Ellul Jacques~~Violence

7/29/2019 Ellul Jacques~~Violence

1/89

Copyright @ 1969 by The Seabury Press, Incorporated Library of

Congress Card Catalog Number: 69-13540 Design by Paula Weiner

644-469-C-5 Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in

any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher,

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and

reviews.

Contents

I . Traditional Views

Compromise, i

Nonviolence, 9

Violence, 1-7

I

Today's Christians for Violence

The Singling Out of the Poor, 30

The Basic Presuppositions, 35

The Three Possible Orientations, 43

The Character of Christian Participation in Violence 60

27

The Theological Consequences, 71

:3. Christian Realism in the Face of Violence

Violence as Necessity, 84

The Law of Violence, 93

Are There Two Kinds of Violence? 108

Rejection of Idealisms, 115

.1. The Fight of Faith

Necessity and Legitimacy, 127

Christian Radicalism, 145

The Violence of Love. 160


2/89

INDEX


3/89


4/89


5/89


6/89


7/89


8/89


9/89


10/89


11/89


12/89


13/89


14/89


15/89


16/89


17/89


18/89


19/89


20/89


21/89


22/89


23/89


24/89


25/89


26/89


27/89


28/89


29/89


30/89


31/89


32/89


33/89


34/89


35/89


36/89


37/89


38/89


39/89


40/89


41/89


42/89

Today's Christians for Violence 79

tory formula is manufactured; and alas, it often turns out that theology

merely amounts to a justification of the behavior of pretend-Christians.The theology of the death of God reinforces this evil tendency. It

justifies a sociological impulsion. That is the kind of theology it really

is, unconsciously. Nor do the marvelous intellectual operations its

proponents perform with every appearance of seriousness make it less

profoundly false.

Such are the theological consequences of Christians' defense of violence.

They are grave consequences.

Chapter 3

Christian Realism in the Face of Violence

IF WE want to find out what the Christian attitude toward violence

should be, we cannot proceed by deducing the consequences of Christian

principles or by enumerating biblical texts. The Bible does frequently

condemn violence, but it defends violence just as frequently-even in the

New Testament. So this is not a good method of seeking an answer to

our question. I believe that the first thing the Christian must do inrelation to problems of social ethics is to be completely realistic, to get

as clear and exact an understanding of the facts as possible. Realism is

the necessary basis for Christian thinking on society. (Of course, I am

not now referring to philosophical or metaphysical realism.) By realism I

mean two things: first, seeing the facts as they are and grasping them

thoroughly, without evasion or illusion, without recoiling in fear or

horror as it becomes evident what the result of some trend is likely to be.

Surely the Christian-and only the Christian-should be able to exercisethis clarity of vision and thought because the Revelation has to some

degree given him an understanding of the world, and also because,

terrible as the reality may be, be can accept it without despairing, for he

has hope in Jesus Christ. In his examination

81


43/89


44/89


45/89


46/89


47/89


48/89


49/89


50/89


51/89


52/89


53/89


54/89


55/89


56/89


57/89


58/89


59/89


60/89


61/89


62/89


63/89


64/89


65/89


66/89


67/89


68/89


69/89


70/89


71/89


72/89


73/89


74/89


75/89


76/89


77/89


78/89


79/89


80/89


81/89


82/89


83/89


84/89


85/89


86/89

The FightofFaith 175

helping bate and evil to proliferate! Christians will be sufficiently and

completely present in the world if they suffer with those who suffer, if

th k t ith th ff th f l ti if th b

Index

Algerian war, 16, 76, 90, 100,

103, 104, 108, 110, 111, 112

Aquinas, Thomas, 5-6, 18, 48

A P d 89


87/89

they seek out with those sufferers the one way of salvation, if they bearwitness before God and man to the consequences of injustice and the

proclamation of love.

