Jacques Ellul

Desert, Wilderness, Wasteland and Word examines the significance of the desert from biblical, theological, and ethical perspectives. This is achieved primarily through the publication of Jacques Ellul's recently discovered, newly translated essay, which considers the theology of the desert. Prefaced by an enlightening introduction, and five incendiary essays which critically reflect on Ellul's work, this volume offers a fresh, provocative insight into Jacques Ellul's writing. Illuminating the relevance of Ellul's work for our present, Desert, Wilderness, Wasteland and Word offers readers an encounter with a new, revitalising biblical word.

Theology and Technique is a posthumous, incomplete volume drafted in the 1970s that nevertheless constitutes a significant addition to the Ellul corpus. Working from Jacques Ellul's original outline, a collaborative team including three of Ellul's children, a grandson, and Ellul scholars has assembled previous partial publications that Ellul himself approved for eventual incorporation along with relevant unpublished essays and notes into a book which throws the relationship between Ellul's radical theology and sociological critique into fresh perspective. Frederic Rognon contributes an especially insightful general introduction. The translation by Christian Roy is a model of rendering the complexities of the French original into English. This latest Ellul publication will be essential to any serious attempt to appreciate the scope and depth of Ellul's Christian engagement with the challenges of the contemporary world.

Våld är en »naturlig« del av livet, ett symptom på en trasig värld. Hur ska man som kristen förhålla sig till våld och icke-våld? Finns det vägar bortom rädsla, hat och likgiltighet? Finns det en realism bortom ogrundad optimism och förenklande lösningar? Finns det en frihet och närvaro som kan trotsa våldets »nödvändighet«? Jacques Ellul ger i Mot våldet (som ursprungligen gavs ut 1969) en skärskådande analys av våldets natur, en analys som bottnar i både hans egna livserfarenheter och hans politiska och sociologiska studier. Han kritiserar kyrka och teologi för att bli ett eko av rådande opinionsvindar. Men han ger också redskap för att tänka »utanför ramarna« och pekar på en radikal icke-våldsväg som bär vittnesbörd om den Gud som är annorlunda och som räddar världen utan våld. De kristnas kallelse är, säger han, att i frihet »välja andra medel, att söka en annan seger, att avstå från en skenbar seger«. Det är så kristna kan medverka till att bryta sönder våldets onda cirkel och skapa sprickor i »nödvändighetens« ordning. Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) var en fransk rättshistoriker och sociolog som också skrev en lång rad teologiska böcker. Han är främst känd för sina skarpa analyser av det teknologiska samhället, men också för sina djupsinniga bibelutläggningar och reflektioner kring teologisk etik. Det är därför inte förvånande att han fortfarande är mycket läst och diskuterad och kanske är mer aktuell än någonsin. På svenska finns även hans bok Närvaro i modern tid (Spricka förlag, 2021).

Desert, Wilderness, Wasteland, and Word features an English translation of a recently discovered and until-now unpublished essay of Jacques Ellul's that examines the significance of the desert from biblical, theological, and ethical perspectives. It also provides an introduction that contextualizes Ellul's piece, and five incendiary essays that critically reflect on Ellul's work. Altogether, this volume offers fresh and provocative insight into the writings of Jacques Ellul during a historical moment that appears to be on its way to, or already in, a desert, wilderness, and wasteland, with many people in it who are desperate for encounters with a new, revitalizing Word.

Desert, Wilderness, Wasteland, and Word features an English translation of a recently discovered and until-now unpublished essay of Jacques Ellul's that examines the significance of the desert from biblical, theological, and ethical perspectives. It also provides an introduction that contextualizes Ellul's piece, and five incendiary essays that critically reflect on Ellul's work. Altogether, this volume offers fresh and provocative insight into the writings of Jacques Ellul during a historical moment that appears to be on its way to, or already in, a desert, wilderness, and wasteland, with many people in it who are desperate for encounters with a new, revitalizing Word.

