Introduction: Metropolis—The City in the Bible
The original Greek term “metropolis” literally stands for “mother-state” and came to mean, variously, the capital city of a major region, or a densely populated industrial or commercial city (New Oxford Dictionary). In modern times, metropolis often refers to a conglomeration of major cities in a similar geographic corridor, like the “metropolitan New York area” or even the whole metropolis of the northeast from Washington to Boston, with such major cities as Philadelphia, New York, and Hartford in between. The concentration of large and diverse populations, business and commercial centers, and cultural and educational opportunities, but also persistent poverty, housing shortages, and crime are all magnified in the Metropolis.
In a Fall 2014 Bible Conference at New York Theological Seminary, several bible scholars and historians gathered with pastors, church leaders and seminary students to explore issues of the Metropolis through the lens of the Bible. Specifically, this conference asked the question – what in the Bible relates or refers to, or constitutes issues of “the City in the Bible”? Where is the “urban” or urbanization evident in the First and Second Testaments, and what do those instances say and teach? In this conference, we had presentations on the meaning of “Jerusalem” in both First and Second Testaments, how the Apostle Paul engaged cities of the Roman imperial order in ways that challenged the hegemony of the Empire, and we even had a presentation on how renaissance art and sculpture depicted the “city in the Bible” for the purposes of urban church decorative arts in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Bible continues to teach us about the Metropolis and urban realities and ministry today. This Fall issue of The Living Pulpit includes some of the October 2014 presentations plus several additional reflections in order to continue to explore how urbanization and urban issues depicted in the Bible helps us do ministry today. In our first offering, Professor Jin H. Han asks, “What do Jerusalem and Nineveh Have in Common?” A traditional pairing of these two powerful images of the urban in the Bible would normally cause us to think (and preach) that Jerusalem represents all this is good and peaceful about God and the Bible, and Nineveh, quite the opposite – all that is evil, violent and reprobate. Of course, Jonah finds out that even so, God seeks out Nineveh. However, that is not the only twist in the Nineveh-Jerusalem story. Professor Han reminds us that Jerusalem too has an ambivalent story to tell. Such twists should give the preacher reason to pause.
Our second essay takes us to the Apostle Paul, but Professor Aliou Niang does not leave us there. Even as Paul exhorts his suffering urban congregations with the promise of a “heavenly citizenship” (Gr. politeumia) over against a Roman one, Professor Niang considers the realities of urbanization in Senegal during the 19th century colonization by the French, which left a country divided between the “country bumpkins” no one cared for anymore and the urban sophisticates created in France’s own image, with all the rights and privileges thereof. Professor Niang challenges the preacher to consider what happens when the city becomes a tool for evil instead of for good. How do we “take the city back” today like Paul tried two millennia ago? John the Seer had a similar solution in his visionary prophecy in the Book of Revelation, argues Professor Jean-Pierre Ruiz. Here we return to the image of Jerusalem, this time as the ultimate, heavenly city in response to the “Babylon” that was ancient, imperial Rome. But preachers need to remember, Ruiz reminds us, what’s missing from the New Jerusalem in John’s vision – temples, of all things, because they have failed to represent God’s justice. That too is a twist that calls us to read carefully the Book of Revelation and its urban imagery before we preach it, but preach it we must, insists Ruiz.
The Issue turns from the work of biblical scholars on “the city in the Bible,” to the reflections of ethicists, practical theologians and ministry practitioners. Ethicist Jill Schaeffer reimagines the city of New York as a biblical city in the “moves” of an urban dancer in her creative, poetic reflections with “New York on her mind.” Two practicing urban preachers, Pastors Chris Lawrence and Campbell Singleton, respectively confront the issues of the 21st century urban church planter with help from Jeremiah and Isaiah, and the issues of racism and violence with the help of interfaith and ecumenical scripture studies. Both these essays give the preacher a lot to think about with regard to long-term sustainability in urban ministry and interfaith dialogue for sustainable urban ministry. The “Bible in the city” helps on both counts. Finally, Professor Tamara Henry considers whether the urban church can still use the Bible to reach urban young people. Maybe seeing the “city in the Bible” more readily, she asks, in terms of social justice issues and urban arts that young people today relate to, such as hip-hop music, can indeed help build, sustain and return our youth to the church, or at least to a sustainable faith.
“Sustenance” in the Metropolis is a theme that runs through several of our essays. Can we indeed engage the urban images and practices of our Scriptures to sustain the faith, life and well being (“shalom” to invoke the image in Jeremiah cited by Chris Lawrence) of our urban residents, both in and outside the church? A preacher’s task, whether in the pulpit or in the city streets, includes mining the texts for answers and engaging our “citizens” (polites) in critical reflection and just action on behalf of our polis.
