Saeculum Journal

Thus Saint Augustine of Hippo, at the cusp of the fifth century CE, introduced new Christians to life in the contemporary era of human history, a “sixth age” that begins with the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ and ends only with this same Christ’s return at the end of time. Until this return, the holy “city of God” remains enmeshed in the saeculum, a passing world of social and political life. And, at least for Augustine, this saeculum is also a necessary place of profound tension and ambiguity. Since boundaries cannot be discerned with any certainty in this life, every dimension of human existence is defined by the intermingling of divine communion and earthly commotion, of sacred and secular, of faith and culture.