Berry, Computers, and Blogging

It is well-documented that Wendell Berry doesn’t use a computer. And don’t think the irony is lost on those of us who in the midst of our appreciation for Berry and his work not only use computers, but go much further: we blog.  I get it.  And I know what’s even worse: I blog about [...]

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Further Thoughts on Christian Anarchy

Well, I never heard back from the Vancouver Anarchist Bookfair about setting up a table.  It’s too bad, because I would have enjoyed more dialogue about the important differences between secular anarchy and Christian anarchy.  Although I am sure there would have been more confusion. For example, take this passage from an interview with Ellul: [...]

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Baseball Links

Since moving to Canada 3 years ago, I have slowly become more detached from one of my childhood loves: baseball.  Not only did I love playing, but I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do on a hot summer day but sit with a few friends, beers in hand, and watch baseball.  In Canada, [...]

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Ellul on Barth

Ellul looks to Barth’s theology for his starting point.  But Ellul, trained in law, history, and sociology, was not satisfied with Barth’s non-theological work on understanding the world we live in.  In the essay, “Karl Barth and Us,” Ellul explains how he sees his “mission” after Barth: I had the impression that the ethical consequences [...]

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Ellul and the Nature of the Powers

Ellul’s entire sociology (or critical social theory) can be seen as a study of the way the principalities and powers manifest themselves in our world.  In a personal correspondence with Marva Dawn, Ellul was asked about his beliefs on the nature of the powers.  After asking to be understood in a dialectical fashion, he continues: [...]

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Wendell Berry to Jail?

I am hardly up-to-date on much of the current discussion about the food economy in the United States, but I found this bit particularly interesting: Wendell Berry Picks Jail Over NAIS The NAIS is short for the National Animal Identification System.  In an effort to be able to trace diseases back to their source, the [...]

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The Church Against the World

In the faith of the church, the problem is not one of adjustment to the changing, relative and temporal elements but rather one of constant adjustment, amid these changing things, to the eternal.  The crisis of the church from this point of view is not the crisis of the church in the world but of [...]

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The Dominance of Technique

The genius of Jacques Ellul’s sociological studies lies in his analysis of the dominance of Technique in every area of life.  Ellul defines Technique as “the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity.”   In other published works, Ellul uses this [...]

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Essentially Religious

The essentially religious author is always polemical, and hence he suffers under or suffers from the opposition which corresponds to whatever in his age must be regarded as the specific evil.  If it be kings and emperors, popes and bishops…and powers that constitute Evil, the religious author must be recognizable by the fact that he [...]

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More on Sentimentalism

Lisa has responded at length to my post on sentimentalism and prayer at her theology blog. (Not to be confused with her poetry blog, which I highly recommend.)  In her thoughtful response, she offers a further (and much better) critique of sentimentalism through the works of C.S. Lewis and P.T. Forsyth.  She begins with a [...]

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