from the garden to the city

a while back i heard a sermon by dr. tim keller that mentioned the significance of creation having begun in a garden and moving to a city. after having heard that my friends jeremy and stephen talked about the idea @ their theology on tap, i started to think about the significance of the concept of a sweeping progression from eden to "the holy city, the new jerusalem." i wonder: is there something more to the idea of creation culminating in a city than simply the fact that, when creation is finally redeemed, god will dwell w/ humanity? is there some particular significance to the fact that the new heavens and new earth are pictured as a city? (nota bene: you should go immediately and read jeremy's reflections on our "collective journey" from garden to city -- this is the kind of original thought i'm just not capable of yet, and it's one of the reasons i'm glad jeremy's my friend. stop reading. go. now.)

the roman catholic catechism summarizes the hope of the new heaven and new earth thus:

for man, this consummation will be the final realization of the unity of the human race, which god willed from creation and of which the pilgrim church has been "in the nature of sacrament." those who are united with christ will form the community of the redeemed, "the holy city" of god, "the bride, the wife of the lamb." she will not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that destroy or wound the earthly community. the beatific vision, in which god opens himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual communion. [1045]

i know that st. augustine made much of the idea of the city of god (i wish i had the book @ my fingertips, but i don't, and the library is closed), but i wonder how much of this is merely figurative and how much is laden w/ real meaning. i sense that there is something to the fact that the church is to be the sacrament of the kingdom of god (i recommend reading schmemann's eloquent for the life of the world: sacraments and orthodoxy if you'd like to investigate the idea), so we should be multi-cultural, creative, dynamic, all the things that the human city embodies (w/o the crime and garbage, of course), but i'm just guessing.

has anyone got some insight they can drop on a brother?

'cause it's a winding road
i've been walking for a long time
and i still don't know
where it goes
and it's a long way home
i've been searching for a long time
still have hope
we're gonna find our way home

• (further reading: for a conservationist ethic, sister marjorie keenan, rshm, wrote a little piece called "from the garden to the city: an integral living of the gospel")
• listen to (what i think was) dr. keller's sermon that started all this