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American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile
Christians are by their nature a people out of place. Their true home is with God; in civic life, they are alien citizens "“in but not of the world.” In American Babylon, eminent theologian Richard John Neuhaus examines the particular truth of that ambiguity for Catholics in America today.Neuhaus addresses the essential quandaries of Catholic life—assessing how Catholics can keep their heads above water in the sea of immorality that confronts them in the world, how they can be patriotic even though their true country is not in this world, and how they might reconcile their duties as citizens with their commitment to God. Deeply learned, frequently combative, and always eloquent, American Babylon is Neuhaus’s magnum opus—and will be essential reading for all Christians.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published February 17, 2009
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About the author
Richard John Neuhaus
91 books29 followersRichard John Neuhaus was a prominent Christian cleric (first as a Lutheran pastor and later as a Roman Catholic priest) and writer. Born in Canada, Neuhaus moved to the United States where he became a naturalized United States citizen. He was the founder and editor of the monthly journal First Things and the author of several books, including The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America (1984), The Catholic Moment: The Paradox of the Church in the Postmodern World (1987), and Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth (2006). He was a staunch defender of the Roman Catholic Church's teachings on abortion and other life issues and an unofficial advisor of President George W. Bush on bioethical issues.
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May 18, 2011
Father Richard John Neuhaus was one of the founders and a longtime editor-in-chief of the journal of religion, culture and politics "First Things." He was a giant of the promotion of religious discourse in the public sphere, and an unprecedented writer and public intellectual. His passing away in the early 2009 is a great loss to all of his many fans, as well as the readers of the First Things.
The "American Babylon" is his last book, and it was published posthumously. It touches on all of the major themes from his long and prolific opus: the role of religion in public discourse, the position and the role of religious people in an open and democratic society, the attitude that Christians should have towards the secular order in general and towards America in particular. He touches upon two main models of conceptualizing America in the light of Christian view of history: America as a new Babylon (that is, as a new exile for the People of God), and America as a New Jerusalem (i.e., the new Promised Land and a beacon upon a hill for all the other nations). Both of these models have seen their popularity rise and fall over the centuries, and Father Neuhaus does not endorse either one of them wholeheartedly. However, from the title of this book, you can guess in which direction he was leaning towards the end of his life.
This is a wonderful book by one of my favorite authors. Over the years I have learned a lot from him and am saddened that there won't be any more opportunities for him to put his invaluable insights into a written form. On the other hand, I cherish all that he had written that much more.
The "American Babylon" is his last book, and it was published posthumously. It touches on all of the major themes from his long and prolific opus: the role of religion in public discourse, the position and the role of religious people in an open and democratic society, the attitude that Christians should have towards the secular order in general and towards America in particular. He touches upon two main models of conceptualizing America in the light of Christian view of history: America as a new Babylon (that is, as a new exile for the People of God), and America as a New Jerusalem (i.e., the new Promised Land and a beacon upon a hill for all the other nations). Both of these models have seen their popularity rise and fall over the centuries, and Father Neuhaus does not endorse either one of them wholeheartedly. However, from the title of this book, you can guess in which direction he was leaning towards the end of his life.
This is a wonderful book by one of my favorite authors. Over the years I have learned a lot from him and am saddened that there won't be any more opportunities for him to put his invaluable insights into a written form. On the other hand, I cherish all that he had written that much more.
November 7, 2020
I read a used copy of this book. The previous owner left notes and markings throughout and at the end of the book, he left his review which says: “Reflecting on the past, directly perceiving the present, casting hope for the future, heavily influenced by St. Augustine’s grasp of the earthly city and the City of God, Neuhaus has written one of the wisest books of the 21st Century. How now shall we live? Here’s an answer.”
I add this only because the book’s previous owner was James Sire, editor to Francis Schaeffer and Os Guinness and writer of numerous books on worldview, culture and the life of the mind. His thoughts on the book have much more significance than mine. But I also add this because I agree with the late James Sire—this a wise book. Neuhaus reminds us that our time here is “time toward home”, that we live now as exiles, and that we live now in hope. But he also encourages us to engage in politics and to work for the good of our society, just a Jeremiah encouraged those Israelites in exile, because our involvement is essential to its wellbeing.
I add this only because the book’s previous owner was James Sire, editor to Francis Schaeffer and Os Guinness and writer of numerous books on worldview, culture and the life of the mind. His thoughts on the book have much more significance than mine. But I also add this because I agree with the late James Sire—this a wise book. Neuhaus reminds us that our time here is “time toward home”, that we live now as exiles, and that we live now in hope. But he also encourages us to engage in politics and to work for the good of our society, just a Jeremiah encouraged those Israelites in exile, because our involvement is essential to its wellbeing.
February 12, 2025
Neuhaus’ “American Babylon” was a watershed moment in my religious life, and constituted a turning point in my faith and intellectual life as a whole. His aphorism about “…meeting God as an American” underscores my lived experience and rootedness as while being shaped by cultural and historical forces, while at the same time grounding us as a catholic (universal) paradox of being a child of God “for the good of the City.”
