American Babylon- Notes of Christian Exile

From the beginnings of the Christian movement to the present, there has been no end to disputation about what it means to say that Christians are "in but not of the world." American Babylon, the last work by eminent theologian Richard John Neuhaus examines the senses in which that sentiment holds particularly true for Christians in America today.

Christians are by definition a people out of place. In this life short of promised Kingdom of God, they are alien Citizens. This inherent sense of alienation is compounded in America, a country that advertises itself a nation under God but is gravely marked by decadence, consumerism, and other distractions from our eternal destiny. Neuhaus brought his formidable intellect and imagination to bear on the quandaries of Catholic America in its time of testing. Precisely because we know that ours is time and place of exile, we are sustained by unconquerable hope, knowing that we have not the reason and we have not the right to despair of our moment in the American Babylon.

Deeply learned, frequently provocative, and always eloquent, American Babylon is major statement of a major Christian thinker charting the path of faithfulness for dual citizens determined to be loyal both to their place of exile and to their promised destination to the New Jerusalem.