The Subversion of Christianity [Paperback]

Mr. Jacques Ellul (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 1986

Pointing to the many contradictions between the Bible and the practice of the church, Jacques Ellul asserts in this provocative and stimulating book that what we today call Christianity is actually far removed from the revelation of God. / Successive generations have reinterpreted Scripture and modeled it after their own cultures, thus moving society further from the truth of the original gospel. The church also perverted the gospel message, for instead of simply doing away with pagan practice and belief, it reconstituted the sacred, set up its own religious forms, and thus resacralized the world. / Ellul develops several areas in which this perversion is most obvious, including the church's emphasis on moralism and its teaching in the political sphere. The heart of the problem, he says, is that we have not accepted the fact that Christianity is a scandal; we attempt to make it acceptable and easy — and thus pervert its true message. / Ultimately, however, Ellul remains hopeful. For, in spite of all that has been done to subvert the message of God, the Holy Spirit continues to move in the world. “Christianity,” writes Ellul, “never carries the day decisively against Christ.”

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

About the Author

Jacques Ellul (1912–’1994), a French sociologist and lay theologian, was professor emeritus of law and of the history and sociology of institutions at the University of Bordeaux. He wrote more than forty books, including The Technological Society, The Humiliation of the Word, and The Technological Bluff.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (October 31, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802800491
• ISBN-13: 978-0802800497
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

96 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an important work for all contemporary church-lovers, May 28, 2001

By 

J. Stephen Pearson (UT Knoxville) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Subversion of Christianity (Paperback)

When I first read this book, so many things fell into place that I've been buying up copies and giving them to my friends to read. 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.

65 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Challenging Work for all Christian Scholars, July 26, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Subversion of Christianity (Paperback)

Jacques Ellul is the author of some forty books, and this one lives up to the high standards that he sets with each one. "The Subversion of Christianity" is an Academic work that is both challenging to read, and thought consuming, but for a true Christian Scholar, beyond the difficult prose lies a strong arguement against the current state of Christianity today. Ellul refutes several issues of the church such as morality, anti-feminism and practices to show that Christianity of the current world is a complete contradiction of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Ellul does not waver in pointing out the causes of this subversion, and supports his thesis with a wealth of knowledge and resources. The purpose of Ellul's work is of course, the repairation of the church and the obedience to the revelation of Christ.

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Subversion of Christianity: Key to Ellul's Thought, August 22, 2005

By 

Alan W. Green (Spring Green, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Subversion of Christianity (Paperback)

Theologian, Sociologist, Public Servant, Lawyer, Jacques Ellul is one of the twentieth century's deepest thinkers and most prolific writers. The Subversion of Christianity provides the skeleton key to the rest of Ellul's writings, since above and below everything else Ellul is, he is a radical Christian, rooted deeply in biblical thought. But his Christian faith is much more profound and biblical than the Christendom he, and Kierkegaard before him, deplores. Subversion is not just an attack, it is a thorough exploration and explanation of how sincere religious people, lay and clerical, have turned upside down the revelation of God found in the Bible and in the person of Jesus Christ, beginning in the third century and continuing through the present day. This has happened, Ellul explains, not through evil intent but because leaders of the Church were seduced by power, by law, by morality, by syncretism, and forgot to be faithful to revelation.
Though written in the 1980s, Ellul's book is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it. It's a must read for serious and thoughtful Christians.