mirror-of-these-ten-years
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Mirror of These Ten Years Only through complete refusal to compromise with the forms and forces of our society can we recover the hope of human freedom. JACQUES ELLUL + IN THE FIRST PLACE, we must admit that it is difficult for a Christian to talk about himself. Not that it is difficult to lay oneself bare (especially in these days of literary exhibitionism). But a Christian ought to know how little interest attaches to him as a person. And he ought to know that it is better to talk about Jesus Christ than about himself. If nevertheless he is led to talk about— as I have been here — he must do so not only with strict honesty but above all objectively, in detachment, examining himself without romanticism, as a different object; always aware of the promptings of old human nature and always remembering the warning, "Do not be conformed to this world." development and creation, the second was above all A second preliminary remark, as banal as the first. a matter of crises and renewed questioning. So it is Obviously, my thinking has developed under two mainly the second that I shall speak of. Let me say influences. On the one hand, I kept to the same path only a few words about the first. as before, sharpening and widening my ideas and in general pursuing the native bent of my mind. On I the other hand, my thinking changed under the In these ten years I have come to a progressively impact of external events, of sociological, political, clearer ...
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| Publié par | Shueh |
| Nombre de lectures | 21 |
| Langue | English |
Extrait
Mirror of These
Ten Years
Only through complete refusal to compro-
mise with the forms and forces of our society
can we recover the hope of human freedom.
JACQUES ELLUL
+ IN T H E FIRST PLACE, we must admit that it is
difficult for a Christian to talk about
himself.
Not
that it is difficult to lay oneself bare (especially in
these days of literary exhibitionism). But a Christian
ought to know how little interest attaches to him as
a person. And he ought to know that it is better to
talk about Jesus Christ than about
himself.
If never-
theless he is led to talk about
himself—
as I have
been here
—
he must do so not only with strict hon-
esty but above all objectively, in detachment, exam-
ining himself without romanticism, as a different
object; always aware of the promptings of old hu-
man nature and always remembering the warning,
"Do not be conformed to this world."
A second preliminary remark, as banal as the first.
Obviously, my thinking has developed under two
influences. On the one hand, I kept to the same path
as before, sharpening and widening my ideas and in
general pursuing the native bent of my mind. On
the other hand, my thinking changed under the
impact of external events, of sociological, political,
ideological permutations. This kind of thing influ-
ences me the more because I always think "at grips,"
as it were, with my surroundings
—
sometimes in
protest against what is happening but always taking
account of it. I make no claim to being a philoso-
pher or a dogmatician. I can never look at anything
sub specie aeternitatis.
Whatever I think, do, write
as a Christian, I think, do, write it in relation to a
specific setting. I shall not say that I am mentally
"committed"* (to a particular line or school of
thought, for instance), but I am "involved."
Well then, two processes have worked to change
my mind. If the first was intrinsic, a matter of
•Translator's note: Ellul says, literally "I shall not say that my
thought is 'engaged' . . .," and explains in a footnote: "I reject
the idea of being 'engaged,' for two reasons. One arises from cir-
cumstance: in France, this word has taken on clearly political
connotations. T h e other arises from principle: to be 'engaged' is
to give a gage, a pledge; and for my part I refuse to pledge my
mind to anything or anyone, save Jesus Christ."
Dr. Ellul is professor
of the history of law and social his-
tory at the University
of
Bordeaux.
200
development and creation, the second was above all
a matter of crises and renewed questioning. So it is
mainly the second that I shall speak of. Let me say
only a few words about the first.
I
In these ten years I have come to a progressively
clearer view of my writings and of the principles
underlying them. From the beginning my thinking
revolved chiefly around the contradiction between
the evolution of the modern world and the biblical
content of the Revelation. Step by step I had arrived
at two convictions, both negative: on the one hand,
that it was impossible to construct a comprehensive
"Christian system" applicable to man's political,
economic and similar activities. Of course, from the
intellectual point of view it is possible to construct
such a system, but it would be totally inapplicable,
therefore totally meaningless: it would foster the
illusory
belief
that "we have the remedy but nobody
will buy it." Moreover, those who attempt to work
out a Christian political system usually do not look
beyond the society they live in, thus in effect confer-
ring on that society a Christian blessing; and this is
inadmissible.
The other negative conviction I have reached is
this:
that Christianity does not offer (and is not
made to offer!) a
solution
for social, political, eco-
nomic problems (or even for moral or spiritual prob-
lems!).
