136 Chapter 3 Augustine, meant no less than ‘the holistic identity centre of each person, as human interiority in general’ (Dupont & Walraet, 2015, p. 45). When man’s will and longing are renewed by God’s Spirit, according to Augustine a certain form of detachment from the earthly aspects can be observed. This detachment, however, fundamentally differs from world avoiding and isolation. The highest object of love can only be God Himself. The ever-changing world can be loved to a certain degree, but only as God’s creation (Hengstmengel, 2015). Inverting this order, loving the world (fruti) above God and only using God (uti) for one’s benefit means that sin is committed. Sin destroys connection and takes away happiness. In the right order, a Christian can love and serve the world. According to Maertens (1965), Augustine showed Biblical optimism in this aspect. Smith on Augustine Like Dupont (2015), James K.A. Smith (2009, 2013, 2016, 2017) sought to make use of Augustine’s insights to give direction to Christian education today. Thus, on Augustine’s doctrine of human interiority he based his conviction that it is not just man’s rationality (mind, reason) that defines his distinction from higher animals. In the heart, as the central core of humanness, thinking, feeling and longing come together. Still, its directionality is predominantly shaped by the latter (by longing, desire). This is most immediately apparent in the title of the book in which Smith (2016) accounted for his connection to Augustine: You Are What You Love. In this book, Smith distanced himself from the Cartesian idea that people are who they think they are. Their concrete actions reveal much more about their identity due to exposing their deeper desires. The combination of longing and wanting leads to certain life practices that, in turn, stimulate and direct one’s desires again. This is what Smith (2016) referred to in the book’s subtitle, The Spiritual Power of Habit. Augustine’s two kingdom doctrine motivated Smith (2009, 2013, 2017) to relate Christian education to the city of God. Based on this relation, he first published Desiring the Kingdom (2009) and then later Imagining the Kingdom (2013) and Awaiting the King (2017). The theory he elaborated in this trilogy concerned cultural liturgies and the person-as-lover model. Human beings are not mainly independent thinkers who rationally choose who they are and what they want; rather, they are governed by sinful lusts or by longing for God and His Kingdom. There are all kinds of forces in the world that do everything possible to drive people’s desires towards the earthly and the material. God, however, works in people a new desire. Smith repeatedly quoted the central line from Augustine’s Confessions (±398/1961): ‘For You have made us for
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