“Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden. And Cain went in to his wife, and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch after his son” (Genesis 4:16,17).
As we crowd more into cities and live our lives amid urban potential and possibilities, our hearts become more uneasy. The impersonal forces that stalk our city streets terrify us and leave us wondering where, if anywhere, we belong. In our hearts, we feel cut off from “home.”
“Anomie” is the word used to describe this feeling. Derived from the Greek word for “anarchy”, the term was coined by the French sociologist Émile Durkheim to denote the conditions that arise when the “standard code” of a society begins to disintegrate. In recent years, “anomie” has come into popular usage as a description of the “alienation” felt by individuals when they feel that the structures of society are collapsing. It’s that disgusting, rootless feeling that the world is falling apart. A great irony of human society is that this feeling of isolation is most found where people are most connected to each other.
The issue is not that rural life is good and urban life is bad. It is certainly possible to choose godly character and live a quality life anywhere. But cities have a major disadvantage: When a society rejects the “standard code” of moral and ethical truth that previously held it together, the consequences will be felt in a more concentrated way in places where people are gathered together in greater numbers. If the standard code is rooted in the reality of God, then whatever social consequences would attend the rejection of God, those consequences would increase exponentially as the population of the city becomes more dense. It could be argued that the need to mitigate the social consequences of sin is one reason God defeated the project at Babel and forced the human race to spread across the earth (Genesis 11:1–9).
But whether urban or rural, life in this world fills us with a terrible restlessness. We can hardly shake off the feeling that we are lost, separated from what was our support. And a big question is before us: What have we turned away from?
“The soul rarely realizes it, but whether it is a believer or not, its loneliness is really a memory of home for God” (Hubert Van Zeller).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com AreYouaChristian.com