God in Jesus Christ puts questions to us
—
the christian CENTURY
questions about ourselves, our politics, our econo-
my—and does not supply the answers; it is the
Christian himself who must make answer. Conse-
quently, I have set up the principle of confronta-
tion. We must seek the deepest possible sociological
understanding of the world we live in, apply the
best methods, refrain from tampering with the re-
sults of our research on the ground that they are
"spiritually" embarrassing, maintain complete clari-
ty and complete realism
—
all in order to find out,
as precisely as may be, where we are and what we are
doing, and also what lines of action are open to us.
The Christian intellectual is called frankly to face
the sociopolitical reality.
This is one demand on the Christian intellectual.
The other is that he also develop and deepen his
knowledge in the biblical and theological fields. But
he must beware of "inflecting" theology for the sake
of the "cultural" (that is my objection to Tillich).
The only thing that will be of any use is not
synthesis or adaptation, but confrontation; that is,
bringing face to face two factors that are contradic-
tory and irreconcilable and at the same time insepa-
rable. For it is only out of the
decision
he makes
when he experiences this contradiction
—
never out
of adherence to an integrated system
—
that the
Christian will arrive at a practical position.
So I have steadily deepened this idea, which is
meant to prompt every reader to make his own
decision, on the spiritual as well as on the political
or economic level. The writing I had undertaken in
a tentative frame of mind assumed a progressively
better structure. The whole of it is a composition in
counterpoint. Every sociological analysis of mine is
answered (not in the sense of replying, but in that of
noting the other dialectical pole) by a biblical or
theological analysis. For example, to my book
The
Political Illusion,
a study of politics as actually
practiced in a modern state, corresponds my
Politics
of God, Politics of Man,
a biblical study of the
Second Book of Kings. T o my book on technology
corresponds my theologically based study of the
great city as the supreme achievement of man's
technology. Etc. But the system and the conclusions
to be drawn therefrom will appear only at the end
of my work, if God permits me to arrive at the end.
T o sum up: in these past ten years I have deep-
ened and clarified my ideas and above all I have
applied them more completely.
II
But most fundamental for me in these ten years
was a certain crisis in my thinking that produced
important results (important for me!) and arose
from many circumstances. I shall describe it under
four heads: (i) the Algerian war, (2) my relation to
the World Council of Churches, (3) my relation to
the Reformed Church of France, and (4) the theol-
ogy of the secular and of the death of God.
The Algerian War. Since 1934 I had belonged to
a small group that sought to put the Algerian
problem before the French public. We had failed
completely. When the rebellion started, I wrote
several articles calling on the church to intervene in
order that a federalistic solution might be nego-
tiated with the Algerian leaders or a system of
How My Mind Has Changed
FIFTH ARTICLE IN A SERIES
"double nationality" instituted. I had stated pub-
licly that, in my opinion, this Algerian business
could not be settled by military means, except those
employed in Madagascar in 1947: drowning the
revolt in blood, and without delay. But early in
1956 I came to the conclusion that it was now too
late for negotiation of any kind, and that the only
possible long-run outcome of this war was France's
defeat. I did not think it right to support the
National Liberation Front, because its victory
would necessarily result in the impoverishment of
the French
colons,
in a dictatorship, and in far-
reaching retrogression in every department of
Algerian life. In fact I did not see that there was
anything I could say or do, because it was already
too late to reach a just solution.
It was then I parted company with the majority of
French Christian intellectuals. These Christians be-
gan to be concerned about the Algerian problem in
1956 —passionately so, especially in 1957-58. Al-
most without exception they sided with the N.L.F.,
and they raised protests against the French army's
use of torture (of course they said nothing about the
N.L.F.'s use of torture). I refused to sign petitions,
to take part in demonstrations, to vote on synodal
motions. Besides, it seemed to me that petitions and
so on were of little importance. I found myself very
much alone and under severe criticism on the part
of those who supported the "good cause."
All this led me to think more carefully about the
role of the Christian intellectual. His role, it seems
to me, is essentially that of a sentinel (Ezekiel
chapter 33) who foresees approaching events and
gives warning before the situation reaches the pitch
of tragedy, takes on a massive character or becomes
the focus of passions. There can be no just solution
save when the political situation is still fluid, not too
acute and as yet unpublicized. Once passions are
unleashed, no just solution is possible. I believe that
the Christian is able to perceive things that others
do not yet consider important. His role is to discern
the problem at its birth, and never to howl with the
wolves when it has attained enormous, dramatic
proportions.
