" Too many readers regularly overestimate Augustine’s affirmation here and seem to regularly ignore his persistent affirmation that “justice is found where God, the one supreme God, rules an obedient City according to his grace, forbidding sacrifice to any being save himself alone” (19.23). Because this is de facto ruled out as a possibility in the earthly city (whose very origin is the misdirection of the fall), the earthly city can never be home to “true justice "

― James K.A. Smith , Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology