Download or read book Anarchy and Christianity written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-05-18 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jacque Ellul blends politics, theology, history, and exposition in this analysis of the relationship between political anarchy and biblical faith. While he clarifies the views of each and how they can be related, his aim is not to proselytize either anarchists into Christianity or Christians into anarchy. On the one hand, suggests Ellul, anarchists need to understand that much of their criticism of Christianity applies only to the form of religion that developed, not to biblical faith. Christians, on the other hand, need to look at the biblical texts and not reject anarchy as a political option, for it seems closest to biblical thinking. After charting the background of his own interest in the subject, Ellul defines what he means by anarchy: the nonviolent repudiation of authority. He goes on to look at the Bible as the source of anarchy (in the sense of nondomination, not disorder), working through Old Testament history, Jesus' ministry, and finally the early church's view of power as reflected in the New Testament writings.

Download or read book Jacques Ellul and the Bible written by Jacob Marques Rollison and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2022-01-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hermeneutic contribution of the French theologian and sociologist Jacques Ellul is given new prominence in this striking collection of essays, revealing him to be one of the twentieth century’s most creative and insightful interpreters of the Bible. With a breadth of contributors ranging from established biblical scholars and theologians to pastoral practitioners, from top Ellul scholars to emerging voices – and including six first-time English translations of Ellul’s own articles – this volume not only provides a detailed overview of Ellul’s biblical approach but also constitutes a crucial moment in Ellul’s theological reception. The essays gathered here represent a clear demonstration that the full potential of Ellul’s theological interpretation of Scripture to rejuvenate and reconfigure contemporary biblical hermeneutics has yet to be seen.

Download or read book The Subversion of Christianity written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-06-02 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pointing to the many contradictions between the Bible and the practice of the church, Jacques Ellul asserts in this provocative and stimulating book that what we today call Christianity is actually far removed from the revelation of God. Successive generations have reinterpreted Scripture and modeled it after their own cultures, thus moving society further from the truth of the original gospel. The church also perverted the gospel message, for instead of simply doing away with pagan practice and belief, it reconstituted the sacred, set up its own religious forms, and thus resacralized the world. Ellul develops several areas in which this perversion is most obvious, including the church's emphasis on moralism and its teaching in the political sphere. The heart of the problem, he says, is that we have not accepted the fact that Christianity is a scandal; we attempt to make it acceptable and easy--and thus pervert its true message. Ultimately, however, Ellul remains hopeful. For, in spite of all that has been done to subvert the message of God, the Holy Spirit continues to move in the world. Christianity, writes Ellul, never carries the day decisively against Christ.

Download or read book Jesus and Marx written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At what point does a theology become an ideology? How can a Christian distinguish the two? Jacques Ellul has always taken pains to differentiate them, but in this book he provides both a theoretical framework and important examples. Some popular theologies, particularly those that attempt to intertwine biblical theology with Marxist thought, fall into the trap of reaching "theological" conclusions by other means, Ellul believes, so that we cannot consider them as true theologies. From both a biblical-theological and sociopolitical perspective Ellul examines the attempt to relate Christianity to Marxist thought. By reviewing in detail several key Marxist-Christian books, Ellul exposes the weaknesses of so-called Marxist Christianity (which he says is neither Marxist nor Christian), and argues that the biblical perspective takes exception to all political power, leaving Christian anarchism as the realistic revolutionary option. The preface by translator Joyce Main Hanks provides an excellent introduction to the book, showing how it fits into Ellul's thought and how it relates to Ellul's previous work.

Download or read book Apocalypse written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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.

Download or read book The Politics of God and the Politics of Man written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-07-18 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Man's freedom--God's omnipotence: how can they be reconciled? That question is central to this penetrating study of political action and the prophetic function. Ellul's answer to that question, though based on events recorded in the Second Book of Kings, is immediately relevant to contemporary issues and to the church today. Emerging from these reflections is an eloquent testimony to the immense love of God--"which not only creates and saves, but which also in its incomprehensible humility wants to associate man with its work."

