The Ellul Forum
About the Ellul Forum
Welcome to the Ellul Forum, a twice-yearly journal published by the International Jacques Ellul Society.
Members of the Society receive each issue as it is published (choice of print + PDF, or PDF only). For non-members, issues in PDF are uploaded to this website after a delay of several years.
The Forum encourages submissions from scholars, students, and general readers. Submissions must demonstrate a degree of familiarity with Ellul’s thought and must engage with it in a critical way. Please write charitably, for a readership of intelligent non-specialists. Articles are typically 5,000 to 6,000 words, not counting any footnotes. Book reviews are considerably shorter.
Submissions may be sent to ijes@ellul.org.
Editor
Lisa Richmond, Hamilton, Ontario
Editorial Board
Daniel Cérézuelle, Bordeaux, France
Patrick Chastenet, Bordeaux, France
David Gill, Berkeley, California
David Lovekin, Hastings, Nebraska
Frédéric Rognon, Strasbourg, France
Christian Roy, Montréal, Québec
Publisher
The International Jacques Ellul Society
Law Office of Ken Morris (Attn: IJES)
1285 Yellow Pine Avenue
Boulder, CO 80304
ISSN
2638-0447
Articles
Ellul and Charbonneau on Culture, Science, Nature, Freedom
Christian Roy
Reflections on Limits
Patrick Chastenet
Jacques Ellul and the Preservation of the World
Jean-Philippe Qadri
The Influence of Jacques Ellul on George Grant’s Changing Understanding of Technology, Part II
Dayton Andrew Muncaster
Cover image: Maurice Raymond, Poème de la terre, 1940. Collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Copyright Estate of Maurice Raymond. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Articles
The City, Poetry, and Ellul
Brad Davis
France’s Bad Conscience: Jacques Ellul, Islam, and Imperialism
Bronson Long
Technological Versus Telematic Society: Jacques Ellul and Vilém Flusser on the Dominance of the Image
Brita Stoneman and Ethan Stoneman
The Influence of Jacques Ellul on George Grant’s Changing Understanding of Technology, Part I
Dayton Andrew Muncaster
Book Reviews
Blaise Pascal: The Man Who Made the Modern World, by Graham Tomlin
Matthew Prior
Articles
Crimes Against Humanity as Technique: Jacques Ellul’s Thought Applied to the Khmer Rouge
Virginia W. Landgraf
Jacques Ellul’s Theology of Technique: An Introduction
Frédéric Rognon
La Théologie de la Technique de Jacques Ellul: une introduction
Frédéric Rognon
Ghost in the Machine
Brandon Dorn
Technical Morality Versus the Ethics of Freedom
Jacob Marques-Rollison
Ancient Chinese Technology: A Missing Piece in Ellul’s Technological Society
Yanyu Sun
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Articles
A Honduran Mayor’s Experience of Ellul’s Political Illusion
Mark D. Baker
Meditation on Inutility
Jacques Ellul
Hope as Provocation
Charles Ringma
Jacques Ellul, Ivan Illich—and Jean Robert
Carl Mitcham
Book Reviews
The Culture of Cynicism: American Morality in Decline, by Richard Stivers
Jason Hudson
Propaganda 2.1: Understanding Propaganda in the Digital Age, by Peter K. Fallon
John Fraim
Jacques Ellul and the Technological Society in the 21st Century, edited by Helena M. Jerónimo, José Luís Garcia, and Carl Mitcham
David Lovekin
Excerpts by Jacques Ellul on Technique, Public Health, and Medicine
Articles
Life is Not Living: A Lesson from the Pandemic According to Ivan Illich
Sajay Samuel
Prophets of Zoom? Jacques Ellul, Sherry Turkle, Simone Weil, and Online Community
Matthew Prior
What Happened to Ethics During the Pandemic? A Comparison of Edward Hall’s Triad and Jacques Ellul’s Technique
Mark Honneger
Response to Mark Honneger
Jacob Marques Rollison
Book Reviews
Theology and Technology, Volumes 1 and 2
Jason Hudson
Review of Theory in the ‘Post’ Era: A Vocabulary for the Twenty-First-Century Conceptual Commons
Amy J. Erickson
Review of Following Jesus in a Digital Age
Jack Esselink
Articles
Re-Imagining the Image, Re-Focusing the Word
David Lovekin
The Two Orders and the Appearance of the World
Samir Younés
Does the End of Art Signify the End of Man? Beyond the Technical System: the Place of Lyricism in Our Conception of Water
Justine McIntyre
Where is the Fiction? Art’s Audience in a World of Technique
Mark Honegger
Book Reviews
Theology, Ethics, and Technology in the Work of Jacques Ellul and Paul Virilio—a Nascent Theological Tradition
Jack Esselink
