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Entretiens
Pour avoir été conçue en province, l'oeuvre de Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) n'en est pas moins universelle. Juriste, historien, théologien et sociologue, ce penseur prophétique est le premier à avoir compris que le phénomène technicien est la clef de notre modernité. Penser globalement, agir localement : toute sa vie, Jacques Ellul aura été fidèle à cette maxime. Nul n'aura mieux incarné les valeurs chrétiennes et libertaires dont il s'est toujours réclamé. Indifférent aux modes, ignoré des médias, cet esprit libre n'a pas hésité à penser à contre-courant pour conserver son intégrité. Pionnier de l'écologie politique, il a pensé le "contrat naturel" avant Michel Serres, dénoncé la haine de soi et la trahison de l'Occident avant Pascal Bruckner, opéré la critique du marxisme avant les "nouveaux philosophes". Pour avoir brossé un tableau sombre d'une société livrant l'homme moderne aux manipulations de la propagande, à l'oppression étatique et à l'illusion politique, on a souvent accusé Ellul de décrire un champ de ruines. L'espérance et la liberté sont pourtant au coeur de toute sa réflexion. Ce livre raconte cet itinéraire singulier à travers une série d'entretiens réalisés entre 1981 et 1994. Il offre un panorama complet des thèses d'Ellul à des lecteurs curieux mais ne sachant comment entrer dans cette oeuvre de plus de 13 000 pages. Il s'agit d'un voyage en compagnie de l'auteur, mais aussi d'un dialogue parfois critique entre le maître et son disciple. N'ayant pas rédigé ses mémoires, Jacques Ellul se livre pour la première et dernière fois à des confidences ayant valeur de testament intellectuel.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
42 people want to read
About the author
Jacques Ellul
125 books453 followersBaptised Catholic, Ellul became an atheist and Marxist at 19, and a Christian of the Reformed Church at 22. During his Marxist days, he was a member of the French Communist Party. During World War II, he fought with the French Underground against the Nazi occupation of France.
Educated at the Universities of Bordeaux and Paris, he taught Sociology and the History of Law at the Universities of Strausbourg and Montpellier. In 1946 he returned to Bordeaux where he lived, wrote, served as Mayor, and taught until his death in 1994.
In the 40 books and hundreds of articles Ellul wrote in his lifetime, his dominant theme was always the threat to human freedom posed by modern technology. His tenor and methodology is objective and scholarly, and the perspective is a sociological one. Few of his books are overtly political -- even though they deal directly with political phenomena -- and several of his books, including "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes" and "The Technological Society" are required reading in many graduate communication curricula.
Ellul was also a respected and serious Christian theologian whose 1948 work, "The Presence of the Kingdom," makes explicit a dual theme inherent, though subtly stated, in all of his writing, a sort of yin and yang of modern technological society: sin and sacramentality.
Educated at the Universities of Bordeaux and Paris, he taught Sociology and the History of Law at the Universities of Strausbourg and Montpellier. In 1946 he returned to Bordeaux where he lived, wrote, served as Mayor, and taught until his death in 1994.
In the 40 books and hundreds of articles Ellul wrote in his lifetime, his dominant theme was always the threat to human freedom posed by modern technology. His tenor and methodology is objective and scholarly, and the perspective is a sociological one. Few of his books are overtly political -- even though they deal directly with political phenomena -- and several of his books, including "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes" and "The Technological Society" are required reading in many graduate communication curricula.
Ellul was also a respected and serious Christian theologian whose 1948 work, "The Presence of the Kingdom," makes explicit a dual theme inherent, though subtly stated, in all of his writing, a sort of yin and yang of modern technological society: sin and sacramentality.
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