for earthly glory. Because of this, Augustine believes that Christian rulers are the best qualified for temporal politics, ironically, because they are not absolutely committed to any specific arrangements. They know that God’s kingdom is never in jeopardy and that to hold onto any particular regime would be political idolatry which would express itself in domination. Citizens of the city of God must learn to embrace the vulnerability of temporal politics. They use earthly peace rather than resting their hopes on any historical order. Perfect peace is found only in God (19.20), which means that true happiness eludes us in all of our earthly politics (19.4). The church experiences a taste of this peace now (15.6; 19.27), and thus its members summon their neighbors to share this joy with them for eternity, looking beyond temporal politics (12.1; 19.17). What this means is that Christians are better servants of the world when they are cognizant of their heavenly citizenship and approach their earthly political activity with humility. This awareness, this humility, is cultivated in the worship of the church.
If we want real unity and political peace, we need to worship the true God. It is no coincidence that our tensions have reached a boiling point during a time when our ability to gather for worship is severely restricted. To get back to each other, pray that our nation comes back to church.
Rev. James R. Wood is a PhD candidate in Theology at Wycliffe College (University of Toronto), graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary (ThM, 2018), and PCA pastor. His writings focus on political theology, ecclesiology, and sacramental theology and have appeared in the Journal of Reformed Theology, Pro Ecclesia: A Journal for Catholic and Evangelical Theology, and Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, Mere Orthodoxy, Providence, and Covenant (weblog of Living Church).