Plundering Eden: A Subversive Christian Theology of Creation and Ecology
Stuart Warren
Articles
Subversion through Weakness: Marva Dawn’s Contribution to Ellul’s Study of Modern Powers
Ted Lewis
Letter from Jacques Ellul to Marva Dawn
The Concept of “the Principalities and Powers” in the Works of Jacques Ellul
Marva J. Dawn
Chronicle of the Problems of Civilization: By Way of a Brief Preface
Jacques Ellul
Chronicle of the Problems of Civilization: Trajectories
Marva J. Dawn
A Personal Reflection on Hidden Powers in Our Current Times
Ted Lewis
Book Reviews
La Technique et la chair, by Daniel Cérézuelle
Carl Mitcham
Robot Theology: Old Questions through New Media, by Joshua K. Smith
Jack Esselink
To Will & To Do, by Jacques Ellul, trans. Jacob Marques Rollison
Peter Anderson
Articles
From Tech Critique to Ways of Living
Alan Jacobs
The Question Concerning China
Carl Mitcham
For a Technodiversity in the Anthropocene
Yuk Hui
Avons-nous vraiment besoin d’une cosmotechnique? Remarques sur La Question de la technique en Chine
Daniel Cérézuelle
Book Reviews
Ce Dieu injuste … ? Théologie chrétienne pour le peuple d’Israël, par Jacques Ellul
Patrick Chastenet et Sylvain Dujancourt
An Unjust God? A Christian Theology of Israel in Light of Romans 9-11, by Jacques Ellul
Patrick Chastenet and Sylvain Dujancourt
Wisdom from Babylon: Leadership for the Church in a Secular Age, by Gordon T. Smith
Peter Anderson
Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life, by Adam Greenfield
Pierre Lindsay Chineegadoo
Guest edited by Richard Stivers and J.M. van der Laan
Articles
The Green Revolution Response to Modern Technology: The Catholic Worker Farms and Jacques Ellul
Paul V. Stock
Nothing Sacred: The Virtual Classroom in the Age of Zoom
John Paul Russo
Christians and the Perils of Technology: Helpful Insights from Neil Postman
Rick Clifton Moore
A Christian Approach to Technology
Richard Stivers
Concerning a Christian Response to Technology
J.M. van der Laan
Articles
Real Presence
Sue F. Wentworth
Bernard Charbonneau et le christianisme
Frédéric Rognon
Bernard Charbonneau and Christianity
Frédéric Rognon
Bernard Charbonneau à Foi & Vie : Un théologien agnostique chez les protestants
Patrick Chastenet
Bernard Charbonneau at Foi & Vie: An Agnostic Theologian among Protestants
Patrick Chastenet
Book Reviews
Jacques Ellul: A Companion to His Major Works, by Jacob E. Van Vleet and Jacob Marques Rollison
David Lovekin
Introduction à Jacques Ellul, by Patrick Chastenet
David Gill
Articles
How I Discovered Hope
Jacques Ellul
The Dialogue of Sign and Presence (Notes for a Christianity Learned by Heart)
Introduction
Jacob Marques Rollison
Text
Jacques Ellul and Yvette Ellul
Interpretive Summary of the Argument
Jacob Marques Rollison
Information as a Problem for Human Freedom: Jacques Ellul’s Contribution to Library Science
Lisa Richmond
Book Reviews
Media Ethics and Global Justice in the Digital Age, by Clifford G. Christians
Randal Marlin
Jacques Ellul and Bernard Charbonneau in French Surveys of the Degrowth Movement
Christian Roy
Articles
Nature and Scripture in Bernard Charbonneau’s The Green Light
Christian Roy
Jacques Ellul and Exodus: A Summary and Review
G. P. Wagenfuhr
Le plus dur des devoirs : La liberté chez Bernard Charbonneau et Jacques Ellul
Daniel Cérézuelle
The Hardest Duty: Freedom in the Thought of Bernard Charbonneau and Jacques Ellul
Daniel Cérézuelle
Book Reviews
Anarchie et christianisme, par Jacques Ellul
Patrick Chastenet
Kierkegaard’s Theological Sociology, by Paul Tyson
Paul Martens
The Green Light, by Bernard Charbonneau
Jacob Marques Rollison
Articles
God’s Time: Kierkegaard, Qohelet, and Ellul’s Reading of Ecclesiastes
Jacob Marques Rollison
Efficiency and Availability: Jacques Ellul and Albert Borgmann on the Nature of Technology
Jonathan Lipps
Celui dans lequel je mets tout mon coeur
Patrick Troude-Chastenet
The One in Which I Put All My Heart
Patrick Troude-Chastenet
Book Reviews
Political Illusion and Reality, edited by David W. Gill and David Lovekin
Zachary Lloyd
Our Battle for the Human Spirit, by Willem H. Vanderburg
Alastair Roberts
The Burnout Society, by Byung-Chul Han
David Lovekin
Articles
Jacques Ellul’s Apocalypse in Poetry and Exegesis
A. F. Moritz
Ellul’s City in Scripture and Poetry
Kelsey L. Haskett
The “Analogy of Faith”: What Does It Mean? Why, and What For?