Arrupe, Pedro, 89Aubarede, Gabriel d', 20n

Barth, Karl, 4, 7, 163

Ben Bella, Ahmed, 101, 154

Bernstein, Eduard, 33

Bernstein, Saul, go

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 40

Bonnie and Clyde, 1.24nBournedienne, Houari, 94

Brown, H. Rap, 104, 105, 158

159

Bultmann, Rudolf, 146-147

Calvin, John, 4-5, 8

Camara, Don Helder, 149n

Camus, Albert, 34, 114, 167Cardonnel, Father, 49-50, 60, 75

Carmichael, Joel, 47-48

Carmichael, Stokely, 104, 105,

106, 134, 158-159

Casalis, Georges, 108

Castro, Fidel, 48-49, 94, 101,

103, 115

Celsus, 11-12Che Guevara, Ernesto, 58, 104,

116, 134

Cleage, Albert R., Jr., 48n, 101

Clement of Alexandria, 11

Cornelis, Marcel, 92

Cromwell, Oliver, 21

Cullmann, Oscar, 47, 162

Death-of-God theology, 6o, 73

79, 145n, 146-147

Debray, Regis, 63

De justa abdicatione Henrici III,

21

D l i F 17 18

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 69,

105, 143-144, 153, 155, 162

Lactantius, 10

Lasserre, Jean, 17n, 102-103

Lenin, Nikolai, 134

L ll 21 22


88/89

Dolcino, Fra, 17-18Domenach, Jean-Marie, 108, i 111

Duverger, Maurice, io8-iog

Dutschke, R., 131n

Fanon, Frantz, 63, 114

Flores, Ennio, 75

Francis of Assisi, 12

Gandhi, Mahatma, 14-15, 91,

173

Gaulle, Charles de, 160

Gratian, 5-6

Haselden, Kyle, 61-63

Herv6, Julia, .144n, 162

Hippies, :119-122

Hitler, Adolf, 7, .28-29, 85, 96,

101, 103, 104, 106-107, 117,

129n

Hobbes, Thomas, 87-88

Ho Chi Minh, 112

Industrial Revolution, 36

Jaouen, Father, 124nJarlot, Father, 106, 109

Joachim of Floris, 18

John of Leyden, iq, 19-20

Johnson, Lyndon B., 105, :160

Kagawa, Toyohiko, 168

Kautsky, Karl, 33

Levellers, 21-22Lilburne, John, 21-22

Luther, Martin, 8-9, 25

MacGrath, M. G., 69n

Machiavelli, Niccolo, 41

Maillard, Father, 56-60, 68, 74,

92-93, 129, 140-141, 148, 149

Malcolm X, 143, 144, 162Malraux, Andr6, 94, 116

Mao Tse-tung, 85, 94-95, 101

103

Martin of Tours, 11

Marx, Karl, 117, iLi8, 172n

Maximilian, 10

Mayakovsky, Vladimir, 54

Melville, Thomas Q., 63-65

Montherlant, Henry de, 114

Munzer, Thomas, 19, 65

Mussolini, Benito, 7

Nasser, Gamal, 94, 101, 103, 115

Niebuhr, Reinhold, 70

Nizan, Paul, 34

Nuremberg trials, 85-86

Peguy, Charles, 147

Peuchmaurd, Father, 48-49

Pfeiffer, Heinrich, 19

Pius XII, 141

Populorum progressio (encyclical), 31-39, 48-49, 106n, 141n

Regamey, P., 14n, 33n, 109-110,

172n

Rich, Arthur, 50n, 52

Ricoeur, Paul, 88

Rimbaud, Arthur, 164, 166

Robespierre, M. de, 104, 117

Robinson, John A. T., 145n, 156,

167 168

Wright, Richard, 144n


89/89

167-168Rostov, W. W., 109

Ruiz, Gonzales, 61

Saint-juste, Louis de, 117

Schillebeeckx, Edward, IL23

Shaull, Richard, 50, 52-57

Smolik, Josef, 51

Snyder, T. Richard, 118

Sorel, Georges, 60, 87, 91, 115

116, 132

Stalin, Joseph, 85, 124, 172n

Suarez, Francisco de, 4

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre,

123n

Tertullian, 10, 11

Thielicke, Helmut, 131n

Tillich, Paul, 146-147

Tocqueville, Alexis de, 89

Torres, Camilo, 63, 66, 135

Vietnam, 16, 76, 90n, 98, 103,

104, 106, .124n, 331n, 145,

154Villa, Pancho, 61

Vindiciae contra Tyrannos, 20-21

Weil, E., 88

Wendlend, H. D., 50n, 55

World Council of Churches, 70,

123, 141

Documents

Ellul Jacques~~Violence