Then
the Christian must be silent,
February 18, 1970
201
tm
must pray and repent for all. This view and this
conviction were born in me out of the experience of
the Algerian affair.
The World Council of Churches. A second factor
that has greatly influenced my thinking is my es-
trangement from the World Council of Churches.
Through experience, I had reached the conviction
that the council was on the way to becoming a
bureaucratic system, an enormous machine that, the
larger it grew, the more it conformed to sociological
laws of organization, rather than obeying the
promptings of the Holy Spirit. Sadly ironic, I said
that Protestantism was doing just about what the
Roman church (by developing the Curia) had been
doing since the 16th century. I Eound myself more
and more at odds with the W.C.C.'s way of laying
hold of and looking at problems. That did not mean
that I questioned the importance of the ecumenical
movement and of the desire for unity. I simply
realized more and more that the old theological
differences had less and less sense and that it was
only because their theological formulas had become
obsolete that the various churches were ready to
meet together. But at the same time it seemed to me
that a new line of cleavage was appearing: the
political line. The true differences within each
church were of a political nature and might lead to
schisms. The World Council precipitately adopted
positions that seemed to me scarcely worth taking
seriously: problems poorly analyzed, inadequate so-
lutions, superficiality, lack of sound theological
thinking, etc. I have a horror of the reign of false
experts!
The crisis came into the open at the Conference
on Church and Society (1966). There I voiced my
total dissent, because it seemed to me that the
conference had not tackled any of the basic prob-
lems of our society, had simply affirmed purely
demagogic theses (for example, those about the so-
called underdeveloped countries), had proposed re-
medies some of which were in fact inapplicable, and
had adopted a theology of revolution without taking
theological thought at all.
1
So in this respect too I
found myself on the fringe of the movement that the
generality of Christians were engaged in. And this
naturally led to a number of changes in my thinking
as well as in my activities.
The Reformed Church of France. The third fac-
tor in my change of mind was the Reformed Church
of France. I am a member of the council that governs
that whole church. In 1957-58 I believed that the
church could take resolute steps toward "reform."
First, it seemed to me that in a time of rapid social
change the church also needed to modify its forms of
1
I
want to emphasize that I am not hostile to the theol-
ogy of revolution. In my
The Presence of the Kingdom
I gave
an entire chapter to considering Christianity as a revolution-
ary force. But I do insist on rigorous theological analysis.
organization and its relation to society, and to revise
its ideas of evangelization, ministry, etc. To this end
we set up a ten-member "Commission of Strategy,"
which did a notable piece of work in elaborating a
complete plan for revising the church's structure
and forms of expression in the light of the changes
in society. But after six years of work our efforts
ended in failure
—
in spite of the fact that we had
taken every possible tactical precaution lest we
offend custom. We had worked out a plan by which
reforms were to be introduced gradually, and we
thought that each successive step would be accept-
able to the faithful. We were wrong. Some of our
reforms were accepted, others so changed as to make
them worthless, still others rejected outright. Well,
our plan was of a piece; so it must be said that we
failed. We came up against a ponderous apparatus
(even though we were part of the governing organi-
zation), against tradition, against the indifference
and apathy of the church's members.
Second, it seemed to me that the church had to
deal with the problem of hermeneutics, for several
views on the interpretation of Scripture were devel-
oping within it. The "new hermeneutics" is not
uniform
—
J. M. Robinson's differs from Ebeling's.
Now, the Reformed Church of France was already
pluralistic: liberals, Calvinists, Barthians coexisted
within it. The new hermeneutics was a threat that
forced us to ask how far Scripture could be "de-
my thologized" and reinterpreted and what would
be left of the kerygma. We set up a commission
representing six points of view to study these ques-
tions seriously and to arrive at a confrontation. But,
one after another, representatives of the various
viewpoints stopped coming to the meetings, until
only the three "Barthians" remained.
These two failures so deeply influenced my think-
ing that I was led to conclude that the church, as
church, was incapable of reforming
itself,
and that
dialogue and communication were as difficult in the
church as elsewhere
—
if not more difficult. Hence
arose certain theological reflections. For if the Holy
Spirit is present in the church, the church ought
always to be reforming
itself;
and the Spirit will
establish communication and true understanding in
the faithful. So I asked myself whether God, who
sometimes turns away, had actually abandoned our
church. A question, not an affirmation.
