A Theology of the City
Introduction
Eighty percent of the world’s population live in cities where poverty, crime, prostitution, abandoned children and slums abound.
After the Fall
The city only appears after the Fall; the first city was built by Cain and named after his son Enoch. It was probably only made up of a few small dwellings. Since it was built after the Fall, the city itself will have the seeds of ‘fallenness’ within it; Cain’s city in particular would be fallen, since it was built after God told him that he’d be a ‘wanderer on the earth’.
A symbol of self-sufficiency and independence
Refusing to accept his punishment and rejecting God’s offer of protection, Cain built a city in defiance of God - a symbol of self-sufficiency and independence. Stuart Murray in his book 'City vision' says:
The city represents men and women’s alternative to fellowship with God, their attempt to feel secure and significant. Conceived in sin and defiance, it is birthed away from God’s presence as if to exclude him. It is a concrete expression of self-reliance but also a symbol of alienation. Alienated from the ground, men and women create a new environment for themselves; alienated from other human beings, they build walls to surround themselves; alienated from God they create a new little world to have dominion over. The city is their kingdom, their pride and joy, their greatest achievement – and yet . . .the place where they are least secure and most alienated.
Potential for good or evil
Cities were to become a kind of replacement for the presence, protection and provision of God. However, cities are also the products of human creativity, skill and industry. Like the human race the cities are warped and corrupted but they retain vitality and potential for good. Murray goes on to say:
There is potential in the city for both good and evil. Whatever the motives behind the building of cities and whatever they symbolise; human beings made in God’s image cannot help producing things of value, even in their rebellion and independence. Cities are worth saving. They may be built to the glory of men and women rather than the glory of God, but there is a glory about them that is worth redeeming. God’s heart for the cities of the human race is not to destroy them but to redeem them.
The Bible is not anti-urban. It is even handed, seeing value and corruption in both city and countryside. Its vision of the future contains both urban and rural elements, though the centrepiece is the City of God. But the Bible recognises that there is something distinctive about the city, a difference of degree. ‘The whole world is under the control of the evil one’, but his headquarters appears to be in the city. Sin is present everywhere, but it is concentrated and reaches its most virulent form in the city. The cities are spiritual focal points where the key spiritual battles are fought.
Floyd McClung’s definition
Floyd McClung suggests that ultimately even in the Garden of Eden cities would have been built. He believes that God made us relational/corporate beings and that he wanted us to gather together into city-communities. His definition of a city in his book 'Spirits of the City' is:
The city is people created by God, gathered together to serve him and live for his glory. It is also the place where his people are called to be stewards over the resources and environment of his creation, living in peace with one another, and submitting to just magistrates who govern according to God’s laws.
He goes on to say:
Just like the individuals that inhabit them, cities are fallen. Though they take on a life and power of their own, a city is people, a group of individuals. Therefore they have worth and value to God both as individuals and as a community. Just as we have learned that we are significant and valuable to the Lord even though we have sinned against him, so whole communities have a place in God’s plan. Just as we have learned that it is important to love the neediest person because they are created in God’s image, so we must learn to love the neediest city for the same reason.
The term ‘city’ in the Bible, according to Murray, particularly when talking about capital cities, can represent the nation. Cities are also regarded as ‘corporate personalities’, not just a collection of individuals. Our Western individualism finds this concept hard to cope with but it is a key element in the Biblical narrative. Martin Scott believes the Hebrew mindset is very much at home with the concept that there is a corporate entity that is larger than the sum total of a group of individuals and which overrules and affects those individuals within any organisation. He believes the concept of city can also be applied to smaller relational structures and institutions such as a school, a club, a business or even a church.
Five major categories of sin that pollute the city
The sins of the city are manifold, although five main categories stand out:
i Oppression: oppression of the poor by the rich, the weak by the strong and the citizens by their rulers. Using violence, bribery, slander, extortion and domination - see Zeph 3:1 and Jer 6:6.
ii Idolatry: Jeremiah 22:8-9 says:
People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, 'Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?' And the answer will be: 'Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshipped and served other gods.’
iii Bloodshed: Ezekiel 24:9(part) says:
Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed!’
iv Sexual immorality: Sodom and Gomorrah are the best known examples of this sin and the effect it has on the city.
v Pride: independence from God leads to pride. Zeph 3:1-5 says:
Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled! She obeys no-one, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord, she does not draw near to her God. Her officials are roaring lions, her rulers are evening wolves, who leave nothing for the morning. Her prophets are arrogant; they are treacherous men. Her priests profane the sanctuary and do violence to the law. The Lord within her is righteous; he does no wrong. Morning by morning he dispenses his justice, and every new day he does not fail, yet the unrighteous know no shame.
Most cities (the same can be true of business, organisations, institutions and churches) go through a similar process of evolution - the founding fathers of the city built it to serve the original purpose they had in mind, they give it its name and at this point, it takes on an identity and will eventually gain a ‘personality’.
The evolutionary process in city life
Scott says:
In time the organisation or city takes a firmer shape and begins to develop. As it develops it gains independent power. Although this concept can be difficult for those of us in the West to grasp, we begin to see a corporate spirit coming into being. As this independent personality develops it becomes increasingly independent of the founders. Instead of, as in the initial phase, being shaped by the people, it now begins to shape the people.
The city (or institution, or even church) originally created to serve the people, now at this stage of development, begins to use people and resources to serve it.
The city ‘takes on a life of its own’!
Satan and the powers rule
But who controls the cities of the earth? What is the power at work in our cities? What we see from experience is that power in the city generally resides in the hands of a few. Those with the political, economic, academic, or military muscle are able to dominate the city and harness its resources. There is often a real lack of accountability and the city seems to be ruled by faceless bureaucrats, anonymous departments and complex systems that deal with numbers rather than people. Who is at the back of all this? The truth is, says Murray in his book 'City Vision':
. . .that Satan has hijacked the cities. Just as he invaded the garden to spoil God’s beautiful creation, so he has pounced on the city and wrested control from men and women. . . The city will be his instrument now, a powerful tool in his campaign to erase the image of God from the earth and to keep men and women from God’s presence.
. . . there are supernatural intelligences involved, which work through the institutions and power structures of human society. The city is a primary human structure and as such is one of the main spheres of operation of ‘the powers’.
. . . Satan makes use of these powers and of the structures of human cities in his implacable campaign against the God he tried but failed to usurp.
The church’s role
Whilst the city is full of idols and corruption, dominated by unseen and destructive forces (principalities and powers) it may appear incapable of redemption, but we know that Jesus Christ defeated the powers. So our job, as the church, is to declare to our cities that Jesus rules and to call forth the ‘redemptive purpose’ (that purpose for which God created the city originally and which Jesus died to redeem). Our role is to live in the opposite spirit to the city and mirror to her what she can be like – indeed to show her what the Kingdom of God is like.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem but she would not come to him. We must weep over our cities in his name. Life may have begun in a garden but it will end in a city (Revelation 21).
So, let’s speak to our cities!
Eighty percent of the world’s population live in cities where poverty, crime, prostitution, abandoned children and slums abound.