Download or read book An Unjust God written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-06-19 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First-timeTranslation in English - - - The relationship between Christians and Jews has often been very tense, with misunderstandings of Paul's teachings contributing to the problem. Jacques Ellul's careful exegesis of Romans 9-11 demonstrates how God has not rejected Israel. The title is taken from the verse, "Is there some injustice in God?" The answer is a clear "no." God's election simply expanded outward beyond Israel to reach all peoples of the earth. In the end, there will be a reconciliation of Jews and Christians within God's plan of salvation. Written in 1991, three years before Ellul died, An Unjust God? brings a new understanding to a section of Scripture known for its conventional and limited interpretations. One significant feature of the book is Ellul's personal experience of the suffering of Jews under the Nazi regime; and this has direct bearing for the way he links the sufferings of Israel with the sufferings of Jesus. Ellul is then bold enough to say that a major reason why the Jewish people have not accepted Jesus as Messiah is because the Christian Church has not done well to emulate the Jewish Savior of the world.

Download or read book The Judgment of Jonah written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-06-02 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is not a commentary in the traditional sense. One might call it an existential commentary. An important aim of the author is to bring out the relevance of the story, of the person, mission, and situation of Jonah, to Christians in our own time. Above all, this is a theological, or --more specifically -- a christological commentary. The author's chief aim is to relate the book, not to Christians, but to Christ. Ellul thinks Christ is the center of all Scripture, and he also takes seriously the specific reference which Christ makes to the sign of Jonah. If this reading is correct, and the Bible is indeed a unity, the exposition of Ellul, though not developed in detail, has a distinctive theological contribution to make. Those who want acute theological insight, and are not afraid of plain, hard-hitting application, will read this vivid study with relish and profit. -- From the Preface by G. W. Bromiley

Download or read book On Freedom Love and Power written by Jacques Ellul and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most important and original thinkers of the twentieth century, Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) was a noted sociologist, historian, law professor, and self-described "Christian anarchist." At the University of Bordeaux, Ellul taught and wrote extensively on the relationship between technology and contemporary culture, the tenets of the Christian faith, and the principles of human freedom and responsibility. On Freedom, Love, and Power is the transcription of a series of talks given by Ellul in 1974 in which he refines and clarifies some of his most controversial insights on the Jewish and Christian Bibles and their relevance to contemporary society. This expanded edition of Ellul's talks features additional material, previously unavailable, that focuses on Christianity's potential service to humanity as a community that exemplifies a society where people are reconciled with one another and with God.

Download or read book Reason for Being written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-09-30 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Meaning of the City written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-06-17 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jacques Ellul, a former member of a Law Faculty at the University of Bordeaux, was recognized as a brilliant and penetrating commentator on the relationship between theology and sociology. In the Meaning of the City he presents what he finds in the Bible--a sophisticated, coherent theology of the city fully applicable to today's urbanized society. Ellul believes that the city symbolizes the supreme work of man--and, as such, represents man's ultimate rejection of God. Therefore it is the city, where lies man's rebellious heart, that must be reformed. The author stresses the fact that the Bible does not find man's fulfillment in a return to an idyllic Eden, but points rather to a life of communion with the Savior in the city transfigured. The Meaning of the City, says John Wilkinson in his introductory essay to the book, is the theological counterpoint to Ellul's Technological Society, a work that analyzed the phenomenon of the autonomous and totally manipulative post-industrial world. Ellul takes issue with those who idealistically plan new urban environments for man, as though man alone can negate the inherent diabolism of the city. For Ellul, the history of the city from the times of Cain and Nimrod through to Babylon and Jerusalem reveals a tendency to destroy the human being for the sake of human works. Nevertheless, continuing the theme of the tension between two realities that characterizes all his works, Ellul sees God as electing the city as itself an instrument of grace for the believer. William Stringfellow describes The Meaning of the City as a book of startling significance, which should rank beside Reinhold Niebuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society as a work of truly momentous potential. Douglass D. McFerran adds that it is a book worth serious consideration by anyone interested in the relationship between religious commitment and secular involvement. And John Wilkinson sums it up: There are very few convincingly religious analyses of the sociological phenomena of the present day. . . . Ellul's biblically based sociology is today furnishing the matter for a large and growing group of social protestants, particularly in the United States.