Ill
The New Theology. Finally, I come to the fourth
factor that changed my mind; namely, the "new
theology"
—
the theologies of Tillich and Bult-
mann (which to be sure were old but up to then had
been relatively unknown in France) as well as the
theologies of the secular and the death of God. It is
not these new formulations themselves that I con-
sider difficult or disconcerting. Moreover, any num-
ber of arguments can be marshaled to refute these
202
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theologies
on the intellectual plane.
But necessarily
they introduce suspicion
—
and I think we must
distinguish carefully between suspicion and the
spirit of criticism. The latter is altogether desirable.
Every believer ought always to be examining the
content of his faith, ought willingly to undergo this
test; because it is only the faith that is "unprotect-
ed" by some intellectual or sociological reinforce-
ment that is true faith in God in Jesus Christ.
Historical criticism, for instance, seems to me entire-
ly a wholesome procedure.
But here we come up against something quite
different. This "new theology" is an attack on the
content of the faith —an attack not with honestly
intellectual weapons but with the appearance of
rationality and scientific rigor, thus an attack that is
a spiritual aggression. This is exactly what the phi-
losophy of Feuerbach does
—
and indeed all these
theologies implicitly go back to Feuerbach. For when
you face a system that attributes everything to the
cultural (the God the Bible
speaks
of is only a
cultural expression) and to linguistic structures (the
message has no true content; it only has syntactic
structure), your intellectual refutation of it cannot
be couched in terms more exact than those adduced
in support of the system. The quarrel cannot be
settled on that level; and when it has been fought a
question necessarily remains: that of a kind of evi-
dence that is beyond philosophy. In other words, we
can no longer
read the Bible in simplicity of heart,
because this theology begets suspicion; we
can no
longer
pray with utter trust in God, because this
theology sends us back to our own human nature. So
it is a crisis of faith that is joined here. There was a
period when Barthianism bade fair to land us in
arid dogmatism. Now we are in a period of "dilu-
tion," of watering down the expression as well as the
content of the Revelation. I personally find myself
caught in this crisis, facing it honestly and knowing
that God is faithful and will not abandon us even
when human folly becomes frenetic.
IV
These various crises have led me, first, to with-
draw more and more from politics and from action
in the church; second, to become much more radical
in all my thinking.
I am convinced that any action we can take,
whether in politics or in attempts at church reform,
is utterly useless. As to politics, I am now confirmed
in the skepticism that came over me after my politi-
cal experience (as deputy mayor of Bordeaux) in
1944-48.
Any action open to us is necessarily small-
scale, concerned with details. Which is to say that it
will inevitably be nullified by the body society. Ours
is a global society which cannot be changed piece-
meal. Any attempt to deal with one small part of the
sociopolitical problem is bound to be taken over by
this society and turned to its advantage. The same
goes for the church (at least for the church I know):
where a thousand steps need to be taken, the mass of
the faithful will consent to take only one. Moreover,
the general view is that the church needs merely to
adapt
itself to society and modern thought
—
whereas it is just the opposite that must be attempt-
ed: so to structure the church that it can live and
speak
as an unassimilated foreign body
in our so-
ciety.
But
that is an idea that, so far as I can see, is
impossible to realize today, an idea too high for the
generality of the faithful.
So I turned away from actions of that kind. That
does not mean that I fell prey to resignation or
pessimism. (My pessimism is theologically based,
and it was already a radical pessimism; but along
with it I experience the absolute joy of the redemp-
tion and the resurrection!) I simply gave up certain
points of view that I considered marginal. I face the
crisis
—
including the theological crisis —for what
it is, in the assurance that on the other side of such
crises the truth of the gospel is at last proclaimed in
truth. I bear the burden of this crisis so far as I can.
But then I am led to an even more radical posi-
tion
—
to a political radicalism and to a theological
radicalism. These words, however, must be under-
stood in a sense different from their usual onel By
political radicalism I certainly do not mean a leftist
or pacifist position. I venture to say that demonstra-
tions
contra
the Vietnam war or
pro
Maoism are an
absolute anachronism, totally unimportant and
without any bearing whatever on the things that are
basic in our society. We must get to the roots of our
society (technology, political power, psychological
manipulation) and attack it there. In a way I admire
the hippie movement, but I do not believe that such
a movement can result in any worthwhile develop-
ment or action. The hippies, whether they like it or
not, are merely a luxury phenomenon in a "great
society." The technological society and the power it
commands form the infrastructure without which
the hippies could not exist. The radicalism I am in
search of is much more basic. But I do not know
whether it can be formulated nor whether it will
require some particular mode of action. In any case,
I believe that it is only through complete refusal to
compromise with the forms and forces of our society
that we can find the right orientation and recover
the hope of human freedom.
