Books like City of God

This is a truly COLOSSAL book!You know, there are two ways of getting answers in the world... there’s getting the world’s answers (and that’s sometimes doublethink) and there’s getting SYMBOLIC answers!Sub specie aeternitatis, symbolic answers are the ONLY important ones. Rather than show the world’s Real face, they Suggest it.And they’re what Augustine gives us when he divides the world RIGHT UP THE MIDDLE.If you cut through the layers of your illusions about it, it's all about that one central fact, from which you can then draw your own conclusions:There are TWO PARALLEL WORLDS on this planet. One of them is a cold, grasping, calculating - in a word, selfish - world; the other is a world of warm, compassionate, caring, but quite ordinary, human beings. In a word, a loving world. Hard to believe? Take a closer look at the people around you. Some of them uniformly choose to do good. They‘d be lost if they didn’t!So, why are they JUST SO PLAIN NICE?It’s not just to please you...Maybe, just maybe, they think if they lose their way in the world they JUST MIGHT LOSE THEIR SOULS.‘You’re kidding me, of course! NOBODY’S like THAT any more...’That’s where you’re wrong, my friend. There are MILLIONS like that.They’re from the Second City (now I KNOW you’re gonna find that funny)! NO - we’re not talking standup comedy, for heaven’s sake; it’s the queue that’s forming RIGHT NOW for Heaven - Stage Right!This Second City is ‘the best of all possible Worlds.’ It don’t get any better than this. God threw away the mold when He made that city...The first city Augustine calls the the City of Man: you know it well - its grit, grime and corruption have done some Serious Damage to our planet, and some DEADLY serious damage to our Hearts. It’s the first city, because unfortunately it’s the only one most folks believe in... and it’s OUR first city, in time.It’s the familiar city of THE FALL OF MAN.If ONLY all the people who are still living there knew they had another, better choice of city to live in...The second, of course, is the City of God. Hence the title. The fabled Stairway to Heaven (no apologies to Led Zeppelin)!The City of SALVATION. Now, that’s an overused word!Did you ever play that Ancient board game Snakes & Ladders? The City of the Man is full of hidden snakes, who will take us down to the Underworld, and hence back to square one.The City of Salvation, though, is full of Ladders - taking us up to paradise - and the finish line.Going up, up to our Lost First World - you know, the one we knew when we were very little... so vivid, so clear - so Really There.And all those many people we hear about who’ve been brought back from near-death by modern medicine have ACTUALLY SEEN IT.Take the nomenclature as you will - the fact remains that this is no pie-in-sky pipe dream, as turned out so unfortunately for the young female social climber in Zeppelin’s lyrics. She was going DOWN that UP STAIRWAY. Down on a Snake’s back to Discouragement and Dusty Death. Instead of going UP to SALVATION.These two worlds DO exist, and they're engaged in an ongoing battle. To death!And BEYOND...And you know what else?We must - each of us - choose a side! Here and now - in THIS world.Which side will WE be on?The Side of the Winners - or the LOSERS - sub specie aeternitatis?Will we gain Happiness or lose Everything?That’s entirely up to each one of us...So let’s always take the UP Ladder to paradise - rather than ride the back of a Snake, Deep Down Under the Earth into Endless Darkness:And lose the whole game!