Download or read book The Humiliation of the Word written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-10-14 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Western people no longer hear; everything is grasped by sight. They no longer speak; they show.” -- Jacques Ellul Well-known for his many books on sociology and theology, Jacques Ellul creatively braids these two strands together in this provocative examination of how reality (which is visual) has superseded truth (which is verbal) in modern times. Ellul explores biblical texts for distinguishing visual cultural forms from the communicative (divine and human) Word, then examines how this distinction plays out with the rise of audiovisual media in the 20th-century West. Even in human speech, visual forms dominate contemporary life and devalue the word; this insight informs discussion of the image/word clash in religion, politics, and art. After a scathing critique of present-day idolatry, Ellul places his hope for nonviolent community in the fragile spoken word. Ultimately, Ellul sees the Bible as presenting a hopeful vision of reconciliation—between visual reality and spoken truth. A new afterword by Jacob Marques Rollison contextualizes Ellul’s stance within French postmodern thought, illuminating Humiliation of the Word as an outspokenly “Protestant communication ethic” in contemporary philosophical and theological discussions of language.

Download or read book Understanding Jacques Ellul written by Jeffrey P Greenman and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2013-07-25 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) was one of the world's last great polymaths and one of the most important Christian thinkers of his time, engaging the world with a simplicity, sincerity, courage, and passion that few have matched. However, Ellul is an often misunderstood thinker. As more than fifty books and over one thousand articles bear his name, embarking on a study of Ellul's thought can be daunting. This book provides an introduction to Ellul's life and work, analysing and assessing his thought across the most important themes of his scholarship. Readers will see that his remarkably broad field of vision, clarity of focus, and boldly prophetic voice make his work worth reading and considering, rereading and discussing.

Download or read book The Word of God in the Ethics of Jacques Ellul written by David W. Gill and published by Metuchen, N.J. : American Theological Library Association and the Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To find more information about Rowman & Littlefield titles please visit us at www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

Download or read book On Being Rich and Poor written by Jacques Ellul and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century, Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) was a French law professor, sociologist, lay theologian, and self-described “Christian anarchist.” Collecting Ellul’s lectures on the Bible, On Being Rich and Poor contains his prescient meditations on some of the most important theological questions of the modern age. In this volume, a follow-up to the Ellul lectures collected in On Freedom, Love, and Power, Ellul asks how it is that Christianity can justify abandoning the poorest, weakest, and most vulnerable members of society, depriving the next generation of a liveable future, and participating in an unprecedented wave of environmental destruction. In these talks, Ellul observes that some of the harshest language in the Jewish and Christian Bibles is reserved for those who are rich and powerful, and thus able to bend others to their will. Through his analysis of the prophetic vision of Amos and the epistle of James, Ellul exposes the gap between the principles of Christian life and the practices of the modern world. Critiquing a world that values domination over collaboration, he offers an alternative path. Transcribed from the original recordings and translated by Willem H. Vanderburg, a student and long-time colleague of Ellul’s, On Being Rich and Poor is an unprecedented look at how one of the twentieth century’s foremost thinkers grappled with some of today’s most challenging issues.

Download or read book If You Are the Son of God written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-05-05 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This significant book, written a few years before his death, presents Ellul's fullest understanding of the meaning of Jesus' life. One finds all of the major themes of Ellul's writings. The first half of this book deals with Jesus' sufferings, which are by no means limited to Good Friday. Through Jesus' identification with "the whole human condition," we are offered the possibility of both enduring and overcoming suffering. Similarly, the temptations are understood beyond the wilderness temptation narrative since Jesus experiences them throughout his ministry. Ellul believes temptations are ultimately human avenues for tempting God, and so focuses on the discussion power and "non-power," be it on personal or political levels. Appropriately, Ellul enters into the passion narrative not simply in the context of suffering but in the context of temptation, where Jesus could have easily "proved his divinity," but chose instead to reveal both the character and way of God.

Download or read book Sources and Trajectories written by Jacques Ellul and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2003-12-19 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wipf & Stock Publishers (Eugene, Oregon) is proud to publish the Jacques Ellul Legacy Series, a growing series of books by Ellul in reprint editions. Wipf & Stock also prints new translations of books by Ellul and secondary studies about Ellul. Editor: David W. Gill, Ph.D. President, International Jacques Ellul Society