As to theological radicalism, by that I certainly do
not mean any of the theologies mentioned above
(death-of-God, revolutionary, secular, cultural, new
hermeneutical). In my opinion the radical fault of
these theologies is their conformity to the world;
that is, to this society. It is because our culture and
our science have acquired such prestige, because our
technology witnesses to the greatness of man, etc.,
that this theological movement has developed. In
the name of science and of human power, this
movement is radical so far as the old dogmas, creeds,
February
78, 7970
203
etc.,
are concerned. But this is a radicalism that
characterizes the whole society, and w hat is so won-
derful about falling in w ith it? O n the other hand,
so far as the world and m odern society are con-
cerned, these new theologies are conformist in a
truly radical (!) way.
T h e m ark of the theological radicalism I have in
m in d is precisely its refusal to compromise with
these theologies, which look (but only look) sound
and are the expression of the spirit of the times. B ut
we certainly cannot
go back
to the old, faulty and
F IT C H :
T h e first question I'd like to ask is "W hy
boycott?"
C H A V E Z : You know, w hen you consider every-
thing, we don't have any options. Most of the
other things that would have been options de-
pended entirely on the good will of the govern-
m en t and we know enough to know that they're
not going to move. Especially, they're not going
to move in a conflict situation like ours. Per-
sonally, the big reason was this: I thought the
A m erican public would respond
affirmatively.
F:
T h at's optimistic. Most of the predictions now
about the Am erican public are not optimistic.
C: T h ey 're not optimistic because they're cliches
now
—
"the country's sick," and all those things.
Really, we haven't tried to understand how in-
stitutions work. T h e com m on procedure is to
insult your friends and to feel that they ought
to drop everything they are doing and come in
and help you. Theoretically that would be great.
But if you're going to organize, and if you're go-
ing to be a realist, you know how m uch to expect
and you're not going to be disappointed. You
plan accordingly, along very realistic lines.
F:
W hat's the realistic basis for optim ism about a
public response to the boycott?
C: W ell, first of all, I contend that not only the
Am erican public b u t people in general through-
out the world will respond to a cause that in-
volves injustice. It's just natural to w ant to be
with the underdog. In a boxing match, how-
ever popular the cham pion may be, if he begins
Bob Fitch is a United Church of Christ clergyman who
works as a photo-journalist.
obsolete formulations; that w ould serve n o purpose,
and besides it probably could not be done. It is
beyond
the crisis that we m ust find the true expres-
sion of the Revelation. N ot an expression that is
acceptable, adaptive, conformed to the m odern
spirit, b u t an expression that is true because, on the
one hand, it comes to grips w ith the problem s of our
society and its people, and, on the other, firmly
upholds the
reality
of the Revelation in its fullness.
T oday my thinking centers on the search for a
Credo for the church of tom orrow.
to really get the other guy and beat him u p bad,
there is a natural tendency to go w ith the under-
dog. A nd in this struggle it's not a contest be-
tween two people or a team b u t a contest between
a lot of people who are poor and others w ho are
wealthy.
F:
W h a t happened to the other options? Such as
legislation?
C: W h e n you get into legislation you're playing
with a borrowed bat. Once you get into legisla-
tion then it's the whole question of compromise.
T h e only reason growers are seeking legislation
now, after 35 years, is because they are u n d er
pressure. T h e y w ant to use legislation to take
away that new-found right the workers have found
through the boycott.
F:
W h a t do you mean?
C: Legislation that's being proposed permits unions
b u t takes the boycott right away from the work-
ers,
and doesn't perm it them to strike during
harvest time. Of course that's the only tim e we
work. T h e proposal comes not out of a spirit of
giving the workers civil rights, b u t as a gim m ick
to further restrict their rights.
F:
W hy can't you stop the im porting of M exican
labor?
C: It's a long history of the governm ent and the
employers w orking together. N ot the same pro-
gram b u t different variations. In fact, it's part of
the system. Even u n d er the most liberal adm in-
istrations we w ouldn't get them to enforce bor-
der controls. T h e im m igration service and the
border patrol always worked on the assumption
that it is not really illegal for these people to be
here provided they are working, are being use-
Tilting with the System
An interview with Cesar Chavez, leader of the grape pickers
1
strike
in Delano, California, and of the nationwide boycott of table grapes.
BOB FITCH
204
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