The decolonial moment has underlined the importance of Western theologians hearing what non-Western readers hear in their canonical texts. Pung Ryong Kim insightfully draws out what is lost from when contemporary readers marry Augustine to democratic liberal politics, betraying the radicality of his own politics and depriving Christians of the resources needed to think beyond the tired ruts of partisan politics. This volume is essential reading for political theologians in times which the political lives of Western democracies are so starkly dysfunctional in their inability to transcend what divides them.

Brian Brock, University of Aberdeen

Pung Ryong Kim represents a fresh take on that great writer about the earthly city and the heavenly city, love and the will, and Christ and the devil. To include Christ and the devil in that list is already to recognize the bold reinterpretation of Augustine that Kim brings to the table. Kim draws out something that many interpreters of Augustine do not: the devil and his angels mediate distorted ways of remembering and imagining political life that are healed by Christ and the church. This work represents an important contribution not only to discussions about this North African bishop living during the eclipse of the Roman Empire but also to discussions of living in an age where evil is alive.

Robert W. Heimburger, Cardiff University