"After setting the stage with a discussion of Augustine's own political journey, TeSelle examines the theme of "the two cities" against the background of the ancient world's civic vision, with the polis as the chief model for political life.

He pays special attention to the imagery of the Christian as peregrinus, which in Augustine's time meant not "pilgrim" but "sojourner." Against the assumptions of most interpreters he shows that the sojourner, while not fully at home in the earthly city, is nowhere understood as an "alien" and thus has certain rights and responsibilities in the earthly city."--BOOK JACKET.