Presence in the Modern World

by Jacques Ellul and Jacques Ellul | Olive Wyon (Translated by)

Book Overview

Presence in the Modern World is Jacques Ellul's most foundational book, combining his social analysis with his theological orientation. Appearing first in French in 1948, it has reached the status of a classic that retains all of its relevance today in the face of the challenges that beset us. How should we respond toward such complex forces as technology or the state? How can we communicate with one another, despite the problems inherent in modern...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1498291341
• ISBN13: 9781498291347
• Release Date: June 2016
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Needed Shock

Ellul's impressive, challenging, compact treatise addresses the unique problems Christians face in the modern world. Ours, he says, is a singularly hostile age, stripping us of the tools we need to communicate with people as humans. This harsh new world doesn't just threaten people, but it actually jeopardizes Christians' mission to spread light and healing to a darkened world. This book is in essence a series of five linked essays in which Ellul takes on some of the most important threats to community and Christian theology. Written during the reconstruction of Europe following World War II, some of Ellul's specific references may be sixty years out of date, but his points remain as harrowing and poignant as they were then. Why have we allowed technology to write our daily agendas? Do social philosophies help humankind, or do they add to our suffering? What does it mean for Christians to get involved in politics? Why has our communication become so muddled as our ways of speaking have become clearer? These are just a few of the questions Ellul begins to answer here. Ellul's stark Calvinism will come as a needed shock to many American Christians, who have lapsed into comfy non-confrontation as a theology. He asks hard questions and requires his readers to think, to challenge their own dogmas. His Christianity may seem harsh. But his point of view forces us out of the complacency we have enjoyed for far too long. This book is also massively complex. Great minds could spend years unpacking the implications of Ellul's philosophy. In fact, Ellul himself did just that, devoting his career to expanding, revising, clarifying, adding to, and deciphering the points he first addresses here. This book is essentially a thumnail introduction to his later, vastly complicated work. Read Ellul to remind yourself why you became a Christian in this difficult modern world. Read Ellul to rediscover your mission and Christ's call to the world. Read Ellul to question what we are to make of technology, politics, and the other forces that would chain God to their own self-serving ends. Read Ellul for whatever reason, but please, at least once, read Ellul.

The First book to read in the Ellul Canon

Jacques Ellul{he of blessed memory], is a difficult man to catagorize. Profound thinker,anarchist and Christian,member of the resistance during WWII,Prophet on technology and propaganda{no one,well few,listened] his writings are somewhat dense{similar in some ways to his countrywoman Simone Weil.}Ellul looks at EVERYTHING THROUGH THE LENS OF THE GOSPELS,therby alienating those who are genuinely opposed to religion.In this book he goes after Christian in the moders world, and the dangers in adapting Christianity to society{what William Stringfellow called reading scripture AMERICANLY},the horrifying results in putting technology{or his term TECHNIQUE}ahead of human considerations, and the implicit moral dilemas therein.He also, in another chapeter,elaborates on what he believes is a genuinely Christian lifestyle"WE NEED A REVOLUTION, IN A WORLD WHERE IT HAS BECOME IMPOSSIBLE$Q. Ellul is not an easy read{not for me ,anyway} though he is rewarding and challenging. Certainly an antidote to tele-evangalism and fundamentalism, Ellul's writings, like Weil's, McLuhans{on technology and propaganda} and Barth's are difficult{and somewhat slow} and rewarding. HIGHLY<HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!!!