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Posts : 1611 Join date : 2009-10-19
| Subject: Jacques Ellul - Subversion of Christianity Thu 25 Feb 2010, 10:46 pm | |
| Heroes of faith must return to their origins as subversive individuals who refuse to play along with society's expectations. Excerpts from reviewers ...That what is deemed Christianity today is, in fact, a rejection of the revelation of Jesus Christ is unarguable, and Ellul does well in describing exactly how distant what Kierkegaard called "Christendom" is from its origins. I am especially impressed by his point that the contradictions to be found in the Bible that critics are so quick to identify and condemn are the essence of revelation. But I'll let Ellul make his own point: "We have to realize that everything in the Bible is contradictory. Yet there is revelation only as the contradictions are held together. God the Wholly Other is incarnate in a man. He is still the Wholly Other. And we have to understand -- I repeat this because it is essential -- that the truth is made up of the actual contradictions. Each aspect of the truth is true only because it is linked to its radical opposite." "Ellul ably holds to the essential core of Christian teaching while showing how the church throughout history has consistently been led away from truly living out the gospel -- whether by outside forces or by the weight of its own success, the church has continually done exactly the opposite of what the New Testament writers tell us to do. This book is fairly easy to read, and is very straightforward: Ellul takes us through some of the most important missteps in church history and shows how the good news of Grace and Freedom was forced to the side, even with the best of intentions. Ellul challenges us to find a new way of living out the Gospel, without either conforming ourselves to our present age or rejecting the essential elements of Christian doctrine. If the church is to have any effect, he says, we must return to our origins as a group of subversive individuals who refuse to play along with society's expectations.
Only by being subversive ourselves (as all the heroes of faith have been), can we return Christianity to its place as bearer of good news to a world which needs to hear it." Read all reviews ...
- librarything.com
- betterworldbooks.com
- Amazon.com
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