Considered by many a philosopher, Ellul was trained as a sociologist, and approached the question of technology and human action from a dialectical viewpoint. [56], Ellul discusses these topics in detail in his landmark work, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes. Jerónimo, Helena M., and Carl Mitcham. Lou Marin: Biblischer Anarchismus. Only so can they signalize the kingdom. mistakenly thinking socialism would assure justice when in fact it only pursues justice for the chosen and/or interesting poor whose condition (as a victim of capitalism or some other socialist enemy) is consistent with the socialist ideology. [60], The individual who burns with desire for action but does not know what to do is a common type in our society. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998. Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. ... man himself is exalted, and paradoxical though it may seem to be, this means the crushing of man. Later, he would attract a following among adherents of more ethically-compatible traditions such as the Anabaptists and the house church movement. "[30] As an example, Ellul offered the diminished value of the humanities to a technological society. We are to tell people and thus to increase their awareness (the offense of the ruling classes is that of trying to blind and deaden the awareness of those whom they dominate). Ellul explained his view in this way: "By anarchy I mean first an absolute rejection of violence. What is mortally affronted in this situation is not my humanity or my dignity. This is the kind of idealism that must be combated and radically condemned. Ellul says that many European Christians rushed into socialist circles (and with this began to accept the movement's tactics of violence, propaganda, etc.) Trans. The more a society magnifies human greatness, the more one will see men alienated, enslaved, imprisoned, and tortured, in it. His mother was the daughter of a French woman and a Portuguese man named Mendès. [58], Also within Propaganda Ellul claims that "it is a fact that excessive data do not enlighten the reader or the listener; they drown him. At first his theological home was with John Calvin. Ellul, Sohn einer protestantischen Mutter und eines ursprünglich griechisch-orthodoxen Vaters, wuchs in Bordeaux auf und begann dort ein Studium der Rechtswissenschaft, das er 1936 mit der Promotion abschloss. Jacques Ellul: Interpretive Essays (1981): 32-51. Der Zusammenhang Christentum-Gewaltfreiheit-Anarchismus bei Jacques Ellul (1912–1994). We do not want grace. In large measure, and especially in those of his books concerned with theological matters, Ellul restates the viewpoints held by Barth, whose polar dialectic of the Word of God, in which the Gospel both judges and renews the world, shaped Ellul's theological perspective. Although a son of the minority French Reformed tradition and thus a spiritual heir of thinkers like John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli, Ellul departed substantially from Reformed doctrinal traditions, but unlike other European Protestant thinkers, utterly rejected the influence of philosophical idealism or romanticism upon his beliefs about God and human faith. The most extensive online biography is posted on the French Association International Jacques Ellul website with year-by-year listings of publications and achievements.. Our hope is to find someone willing to do a comparable biography in English with photographs and book covers. In articulating his theological ideas, he mainly drew upon the corpus of works by the Swiss-German theologian Karl Barth and the critiques of European state Christianity made by Dane Søren Kierkegaard. It incites to 'counterpower,' to 'positive' criticism, to an irreducible dialogue (like that between king and prophet in Israel), to antistatism, to a decentralizing of the relation, to an extreme relativizing of everything political, to an anti-ideology, to a questioning of all that claims either power or dominion (in other words, of all things political), and finally, if we may use a modern term, to a kind of "anarchism" (so long as we do not relate the term to the anarchist teaching of the nineteenth century)."[49]. Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture 11.1 (2004): 25-54. Biography. Lehigh University Press, 1991. "[27] He states here as well that the term technique is not solely machines, technology, or a procedure used to attain an end. (1993): 0533-0533. Two further decisive encounters took place during his student years, one with Bernard Charbonneau and the other with his wife, Yvette, with whom he had four children: three boys, Jean, Simon, and Yves, and a daughter, Dominique. Hope, Samuel. Technology and Responsibility. [4] For his efforts to save Jews he was awarded the title Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2001. [65], sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFEllul1981 (, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes, "Righteous Among the Nations Recognized by Yad Vashem as of 1 January 2011 – France", "Death of Secular Saint Steve Jobs in a Theologically Devoid of Culture", "Interpretation of the law & the laws of interpretation in the work of Jacques Ellul", Full transcript of the film "The Betrayal by Technology" by ReRun Productions. In World War II, he was a leader in the French resistance. "[16] He often said that he was born in Bordeaux by chance, but that it was by choice that he spent almost all his academic career there. "Jacques Ellul on Religion, Technology, and Politics: Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet". It is not an illusion. In high school (at the Lycée Longchamp, now the Lycée Montesquieu), he was at the top of his class. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1981. Sklair, Leslie. "Homage to Jacques Ellul." The theology of the death of God reinforces this evil tendency. He cannot remember them all, or coordinate them, or understand them; if he does not want to risk losing his mind, he will merely draw a general picture from them. The thought of Jacques Ellul: A systematic exposition. Jesus Christ has come to save men, and all that matters is that men may come to know him. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 25 (1982). A prolific writer, he authored more than 60 books and more than 600 articles over his lifetime,[1] many of which discussed propaganda, the impact of technology on society, and the interaction between religion and politics. Van Vleet, Jacob E. Dialectical Theology and Jacques Ellul: An Introductory Exposition. Mitcham, Carl. Much like Barth, Ellul had no use for either liberal theology (to him dominated by Enlightenment notions about the goodness of humanity and thus rendered puerile by its naïveté) or orthodox Protestantism (e.g., fundamentalism or scholastic Calvinism,[19][20] both of which to him refuse to acknowledge the radical freedom of God and humanity) and maintained a roughly un-Catholic[21] view of the Bible, theology, and the churches. It is impossible to separate the sociologist from the theologian in this polygraph whose tone was deliberately prophetic. After the war, Ellul was briefly a member of the Bordeaux city administration (October 31, 1944 to April 29, 1945) but forever after steered clear of all party politics, except for an unfortunate episode as candidate for the Union Démocratique et Socialiste de la Résistance in October 1945. Jacques Ellul: Interpretive Essays. Ellul states in Violence that idealism serves to justify the use of violence, including: ... there is generous idealism of so many young men who risk imprisonment or death rather than participate in a war they condemn only because they idealize and whitewash their country's enemy. Ellul was a demanding professor but open to discussion, knowing how to capture the attention of his audience without resorting to dramatic effects or giving in to fashion. Mai 1994 ebenda) war ein französischer Soziologe und Theologe. The University of Chicago Press, 1994. 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