Augustine on the City

In yesterday's post one of my ideas for writing was on the Reformers' view(s) of the city.  A nice bit of timing today as I came across this from Augustine in The City of God:

If, then, home, the natural refuge from the ills of life, is itself not safe, what shall we say of the city, which, as it is larger, is so much the more filled with lawsuits civil and criminal, and is never free from the fear, if sometimes the actual outbreak, of disturbing and bloody insurrections and civil wars? (19.5)

Augustine predated the Reformers by over a millennium, but since they counted him one of their own I wonder if they shared such sentiments.

In the meantime

As I happily wade through about three or four books (depending on how one counts how many books I'm reading at the moment, but [though I love parenthetical asides] explaining what I mean would be irrelevant and distracting [indeed, more irrelevant and distracting than this parenthetical aside]) and await til I can review them, I thought it'd be fun to go a different direction than my usual meanderings on reading.

Writing rather than reading will be the focus of today's entry.  I enjoy writing, and would love to one day actually publish something moderately fun and/or helpful.  Here are a few ideas for writing that I may or may not do anything with:

(1) The Reformers and the City.  There's lots of talk these days about cities:  about how the world is steadily urbanizing, about Global Cities, urban ministry, a theology of the city, and so forth.  I'm really curious to know what the Protestant Reformers thought about the city.  Calvin ministered in Geneva.  Zwingli ministered in  Zurich.  Luther was in Wittenberg.  What did they think about their cities or "The City?"  I don't know but I'm curious.  I wonder if they have any wisdom for us.

(2) In Praise of Chicago.  It'd be fun to write about things I love about Chicago.  No educational or instructive purpose.  Just for fun.

(3) The History of Evangelicalism in Chicago.  Don't know if anyone's ever written about this.  But it would be both fun and instructive (at least I think so).

(4) A children's book about two squirrels.  Don't laugh.  I wrote the first chapter back four or five years ago just for fun.  Now Duncan's getting to the point of understanding it.  I think he'd like it.

(5) A pamphlet on adoption.  This one's already in the works.

Until then, there's plenty of books to keep reading, lattes to keep making, and family to keep loving/protecting/providing for/preventing from eating unknown objects off the ground/etc.