A New Reading of Jacques Ellul. Jacob Marques Rollison
Žižek, The Puppet and the Dwarf, 3.
16.
See Rollison, Revolution of Necessity, chapter 3.
17.
All citations in this paragraph are from John D. Caputo, review of The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?, ed. Creston Davis, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews: An Electronic Journal, no. 2009.09.33, https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/the-monstrosity-of-christ-para dox-or-dialectic/.
18.
For a dissenting view on Caputo’s statements about Žižek’s use of Christianity, see Adam Kotsko, Žižek and Theology, (London: T&T Clark, 2008), most concisely on pages 4–6.
19.
Žižek and Gunjević, God in Pain: Inversions of Apocalypse, 22.
20.
James K.A. Smith, Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 25.
21.
James K.A. Smith, The Fall of Interpretation, 6.
22.
Ibid., 7–8.
23.
Faire, 20.
24.
Entretiens, 24.
25.
Reason, 171. Earlier, Ellul “fail[ed] to see how Heidegerrian vocabulary and thought add anything to the perfectly clear explanation which the Bible itself gives us.” Freedom, 295.
26.
On structuralists as outsiders, see Why, especially 20–39.
27.
Pensée, 275–285. Several works including dissertations (and my Revolution of Necessity) treat Ellul and Heidegger, but tend to ignore Ellul’s theology.
28.
Entretiens, 55.
29.
Wagenfuhr, “Revelation and the Sacred Reconsidered,” 6.
30.
Gregory Wagenfuhr, “Postmodernity, the Phenomenal Mistake: Sacred, Myth and Environment,” and George Ritzer, “The Technological Society: Social Theory, McDonaldization and the Prosumer,” in Jacques Ellul and the Technological Society in the 21 st Century, Philosophy of Engineering and Technology 13, eds. Mitcham, et al. (London: Springer, 2013); Darrel J. Fasching, “The Sacred, the Secular, and the Holy: The Significance of Jacques Ellul’s Post-Christian Theology for Global Ethics,” The Ellul Forum, no.54 (April 2014): 1–13; Jacob Van Vleet, Dialectical Theology and Jacques Ellul: An Introductory Exposition (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014).
31.
Wagenfuhr, “Postmodernity, the Phenomenal Mistake,” 230.
32.
Van Vleet, Dialectical Theology and Jacques Ellul, 82.
33.
Ibid, 79, 142, 101–103. Van Vleet anticipates Michael Morelli’s doctoral investigation into Ellul and Virilio at the University of Aberdeen, which to my knowledge constitutes the fullest theological treatment of Virilio to date.
34.
Stanley Hauerwas, “Jacques Ellul, Courage and the Christian Imagination,” The Ellul Forum for the Critique of Technological Civilization, no. 13 (July 1994): 4.
35.
David Lovekin, Technique, Discourse, and Consciousness: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Jacques Ellul (London: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1991), 218. Of interest are also Lovekin’s and Samir Younés’s introductory essays to Empire.
36.
Hauerwas, “Jacques Ellul, Courage and the Christian Imagination,” 4.
37.
Gilbert Vincent, “Ordre Technique, disciplines et assujettissement selon Jacques Ellul et Michel Foucault,” in La technique et le façonnement du monde. Mirages et désenchantement, Directed by Gilbert Vincent (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2007), 129–179.
38.
Ibid, 131.
39.
Ibid, 132.
40.
Ibid, 134.
41.
Ibid, 138.
42.
Ibid, 141. While this may have merit, Ellul and others have criticized Foucault’s use of history. I will show Ellul’s critiques below; see also J.G. Merquior, Foucault, Fontana Modern Masters, ed. Frank Kermode (London: Fontana Press, 1985, 1991).
43.
Ibid, 172.
44.
Fasching, “The Sacred, the Secular and the Holy,” 1.
45.
Ibid, 3.
46.
Ibid.
47.
Ibid.
48.
Ibid, 4.
49.
Ibid, 5.
50.
Ibid, 7.
51.
Ibid, 8, citing Humiliation, 230.
52.
Fasching, “The Sacred, the Secular and the Holy,” 8.
53.
Ibid, 13.
54.
Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Theory and History of Literature, vol. 10 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984), 89.
55.
Goddard’s Resisting is the shining exception to this statement, dividing Ellul’s work into stages based on his evolution on various themes and separating his sociological and historical evolution; e.g. Resisting, xix.
56.
Contretemps, 54–55.
57.
Ibid, 70–71. On 70, Ellul notes he has changed more in his theology than his sociology.
58.
Patrick Chastenet, Lire Ellul: Introduction à l’œuvre socio-politique de Jacques Ellul (Talence: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 1992), 151. Cited in Resisting, 90, note 87.
59.
Espérance, 9; modified, Hope, v.
60.
Espérance, 9; modified, Hope, vi.
61.
For another biographical treatment, see Resisting, chapter 1.
62.
This paragraph summarizes portions of my argument in Rollison, Revolution of Necessity.
63.
Vitanza