Frédéric Rognon
“L’analogie de la foi” : qu’est-ce que cela signifie ? Pourquoi et en vue de quoi ?
Frédéric Rognon
Jacques Ellul: From Technique to the Technological System
Daniel Cérézuelle
Jacques Ellul : de la Technique au Système technicien
Daniel Cérézuelle
Book Reviews
The Crisis of Modernity, by Augusto Del Noce
J. Peter Escalante
Technology and the Virtues, by Shannon Vallor
Jonathan A. Tomes
Issue 61 was an intentional reissuing of issue 36
Articles
Jacques Ellul as a Reader of Scripture
Anthony J. Petrotta
Ellul on Scripture and Idolatry
Andrew Goddard
If You Are the Son of God!
Andy Alexis-Baker
Ellul’s Apocalypse
Virginia W. Landgraf
Is God Truly Just?
Patrick Chastenet
Dieu est-il injuste ?
Patrick Chastenet
Ellul’s God’s Politics
Chris Friesen
Judging Ellul’s Jonah
Victor Shepherd
Book Reviews
The Hebrew Christ: Language in the Age of the Gospels, by Claude Tresmontant
John L. Gwin
Anonymous God, by Gabriel Vahanian
Darrell J. Fasching
Les Dix Comandements aujourd’hui : Dix paroles pour reconcilier l’homme avec l’humain, by André Chouraqui
Le Decalogue : Une morale pour notre temps, by Alphonse Maillot
David W. Gill
Articles
Jacques Ellul’s Dialectical Theology: Embracing Contradictions about the Kingdom in the New Testament
Kevin Garrison
Social Propaganda and Trademarks
Richard L. Kirkpatrick
Book Reviews
Not So Fast: Thinking Twice about Technology, by Doug Hill
David W. Gill
Jacques Ellul on Violence, Resistance, and War, edited by Jeffrey Shaw and Timothy Demy
Jason Hudson
Pursuing the Spiritual Roots of Protest: Merton, Berrigan, Yoder, and Muste at the Gethsemani Abbey Peacemakers Retreat, by Gordon Oyer
Chris Staysniak
Editorial
Articles
Biblical Positions on Medicine
Jacques Ellul
Positions bibliques sur la médicine
Jacques Ellul
Commentary
Raymond Downing
“Biblical Positions on Medicine” in Theological Perspective
Frédéric Rognon
“Positions bibliques sur la médicine” : Mise en perspective théologique
Frédéric Rognon
Commentary
Richard Stivers
Sin as Addiction in Our “Brave New World”
Richard Stivers
Book Reviews
The Uncertain Digital Revolution, by André Vitalis
Jeff Shaw
Articles
Bringing Ellul to the City Council: A Council Member Reflects on How Ellul Has Guided His Work
Robb Davis and Mark D. Baker
Liberalism and the State in French and Canadian Technocritical Discourses: Intersections and Contrasts between George Grant and the Bordeaux School
Christian Roy
Book Reviews
The Empire of Non-Sense: Art in the Technological Society, by Jacques Ellul, trans. David Lovekin and Michael Johnson, ed. Samir Younés
Zachary Lloyd
Illusions of Freedom: Thomas Merton and Jacques Ellul on Technology and the Human Condition, by Jeffrey M. Shaw
Jacob Van Vleet
Articles
On Terrorism, Violence, and War: Looking Back at 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Patrick Troude-Chastenet
On the Symbol in the Technical Environment: Some Reflections
David Lovekin
Will the Gospel Survive? Proclamation and Faith in the Technical Milieu
Gregory Wagenfuhr
Book Reviews
Security, Technology, and Global Politics: Thinking with Virilio, by Mark Lacy
Jacob Rollison
Dialectical Theology and Jacques Ellul: An Introductory Exposition, by Jacob E. Van Vleet
Paul Tyson
Articles
On Terrorism, Violence, and War: Looking Back at 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Patrick Troude-Chastenet
Ellul, Machiavelli, and Autonomous Technique
Richard Kirkpatrick
Book Reviews
The Prophet of Cuernavaca: Ivan Illich and the Crisis of the West, by Todd Hartch
Peter Escalante
Digital Vertigo: How Today’s Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing, and Disorienting Us, by Andrew Keen
David Lovekin
Articles
Sham Universe: Field Notes on the Disappearance of Reality in a World of Hallucinations
Doug Hill
On FaceBook But Not of Facebook: Using New Social Media Technologies to Promote the Virtues of Jacques Ellul
Brian Lightbody
Book Notes
The Empire of Non-Sense: Art in the Technological Society, by Jacques Ellul
If You Are the Son of God: The Suffering and Temptation of Jesus, by Jacques Ellul
On Being Rich & Poor: Christianity in a Time of Economic Globalization, by Jacques Ellul
Illusions of Freedom: Thomas Merton and Jacques Ellul, by Jeffrey Shaw