While critics might tar this book as little more than a this religious justification for neoconservativism by both nationalists and progressives, in my view this would be a tragic mistake. Neuhaus approaches a common problem each American struggles with: how to see ourselves in the greater narrative of history, and specifically the degree to which our place in the cosmic story of redemption plays out. To put it another way, “God is not indifferent to America.”
While critics might tar this book as little more than a this religious justification for neoconservativism by both nationalists and progressives, in my view this would be a tragic mistake. Neuhaus approaches a common problem each American struggles with: how to see ourselves in the greater narrative of history, and specifically the degree to which our place in the cosmic story of redemption plays out. To put it another way, “God is not indifferent to America.”
October 22, 2019
An excellent read, though it does require some familiarity with philosophy through the ages. Neuhaus strikes the exact right chord of dissonance and harmony that relates to the Christian's place in the world...and more importantly of building the Kingdom that has not yet fully come. We are to be working as God is working, with hopeful eyes focused on the Last Judgment where/when all the wrongs will be put right.
June 18, 2024
Neuhaus does a great job of painting the picture for Christians in a postmodern world. He helps us ifentify the waters we’re swimming in, why we’re swimming in them, and most importantly, how we shoulf swim faithfully in the changing tides of American culture.
June 30, 2025
Sobering but hopeful : a more active and judicious version of The Benedict Option.
June 28, 2016
As we approach another annual commemoration of Independence Day, Christians may be asking “How do we relate to our country?” And if they’re not asking this, they ought to be. In 2008 Richard John Neuhaus, Lutheran pastor turned Roman Catholic priest, prolific writer, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Life, and founder/editor of First Things, pushed forward a work meant to help Christians think through their relationship and role in this country. This 270 page hardback, “American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile,” was published two months after his decease (January 8, 2009). In many ways it reads like the final words of a dying father to his children.
“American Babylon” is shaped by Jeremiah’s letter to the Babylonian exiles in Jeremiah 29, and Neuhaus takes this as the story of our present situation. Christians are pilgrims, exiles, strangers in a strange land, who – because of Christ incarnate, crucified and resurrected – live in the present while being bonded with the future; “The present is, so to speak, pregnant with the promised future” (15). And so, recognizing that “Babylon” will continue until finally and fully displaced with the New Jerusalem, Christians are to develop an “Augustinian sensibility,” “the sensibility of the pilgrim through time who resolutely resists the temptation to despair in the face of history’s disappointments and tragedies, and just as resolutely declines the delusion of having arrived at history’s end” (23).
One of the concerns Neuhaus voices is the melding and wedding of America and the Church, which eventually has turned America into a church-substitute; “American theology has suffered from an ecclesiological deficit, leading to an ecclesiological substitution of America for the Church in time” (41). As he notes a little further on, we see “again and again that, without a Church that is not notional but real, without a Church that bears a promise and a purpose that transcend the American experience, the American experience itself, in ways both subtle and vulgar, offers itself as a substitute church” (50). It’s only when we come to recognize that we live in the ruins of Babel, where the politics of the City of Man is “marked by rival claims to truth in conflict” (185) that we can be freed up to develop “Augustinian sensibilities.”
“American Babylon” tackles several poignant issues, like atheism and citizenship, Rorty and postmodernism, to name a few. But in the end, Neuhaus left us with a way to have a “disciplined skepticism about politics” that doesn’t breed cynicism, but wisdom (185); tools to help us appreciate that our Christian faith “does not relieve but intensifies our dissatisfaction with tings as they are” (247) because we live with a dual citizenship. What Neuhaus wanted most of all was to guide his readers to have a properly placed hope that will dispel hopelessness; “This is the heroic hope of the saints, grounded not in self-confidence but in identification with a narrative other than our own – the narrative of Christ crucified, risen, and returning in glory” (239).
There is no doubt that Christian readers from the various streams that flow within Christianity will take issue with this conclusion or that assertion. As a Protestant minister I am cognizant of the Roman Catholic sense that colors some of the suppositions and sentiments Neuhaus proposed. Nevertheless there is a weighty sagacity and sanity between the covers of this book that will benefit all of Christ’s people who live in America. I highly recommend this volume. And in honor of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, I leave the reader with some of the author’s concluding statements: “We are moving toward our destination, and our destination is moving toward us…As Christians and as Americans, in this our awkward duality of citizenship, we seek to be faithful in a time not of our choosing but of our testing. We resist the hubris of presuming that it is a definitive time and place of historical promise or tragedy, but it is our time and place” (250).
“American Babylon” is shaped by Jeremiah’s letter to the Babylonian exiles in Jeremiah 29, and Neuhaus takes this as the story of our present situation. Christians are pilgrims, exiles, strangers in a strange land, who – because of Christ incarnate, crucified and resurrected – live in the present while being bonded with the future; “The present is, so to speak, pregnant with the promised future” (15). And so, recognizing that “Babylon” will continue until finally and fully displaced with the New Jerusalem, Christians are to develop an “Augustinian sensibility,” “the sensibility of the pilgrim through time who resolutely resists the temptation to despair in the face of history’s disappointments and tragedies, and just as resolutely declines the delusion of having arrived at history’s end” (23).