In Reason for Being, the creative theologian and sociologist Jacques Ellul--whom John Goldingay described as ""unexcelled as a theological exegete of the Old Testament"" among twentieth-century thinkers--invites readers directly to the heart of his engagement with the biblical text. Intended as his concluding ""last word,"" Ellul here distills a half-century of careful meditations on Ecclesiastes into a moving treatise on wisdom, vanity, and the presence of God. Ellul follows the narrator, Qohelet, on an ironic path to the limits of human wisdom, a path which ends with wisdom's recognition of its own vanity. This would lead to despair over the meaninglessness of our accomplishments and our very lives--if not for the surprising presence of God, who shows up when we least expect it. In the poetic prose of translator Joyce Main Hanks, Ellul's Reason for Being resounds as an arresting interrogation, an invitation to honest self-examination, and a challenge to free dialogue with God here and now.

Vilken roll ska kristna spela i en modern tid där kyrkan och kristen tro tycks ha allt mindre betydelse? Jacques Ellul skrev ned sina tankar kring denna fråga för mer än sjuttio år sedan, men hans sätt att behandla frågorna har fortsatt stor relevans. Med en närmast profetisk klarsyn kritiserar han kristnas tendens att acceptera samtidens dominerande krafter såsom staten, tekniken, media och propaganda. I stället för att följa det som samtiden betraktar som »nödvändigheter«, bör kristna hänge sig åt den revolution som endast kan ske när de på djupet blir medvetna om den nuvarande situationen och passionerat gör »rent hus med myter, intellektuella avgudar, omedvetna sätt att blunda för verkligheten, och föråldrade och tomma teorier«. På så sätt kan en livsstil formas som gestaltar det gudsrike som kommer som en gåva från framtiden. Boken är en god ingång till Elluls rika författarskap. Denna svenska nyutgåva är försedd med en nyskriven längre introduktion av Arne Rasmusson som presenterar Elluls författarskap i stort och visar på hans fortsatta relevans. Dessutom innehåller den en bibliografi som ger vägledning till vidare läsning av Ellul. Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) var en fransk rättshistoriker och sociolog som också skrev en lång rad teologiska böcker. Han är främst känd för sina skarpa analyser av det teknologiska samhället, men också för sina djupsinniga bibelutläggningar och reflektioner kring teologisk etik. Det är därför inte förvånande att han fortfarande är mycket läst och diskuterad och kanske är mer aktuell än någonsin.

To Will & To Do presents one of the most significant theological contributions of the dynamic twentieth-century thinker Jacques Ellul. Benefiting from recent scholarship on Ellul and a discovery of a lost manuscript, this new edition renders the full text available in English for the first time, combining a fresh translation of volume I with a first English translation of volume II. Together, the two volumes constitute the introductory first part of Ellul's planned four-part treatment of Christian ethics. Volume I examines the origin of the problem of good and evil, outlines the contemporary morality of Western society, and provocatively sketches the paradox of an impossible and yet necessary Christian ethics. Volume II carries this discussion forward, outlining the characteristics and conditions of Christian ethics. It then treats the relationship between ethics and the legal texts of the Bible, the relationship between ethics and dogmatic theology, and concludes by reimagining the theological use of the ""analogy of faith"" for scriptural interpretation. In constant dialogue with Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Ricoeur, and many other theologians and philosophers, To Will & To Do constitutes a major intervention in twentieth-century theological ethics.

To Will & To Do presents one of the most significant theological contributions of the dynamic twentieth-century thinker Jacques Ellul. Benefiting from recent scholarship on Ellul and a discovery of a lost manuscript, this new edition renders the full text available in English for the first time, combining a fresh translation of volume I with a first English translation of volume II. Together, the two volumes constitute the introductory first part of Ellul's planned four-part treatment of Christian ethics. Volume I examines the origin of the problem of good and evil, outlines the contemporary morality of Western society, and provocatively sketches the paradox of an impossible and yet necessary Christian ethics. Volume II carries this discussion forward, outlining the characteristics and conditions of Christian ethics. It then treats the relationship between ethics and the legal texts of the Bible, the relationship between ethics and dogmatic theology, and concludes by reimagining the theological use of the ""analogy of faith"" for scriptural interpretation. In constant dialogue with Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Ricoeur, and many other theologians and philosophers, To Will & To Do constitutes a major intervention in twentieth-century theological ethics.

