Jacques Ellul

[Casey]

I read his The Presence of the Kingdom for one of my classes and wrote a review of it. My basic understanding of Ellul is that he was a French philosopher/theologian who built all his theology on the dualism of combining Marxism and Christianity (interesting mix for sure!). I found the book to be really interesting -- and, of course, numerous problems with it as well. Anyway, I give a brief summary of the thrust of his book in my review. His analysis of culture is very helpful (reminded me of some of Postman's works!).

 

[rmwilliamsjr]

i really appreciate Ellul and have read his books for a long time.
i think that the characterization of him as a combination of Marxism and Christianity is unfair and wrong because he is from a Marxist background but denies it's value and speaks against much of it's ideals. i would characterize his political philosophy as anarchist not marxist.

his Jesus and Marx is at:
http://www.jesusradicals.com/library/ellul.php
and argues forcefully that the two are not compatible.

 

[Casey]

Having read a number of Ellul's works, do you think my review of this particular book is a fair assessment?

 

[RamistThomist]

Didn't he start out Marxist and then go Christian?

 

[rmwilliamsjr]

Didn't he start out Marxist and then go Christian?

One of the most thoughtful philosophers to approach technology from a deterministic, and some have even argued fatalistic [23], position is Jacques Ellul. Professor at the University of Bordeaux, Ellul authored some 40 books and hundreds of articles over his lifetime [24], the dominant theme of which has been, according to Fasching (1981), "the threat to human freedom and Christian faith created by modern technology" (p. 1). Ellul's constant theme has been one of technological tyranny over humanity. As a philosopher and theologian [25], Ellul explored the religiosity of the technological society.
Ellul became a Marxist at age 19, and a Christian at 22 (Fasching, p. 2). His religious faith evolved out of the Death of God movement and the response of the neo-orthodox theologians Bultmann, Barth, Niebuhr and Tillich. According to Fasching, the Barthian dialectic, in which the gospel both judges and renews the world, helped to shape Ellul's theological perspective (p. 7). For Ellul, "that which desacralizes a given reality, itself in turn becomes the new sacred reality" (p. 35).

from: http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/rojc/mdic/ellul.html