The inauguration of our 46th president was not unlike a worship service. It was generous with prayers, hymns, and deference to the Judeo-Christian God—more so than inaugurations of recent past. (Though organizers attempted ecumenism, their efforts went only so far – no Buddhist was asked to deliver a benediction; no Muslim was invited to offer a prayer.) Finally, the oaths sworn by both national officers were done so under God.

The quasi-religious public ceremony begged the obvious question, “Can a Christian national officer uphold the Constitution under a God whose perceived will sometimes conflicts with our national interests?” Answers to this question range from the consideration of American democracy as a religion, itself, to an appeal to Jesus’ mandate that, no, a person cannot serve two masters, without perilous ethical compromise.

So, where is the line between God and country? For some, America is the new Jerusalem, and there is no line. For others, that religious belief would factor deliberately into policy-making is un-American, and the line is indelible.

It’s worth noting, and potentially ironic, that President Biden in his inaugural address referred to the Christian theologian, St. Augustine. This celebrated early church father drew a thick, red line separating faith and politics in his tome, City of God.

I’m not one to offer a summation in place of close study, so let’s call the following quotation a teaser – it certainly doesn’t contradict one of Augustine’s main points in City of God. He writes, in Book XIV, “Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord.” It is an unequivocal and seemingly untenable standard, but Augustine’s hard line likely has helped save the church on occasion from devolving into nothing more than a tool of the state.

Given the use (and misuse) of religion to effect political ends, it’s worth returning to Augustine’s medieval work, City of God. Why not just take up the issues as they stand now, in this place and time? It’s easier to analyze our own political and religious conflict by engaging comparable issues of others from a different era, because it takes our high emotional investment out of the equation. An historical study allows us the distance necessary to then judge our current situation with more objectivity.

As I develop and teach a course on City of God for my own congregation, I will share our teaching and learning here, over the next several weeks. Read, reflect, and enjoy.

Credit: Josh Haner/The New York Times