To Will & To Do presents one of the most significant theological contributions of the dynamic twentieth-century thinker Jacques Ellul. Benefiting from recent scholarship on Ellul and a discovery of a lost manuscript, this new edition renders the full text available in English for the first time, combining a fresh translation of Volume I with a first English translation of Volume II. Together, the two volumes constitute the introductory first part of Ellul's planned four-part treatment of Christian ethics. Volume I examines the origin of the problem of Good and Evil, outlines the contemporary morality of Western society, and provocatively sketches the paradox of an impossible and yet necessary Christian ethics. Volume II carries this discussion forward, outlining the characteristics and conditions of Christian ethics. It then treats the relationship between ethics and the legal texts of the Bible, the relationship between ethics and dogmatic theology, and concludes by reimagining the theological use of the ""analogy of faith"" for scriptural interpretation. In constant dialogue with Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Ricoeur, and many other theologians and philosophers, To Will & To Do constitutes a major intervention in twentieth-century theological ethics.

To Will & To Do presents one of the most significant theological contributions of the dynamic twentieth-century thinker Jacques Ellul. Benefiting from recent scholarship on Ellul and a discovery of a lost manuscript, this new edition renders the full text available in English for the first time, combining a fresh translation of Volume I with a first English translation of Volume II. Together, the two volumes constitute the introductory first part of Ellul's planned four-part treatment of Christian ethics. Volume I examines the origin of the problem of Good and Evil, outlines the contemporary morality of Western society, and provocatively sketches the paradox of an impossible and yet necessary Christian ethics. Volume II carries this discussion forward, outlining the characteristics and conditions of Christian ethics. It then treats the relationship between ethics and the legal texts of the Bible, the relationship between ethics and dogmatic theology, and concludes by reimagining the theological use of the ""analogy of faith"" for scriptural interpretation. In constant dialogue with Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Ricoeur, and many other theologians and philosophers, To Will & To Do constitutes a major intervention in twentieth-century theological ethics.

""There has never been a book provoking more delirium, foolishness and irrational movements, without any relationship to Jesus Christ than the Book of Revelation]."" - Jacques Ellul, Introduction Known for his trenchant critique of modernity and of those Christians who celebrate their captivity to it, Ellul here cuts to the heart of the theological intention of the Book of Revelation, and thereby reveals the liberating gospel in all its offensiveness. Neither an exhaustive commentary nor a work of historical-exegetical analysis, Apocalypse is a provocative, independent interpretation. Ellul seeks to rescue Revelation from the reassuring and orthodox banality to which commentators often reduce it. The goal is to perceive the totality of the book in its movement and structure. ""Architecture in movement"" is the key to understanding Revelation's puzzling but simple message. This edition also comes with a new foreword by Jacob Marques Rollison who provides an essential aid for guiding readers through Ellul's thorough engagement with Revelation.

""There has never been a book provoking more delirium, foolishness and irrational movements, without any relationship to Jesus Christ than the Book of Revelation]."" - Jacques Ellul, Introduction Known for his trenchant critique of modernity and of those Christians who celebrate their captivity to it, Ellul here cuts to the heart of the theological intention of the Book of Revelation, and thereby reveals the liberating gospel in all its offensiveness. Neither an exhaustive commentary nor a work of historical-exegetical analysis, Apocalypse is a provocative, independent interpretation. Ellul seeks to rescue Revelation from the reassuring and orthodox banality to which commentators often reduce it. The goal is to perceive the totality of the book in its movement and structure. ""Architecture in movement"" is the key to understanding Revelation's puzzling but simple message. This edition also comes with a new foreword by Jacob Marques Rollison who provides an essential aid for guiding readers through Ellul's thorough engagement with Revelation.

Some 20 years after writing The Technological Society, Jacques Ellul realized how the totalistic dimensions of our modern technological milieu required an additional treatment of the topic. Writing amidst the rise of books in the 1970s on pollution, over-population, and environmental degradation, Ellul found it necessary, once again, to write about the global presence of technology and its far-reaching effects. The Technological System represents a new stage in Ellul's research. Previously he studied technological society as such; in this book he approaches the topic from a systems perspective wherein he identifies the characteristics of technological phenomena and technological progress in light of system theory. This leads to an entirely new approach to what constitutes the most important event of our society which has decisive bearing on the future of our world. Ellul's analysis touches on all aspects of modern life, not just those of a scientific or technological order. In the end, readers are compelled to formulate their own opinions and make their own decisions regarding the way a technique-based value system affects every level of human life.