Editing Jacques Ellul (section)

==Life and influences==
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Jacques Ellul was born in [[Bordeaux]], France, on January 6, 1912, to Marthe Mendes (Protestant; French-Portuguese) and Joseph Ellul (initially an [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Christian]], but then a [[Voltaire|Voltarian]] [[deism|deist]] by conviction; born in Malta of an Italo-Maltese father and Serb mother). As a teenager he wanted to be a naval officer but his father made him study law. He married Yvette Lensvelt in 1937.{{Sfn | Ellul | Troude-Chastenet | 1998 | pp = 2, 11}}

Ellul was educated at the universities of [[University of Bordeaux|Bordeaux]] and [[University of Paris|Paris]]. In [[World War II]], he was a leader in the [[French resistance]].{{Sfn | Ellul | 1964 | p = ix | ps =, transl. introd.}} For his efforts to save Jews he was awarded the title ''[[Righteous among the Nations]]'' by [[Yad Vashem]] in 2001.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/pdf-drupal/france.pdf |title= Righteous Among the Nations Recognized by Yad Vashem as of 1 January 2011&nbsp;– France |publisher= Yad Vashem|date=2011-01-01 | place = Jerusalem, Israel |access-date= 2011-08-15}}</ref> He was a layman in the [[Reformed Church of France]] and attained a high position within it as part of the National Council.{{Sfn | Ellul | 1981 | p = 24}}

Ellul was best friends with [[Bernard Charbonneau]], who was also a writer from the [[Aquitaine]] region and a protagonist of the French [[personalism]] movement. They met through the Protestant Student Federation during the academic school year of 1929–1930. Both men acknowledged the great influence each had on the other.

By the early 1930s, Ellul's three primary sources of inspiration were [[Karl Marx]], [[Søren Kierkegaard]], and [[Karl Barth]]. Ellul was first introduced to the ideas of Karl Marx during an economics lecture course taught by [[Joseph Benzacar]] in 1929–30; Ellul studied Marx and became a prolific [[wiktionary:exegete|exegete]] of his theories. During this same period, he also came across the [[Christian existentialism]] of Kierkegaard. According to Ellul, Marx and Kierkegaard were his two greatest influences, and the only two authors whose work he read in its entirety.{{Sfn | Goddard | 2002 | p = 16}} Also, he considered Karl Barth, who was a leader of [[Confessing Church|the resistance]] against the German state church in World War II,<ref>{{Citation | first = Timothy | last = Gorringe | year = 1999 | title = Karl Barth: Against Hegemony | publisher = Oxford University Press | page = 158}}.</ref> the greatest theologian of the 20th century.{{Sfn | Ellul | Troude-Chastenet | 1998 | p = 4}} In addition to these intellectual influences, Ellul also said that his father played a great role in his life and considered him his role model.{{Sfn | Ellul | Troude-Chastenet | 1998 | p = 92}}

In large measure, and especially in those of his books concerned with theological matters, Ellul restates the viewpoints held by Barth, whose polar dialectic of the [[Logos|Word of God]], in which the [[Gospel]] both judges and renews the world, shaped Ellul's theological perspective.<ref>{{Citation | first = Geoffrey W | last = Bromiley | year = 1981 | contribution = Barth's Influence on Jacques Ellul | title = Jacques Ellul: Interpretive Essays | editor1-first = Clifford G | editor1-last = Christians | editor2-first = Jay M | editor2-last = Van Hook | publisher = University of Illinois Press | pages = 32–51}}.</ref> In ''Jacques Ellul: A Systemic Exposition'' Darrell J. Fasching claimed Ellul believed "That which desacralizes a given reality, itself in turn becomes the new sacred reality".<ref>{{Citation | first = Darrell J | last = Fasching | title = Jacques Ellul: A Systematic Exposition | location = [[Lewiston, New York]] |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] | year = 1981 | page = 35}}.</ref>

In 1932, after what he describes as "a very brutal and very sudden conversion", Ellul professed himself a Christian.{{sfn|Ellul|1981|p=14}} Ellul believes he was about 17 (1929–30) and spending the summer with some friends in [[Blanquefort, Gironde|Blanquefort]], France. While translating ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]'' alone in the house, Ellul knew (without seeing or hearing anything) he was in the presence of a something so astounding, so overwhelming, which entered the very center of his being. He jumped on a bike and fled, concluding eventually that he had been in the presence of God. This experience started the conversion process which Ellul said then continued over a period of years thereafter.{{Sfn | Ellul | Troude-Chastenet | 1998 | p = 5}} Although Ellul identified as a Protestant, he was critical of church authority in general because he believed the church dogmas did not place enough emphasis on the teachings of Jesus or Christian scripture.<ref>Ellul, Jacques. ''Anarchy and Christianity.'' WIPF & Stock: Eugene, Oregon. 1998. pp 45.</ref>

Ellul was also prominent in the worldwide [[ecumenical movement]], although he later became sharply critical of the movement for what he felt were indiscriminate endorsements of political establishments.{{Sfn | Goddard | 2002 | p = 41}} Ellul came to like [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]],<ref>Ellul, Jacques. ''Anarchy and Christianity.'' WIPF & Stock: Eugene, Oregon. 1998. pp 2.</ref> who convinced him that the creation of new institutions from the grass roots level was the best way to create an anarchist society. He stated his view is close to that of [[anarcho-syndicalism]],<ref name="Ellul, Jacques 1998. pp 21">Ellul, Jacques. ''Anarchy and Christianity.'' WIPF & Stock: Eugene, Oregon. 1998. pp 21.</ref> however the kind of change Ellul wanted was an evolutionary approach by means of a "... Proudhonian socialism&nbsp;... by transforming the press, the media, and the economic structures&nbsp;... by means of a federative cooperative approach"<ref name="Ellul, Jacques 2004. pp 18">Ellul, Jacques. ''Perspectives On Our Age: Jacques Ellul Speaks On His Life And Work.'' House of Anansi Press Inc., Toronto, ON. 2004. p. 18</ref> that would lead to an [[Anarchist]] society based on federation and the [[Mutualism (economic theory)|Mutualist]] economics of Proudhon. In regards to Jesus and Anarchism he believed Jesus was not merely a socialist but anarchist and that "anarchism is the fullest and most serious form of socialism".<ref>Ellul, Jacques. ''Anarchy and Christianity.'' WIPF & Stock: Eugene, Oregon. 1998. p. 3</ref>

Ellul has been credited with coining the phrase, "Think globally, act locally."<ref>{{Citation | first = Randal | last = Marlin | year = 2002 | title = Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion | publisher = Broadview Press | page = 34}}.</ref> He often said that he was born in Bordeaux by chance, but that it was by choice that he spent almost all his academic career there.{{Sfn | Goddard | 2002 | p = 37}}

Ellul fell into a deep grief following the 16 April 1991 death of his wife, Yvette.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ellul |first1=Jacques |last2=Troude-Chastenet |first2=Patrick |title=Jacques Ellul on Politics, Technology, and Christianity: Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet |date=2005-06-16 |language=en |isbn=978-1-59752-266-3 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KWRLAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 }}</ref> He died three years later, on 19 May 1994 in [[Pessac]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Greenman |first1=Jeffrey P. |last2=Schuchardt |first2=Read M. |last3=Toly |first3=Noah J. |title=Understanding Jacques Ellul |date=2013-07-25 |language=en |isbn=978-0-227-90185-4 |publisher=ISD LLC |page=162 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cebkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA162 }}</ref>