The Political Household of God
Against the Public/Private Dichotomy
This chapter considers God's own reconfigured eschatological Household, the church, by examining the third dichotomy raised in chapter 1: the public/private distinction. Reflecting on Augustine's City of God in conjunction with contemporary scholars John Milbank and Bernd Wannenwetsch, this chapter shows how the church is itself a politic that holds polis and oikos in tension. There can be no intelligible distinction made between the City of God and the Household of God given that the church is made to be Christ's body and is oriented to life in God. Christians are first members of this Household, and only secondarily members of smaller households, which are themselves formed in relation to the church.
Keywords: public/private, John Milbank, Bernd Wannenwetsch, City of God, polis, oikos
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