BOOK REVIEW: Two Cities, Two Loves by James M. Boice

By James Jeffery

Three years after Rome was sacked by the Visigoths, Saint Augustine published his magnum opus, The City of God. This seminal work sought to help Christians navigate life in a post-Christian culture. Augustine argued that since the fall of Adam, there have existed two spiritual cities. First, the City of God, comprised of all those who look to Christ by faith, is destined for glory. Second, the City of Man, which seeks to overthrow the rule and authority of God, is destined for destruction. 

The key to thriving in a post-Christian culture, Augustine argued, is recognising one’s identity as a citizen of a greater city ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ. Only this provides both hope for the future and an understanding of the power we wield to have a transformative influence on our dark decaying culture. 

In 1996, Presbyterian pastor and scholar James Montgomery Boice published his first edition of Two Cities, Two Loves: Christian Responsibility in a Crumbling Culture. Drawing on Augustine’s The City of God, Boice sought to help Christians see the parallels between the world in which Augustine lived, and the post-Christian West he ministered in, particularly the USA. While much of the original material is retained in this new edition of Two Cities, Two Loves, P&R saw the need for a republication for this reason:

“[Two Cities, Two Loves] continues to speak with clarity and relevance to our broken and “crumbling culture.” These chapters are surely relevant today as we live amid the overwhelming havoc produced when a culture deliberately turns away from a recognition of biblical objective truth.’ (pp. 7-8)

What are the signs we are living in a ‘Post-Christian’ age? Few Westerners today acknowledge the Christian truths our civilisation was built upon. This is manifested in the rise of religious pluralism, aided and abetted by mass immigration from non-Christian nations. The educational sphere has undergone radical de-Christianisation and secularisation. Church attendance has rapidly decreased, and rampant individualism (i.e. self-love) is the prevailing philosophy. Behind all this, many pastors have failed to proclaim the uncomfortable truths of Scripture. While Jesus is still reigning on His throne, Western nations have forsaken the God whose truths our civilisation was built upon. This is the context into which Boice prophetically speaks. 

Drawing on Augustine’s work, Boice reiterates that the City of God is characterised by the love of God, and the City of Man by the love of self. The love of God endures forever, and has a transformative power on individual conduct, and society as a whole. By contrast, the love of self is fleeting, as it leads to the destruction of the individual, and the world around us. What Christians must consider, Boice argues, is to:

“[D]iscover what it means to be the city of God, to know what it is to be “blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation” (Phil 2:15)’ (p. 20). 

Although this has been a challenge for believers of every generation, it is a particularly subject given the deconstruction of Christianity that has taken place across the West over the last few decades. Only a proper understanding of our responsibility can get us out of this mess, and reignite gospel hope for the future. 

While it is right to see the infiltration of the West by other religious groups (particularly Islam) as a form of modern Visigoth invasion, Boice is rightly convinced the greatest threat has been internal. If the Western world acknowledged Jesus as Lord in all things, the societal and cultural integrity of its nations would not be as susceptible to breaking under the pressure of alternate religious ideologies. 

As Boice writes:

“Where is the Hun? He is in each of us. We are all barbarians until God removes our proud self-centredness and enables us to trust and learn from him who alone is good, absolutely true, and exquisitely beautiful in Jesus Christ.” (p. xxx)

Pinpointing the causes, Boice argues that unfettered individualism and self-love have undermined Western society, culture, and nations. Far from freeing us, the sexual liberation has undermined the integrity of marriage, facilitated the murder of infants, promoted deviant sexuality including homosexuality and transgenderism, and has led to an exponential increase in fatherless homes. Educationally, the pursuit of truth has been exchanged for the faux notion of ‘subjective truth,’ and psychologically, we have exchanged the category of sin — in many cases — for ‘mental illness.’ While we may entertain the idea that such thinking has not infiltrated the church, the evidence suggests otherwise.

The Bottom Line

On the whole, Boice’s book provides a much-needed diagnosis of the state of Christendom, and how God calls us to live as His people in the ‘post-Christian’ age. He offers a simple instruction for believers living in the city of man — we must be faithful to Jesus Christ, and let Christ shine through us brightly in this dark and fallen world. Boice reminds us that our greatest need is ‘a generation of Christians who know the Bible well enough and obey it radically enough to be a new people or new society to stand over against the world and its system. To recall Augustine, they must become a people who “love God, even to the contempt of self.”’ (p. 29). 

May we be such Christians, through whom the love of God shines brightly and dispels the darkness of this present evil age. Wherever you are at in your walk with Jesus, Two Cities, Two Loves is a book to put on your reading list!