Cities of Tomorrow and the City to Come

Each day, the world’s urban population swells by almost 200,000. With every passing week, more than a million people new to cities face unexpected realities and challenges of urban life. Just like the sheer volume of people in the city, these challenges can be staggering. As with the height and breadth of our metropolises, the wonders of urban life can be breathtaking. Like the city itself, the questions and challenges of urban life are both sprawling and pulsing with vitality.

As part of Zondervan’s Ordinary Theology series, this volume offers a series of Christian reflections on some of the most basic and universal challenges of 21st century urban life. It takes one important dimension of what it means to be human—that human beings are made to be for God, for others, and for creation—and asks, “What are the implications of who God made us to be for how we ought to live in our cities?”

This book is intended for Christians facing the riddle of urban creation care, discerning the shape of community life, struggling with the challenges of wealth and poverty, and wondering at the global influence of cities. It is meant for those whose lives and livelihoods are inextricably bound up in the flourishing of their neighborhood and also for those who live in the shadow of cities. Most of all, it is meant for those grappling with the relationship between the cities of tomorrow and the glorious city to come.

Noah Toly

Noah Toly (Ph.D., University of Delaware) is Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Politics & International Relations at Wheaton College. He is editor of the Routledge series Cities and Global Governance and has co-authored and co-edited several other books including Understanding Jacques Ellul and Keeping God’s Earth: The Global Environment in Biblical Perspective.

 

Gene L. Green

Gene L. Green (PhD, Kings College, Aberdeen University) professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School. Before coming to Wheaton in 1996, he served for over a decade as professor of New Testament as well as Academic Dean and Rector of the Seminario ESEPA in San José, Costa Rica. He is the author of two commentaries in Spanish, 1 Pedro y 2 Pedro (Caribe) and 1 y 2 Tesalonicenses (Portavoz), and English commentaries on 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Pillar Series, Eerdmans) and 2 Peter and Jude (BECNT, Baker). His special research interest is the intersection of the Christian faith and cultures, both ancient and contemporary. Gene has pastored and taught in churches in the United States and Latin America since 1972. He also serves on the board of John Stott Ministries.