One of the concerns Neuhaus voices is the melding and wedding of America and the Church, which eventually has turned America into a church-substitute; “American theology has suffered from an ecclesiological deficit, leading to an ecclesiological substitution of America for the Church in time” (41). As he notes a little further on, we see “again and again that, without a Church that is not notional but real, without a Church that bears a promise and a purpose that transcend the American experience, the American experience itself, in ways both subtle and vulgar, offers itself as a substitute church” (50). It’s only when we come to recognize that we live in the ruins of Babel, where the politics of the City of Man is “marked by rival claims to truth in conflict” (185) that we can be freed up to develop “Augustinian sensibilities.”
“American Babylon” tackles several poignant issues, like atheism and citizenship, Rorty and postmodernism, to name a few. But in the end, Neuhaus left us with a way to have a “disciplined skepticism about politics” that doesn’t breed cynicism, but wisdom (185); tools to help us appreciate that our Christian faith “does not relieve but intensifies our dissatisfaction with tings as they are” (247) because we live with a dual citizenship. What Neuhaus wanted most of all was to guide his readers to have a properly placed hope that will dispel hopelessness; “This is the heroic hope of the saints, grounded not in self-confidence but in identification with a narrative other than our own – the narrative of Christ crucified, risen, and returning in glory” (239).
There is no doubt that Christian readers from the various streams that flow within Christianity will take issue with this conclusion or that assertion. As a Protestant minister I am cognizant of the Roman Catholic sense that colors some of the suppositions and sentiments Neuhaus proposed. Nevertheless there is a weighty sagacity and sanity between the covers of this book that will benefit all of Christ’s people who live in America. I highly recommend this volume. And in honor of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, I leave the reader with some of the author’s concluding statements: “We are moving toward our destination, and our destination is moving toward us…As Christians and as Americans, in this our awkward duality of citizenship, we seek to be faithful in a time not of our choosing but of our testing. We resist the hubris of presuming that it is a definitive time and place of historical promise or tragedy, but it is our time and place” (250).
February 6, 2010
One impression from this book has to do with the relationship between Christianity and its host culture/society, namely that the Christian is meant to be a member MAINLY of the after-worldly community, and his relationship with this temporal/temporary world is secondary. Thus the "Babylon" analogy of the title. The question is begged, can a good Christian therefore be a good citizen? The author argues yes, though there is an interesting/disquieting "remove" from the larger culture/society that the Christian is meant to have. Somehow not fully engaged in it. And there is an interesting discussion of how American society has substituted a "belief" in the Constitution and the Founding Fathers, in place of religious belief, fostered by the separation of church and state, though the author, again, believes this to be exagerrated and misguided. (Note he's also the author of "The Naked Public Square.")
Another impression is the implicit criticism of Protestantism, especially in its current/recent evangelical strains, that seem to want to re-invent Christianity with every generation, a criticism I share. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater issue. An evangelical Christian employee of mine, for example, was listening to some music that I recognized as the same as what I was (forced to) listening to in the sixties, as a parochial school student in semi-suburban Philadelphia. The playlist gave no indication that this was a particularly Catholic hymn, and made it appear to be part and parcel of the "purified" evangelical culture. There's much richness/information that these such evangelicals ignore or reject from the canon they branch from, and they seem clueless and naive when it is brought to their attention. But all part and parcel of the desire for simplicity and fundamentalism in our current culture (and not just in terms of religion) no room for nuance or real/in depth understanding, and much room for uninformed passion.
One of the reasons I was interested in this book is the author's work in civil rights in the sixties, and, closer to home, his work in a poor hispanic community adjacent to where I currently live in Brooklyn.
Another impression is the implicit criticism of Protestantism, especially in its current/recent evangelical strains, that seem to want to re-invent Christianity with every generation, a criticism I share. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater issue. An evangelical Christian employee of mine, for example, was listening to some music that I recognized as the same as what I was (forced to) listening to in the sixties, as a parochial school student in semi-suburban Philadelphia. The playlist gave no indication that this was a particularly Catholic hymn, and made it appear to be part and parcel of the "purified" evangelical culture. There's much richness/information that these such evangelicals ignore or reject from the canon they branch from, and they seem clueless and naive when it is brought to their attention. But all part and parcel of the desire for simplicity and fundamentalism in our current culture (and not just in terms of religion) no room for nuance or real/in depth understanding, and much room for uninformed passion.
One of the reasons I was interested in this book is the author's work in civil rights in the sixties, and, closer to home, his work in a poor hispanic community adjacent to where I currently live in Brooklyn.
October 12, 2011
This book contains the author's reflections on what it means to live faithfully as a Christian in contemporary American culture. His overall message is that the Christian should love and serve the country in which he or she lives, while remembering that all worldly kingdoms eventually pass away. The message is good and very timely. I wish he would have developed it in more depth. However, much of the book dealth with in-depth analysis of contemporary philosophers, and I found this part of the book to be less strong, likely because I am not familiar with the work of these philsophers.
March 7, 2010
Last book Neuhaus wrote before he died. Actually a fine reflection on Jeremiah 29. What a superb writer he was.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews