anarchism and christianity

Anarchism and Christianity (1980) by jacques ellul via 16 pg kindle version from anarchist library [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jacques-ellul-anarchism-and-christianity-en]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul: Jacques Ellul (/ɛˈluːl/; French: [ɛlyl]; January 6, 1912 – May 19, 1994) was a French philosopher, sociologist, lay theologian, and professor. Noted as a Christian anarchist, Ellul was a longtime Professor of History and the Sociology of Institutions on the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences at the University of Bordeaux. A prolific writer, he authored more than 60 books and more than 600 articles over his lifetime, many of which discussed propaganda, the impact of technology on society, and the interaction between religion and politics.

The dominant theme of Ellul’s work proved to be the threat to human freedom and religion created by modern technology. He did not seek to eliminate modern technology or technique but sought to change our perception of modern technology and technique to that of a tool rather than regulator of the status quo. Among his most influential books are The Technological Society and Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes.

techno society, propaganda

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jacques-ellul-the-technological-society-319 pg pdf (1954)

there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental expo labeling).. to facil a legit global detox leap.. for (blank)’s sake.. and we’re missing it

legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. has to be sans any form of m\a\p

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jacques-ellul-propaganda – 227 pg pdf

Considered by many a philosopher, Ellul was trained as a sociologist, and approached the question of technology and human action from a dialectical viewpoint. His writings are frequently concerned with the emergence of a technological tyranny over humanity. As a philosopher and theologian, he further explored the religiosity of the technological society. In 2000, the International Jacques Ellul Society was founded by a group of former Ellul students. The society, which includes scholars from a variety of disciplines, is devoted to continuing Ellul’s legacy and discussing the contemporary relevance and implications of his work.

maybe add page of him – finally did while reading techno society and propaganda.. jacques ellul

notes/quotes:

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On the contrary, it seems to me that biblical thought leads directly to anarchism, and that this is the only “political anti-political” position in accord with Christian thinking.

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[Excursus: I must be precise and state that when I speak here of anarchism I refer mainly to the anarchism of the great classics, but also to the active groups of the Jura Mountain Federation and to anarcho-syndicalism. I do not refer to mutualism, a rather deviant branch of anarchism. I don’t wish to reject the nihilists and the violent anarchists, but they pose a complementary (not central) problem in the relationship between Christianity and anarchism. The problem of violence is essentially a problem of means, not of the focal point of the question: an-arche, the absence of authority...t)

carhart-harris entropy law et al

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Thirdly, it is accurate to say that in Christianity, ‘in its historical expression of religion the All-Powerful God-became the support of established order. Here again we encounter an extreme deviation, due in part to the institutionalization of the Church, which ceases to be the assembly of the faithful, of people united by the sole tie of love and becomes instead’ ‘organization” and consequently “power.” This deviation is also due in pan to dogma becoming dogmatism. It is a problem at hardening on both sides. Truth possessed (which thereby ceases to be truth) leads to judgment and condemnation. Love institutionalized produces authority and hierarchy..t And although the Church was no doubt once a happy and joyous consequence for people who-assured of their salvation-united to manifest God’s love, it became a structure possessing authority and truth and claims to represent God’s power on earth. “No salvation outside the Church” means, first, that all those who acknowledge being saved by Jesus Christ assemble to return thanks (that is, outside of Him there are no people who live their faith!). This then comes to mean that all those who are outside the structure of the Church are damned! A grave inversion.

All these errors, deformations, heresies (oh yes! heresies!) and deviations bordering on anti-Christianity have always existed as ways to interpret biblical revelation. They were accentuated after the Reformation, and became dominant in the eighteenth century. In other words, the dominant event is the bourgeoisie’s transformation of theology, Church and Church-society relationship. The anarchists’ attacks on God, the Church and religion are strictly correct, on condition that the God in question was the God remodeled by this very particular theology of Church-became-Power. and by the peculiar and capricious association of Church and social and political power following the sixteenth century. This theology to support this Church-State relationship is in no way an expression of biblical Christianity: indeed it is a contradiction. The roots are, rather, time after time in the theological heresy of a God conceived exclusively as the All-Powerful. The error of the anarchists and of Marx was to believe that they were face to face with Christianity itself, whereas they encountered merely its bourgeois metamorphosis. By adhering to this judgment they have overvalued those very features-be they in the early Church or during the Middle Ages-which confirm their point of view, instead of considering them only one among many other possibilities. For example, the death of Ananias and Sapphira are evidence that the apostles were terrible dictators. The 10quisition became the symbol for the medieval church. The construction of cathedrals was seen as the symbol for the enslavement of poor people crushed by the clergy. Everything that was real regarding love and joy and Christian freedom the anarchists overlooked, joyfully. In other words, the anarchists-justly fighting against the Christian totalitarianism and authoritarianism of the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries-had a totally false view of the fundamental reality of Christianity and the God of Jesus Christ. Our task now is to rectify this anarchist error.

black science of people/whales law et al

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The absence of God, atheism, is in no way an essential condition of anarchism. The presence of the God of Jesus Christ is the essential condition for the deliverance of humanity. Negating and banishing the God of Jesus Christ is the failure of all of our so-called liberating revolutions, which each time ends with greater enslavement. When left to ourselves and not given a manifestation of freedom, an experience of freedom, and a point of departure for freedom which radically transcends us, we inevitably produce our own slavery. Freedom conquered by humanity becoming absolute is the ineluctable establishment of dictatorship. Only when we are related-that is, relative, not claiming equality to the Transcendent, are we truly human. Only then are we bestowed the gift of freedom which relatives all our pretentions and therefore our efforts to dominate each other. But being relative, that is, human, cannot occur unless we meet the Eternal not on our terms but on the terms of the Eternal. We can never, in other words, make ourselves’ ‘relative” to the Transcendent so long as we insist on the absolute proclamation of Our Kingdom. We receive our humanity from the Transcendent, freeing love of the God of Jesus Christ. We shall return to this point in our final section.

The deviation from Christianity gave the anarchists an opportunity for an accurate and telling critique. But they never understood that their attack was against a deviation, not the reality (even though sometimes a lived reality!) or the truth of the biblical revelation. Rather, they challenged a socio-theological formulation of God and not the God of the Bible and of Jesus Christ. I maintain that there is the God of the Bible and of Jesus Christ.

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The recital is very detailed and complex, but it can be broken down into three component pans: political authority rests on defiance; it is a rejection of God; it can only be dictatorial, abusive and unjust (Cf. II Samuel 8:10–18).

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Two points need to be refined: the famous saying, “Render to Caesar… “ in no way divides the exercise of authority into two realms. It is incredible to draw from these words the notion that heaven, the spiritual, the emotions, are God’s realm, but that Caesar is wholly qualified to exercise authority over people and things in this world. Jesus’ words mean no such thing. They were said in response to another matter: the payment of taxes, and the coin. The mark on the coin is that of Caesar; it is the mark of his property. Therefore give Caesar this money; it is his. It is not a question of legitimizing taxes! It means that Caesar, having created money, is its master. That’s all. (Let us not forget that money for Jesus is the domain of Mammon, a satanic domain!) As for” …that which is God’s… “: how could a pious Jew in Jesus’ time possibly understand “that which is God’s” in any way but everything? God is the Creator, the master of life and death, the one on whom everything depends. The phrase means: Caesar is legitimate master of nothing but what he fabricates for himself, and that is the province of demons!

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The State’s salvation and prosperity does not represent the collective and stil1 less humanity’s salvation and prosperity-such an identification is an abominable falsehood. Instead, the State’s prosperity always implies the death of innocents. “The law of the State is that in “order to save the State even the innocent must be sacrificed….The death of a single man from among the least of men is an event more important and more tragic than the death of a State or an Empire. It is unlikely that God notices the death of the greatest kingdoms, but the death of one man does not escape him…. “ So Berdyaev.

I have written more than once that there is no fixed Christian position on political power. In reality, the sale political Christian position conforms to Revelation: *the negation of power, the total, radical refusal to accept its existence, and the fundamental contesting of whatever form it takes. And I do not say this because of an orientation towards a kind of Spiritualism, or an ignorance of politics, an apoliticism. Certainly notion the contrary. **As a Christian one must participate in the world of politics and of action. But one must do so to reject it, to confront it with the conscientious and ***well-founded refusal that alone can put into question, or even prevent, the unchecked growth of power. Thus Christians cannot help but be only on the side of anarchists.

*any form of m\a\p

**cancerous distraction when (like now) have means for legit diff way.. no longer costello screen\service law et al

***david on creative refusal.. but (to me) as cancerous distraction

But then, do Christian~bring something peculiar to this partnership? Something specific? Are Christians like the others, or do they-like the anarchists-have a particular service to render? In effect, it seems to me that Christians have an important role to play here, on three different levels. *First of all, anarchists live in illusion because they think it is possible to effectively abolish authority and to eliminate successfully all the sources of power. They fight to win, to prevail. Christians should be more realistic. We live in a world which has always been subjugated by power in one way or another. I know quite well that this is not a sufficient argument. One can always begin a new epoch, it is not necessary to believe that what has always been will always be. Right. But it is a leap into the unknown. We can no longer believe today the absolute article of the anarchist creed of the past: the inevitability of progress. There is no necessary movement from an inferior to a superior form of society. Nowhere is anarchism, the society of the free, guaranteed. There is every chance that it will never be established. But then the anarchist, when told this, Stops in discouragement and says, “Well, then what’s the use?” This is the point the Christian should intervene. When measured against the grace of God, all human action is strictly relative. Nevertheless, humans must act-not for absolute success (which can only occur in the Kingdom of God) but because love expresses itself in the relative. “If you have been faithful in the small things, I shall give you the large ones. “ That is the promise given to us.

*oh no.. oi.. let go.. graeber can’t know law et al..

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Bur one must also understand that the love of man and woman, for example does not reside in the grand, spectacular, ceremonial declarations. or in the magnificent gestures, or in the erotic paroxysms, but rather in the thousands of humble signs of concern for the other that quintessentially express the truth that thou counts for more than I. Therefore, we must not be discouraged if our anarchist affirmations do not lead to the anarchist society, do not upset society, do not destroy all structures. And that too would be a manifestation of power which could only lead to a very specific restructuring of the authority of power.

What does all this mean? Simply this: political authority in its essence tends to grow indefinitely. It has no reason at all to limit itself. No constitution, no ethics, can prevent political power from becoming totalitarian. It must encounter, outside itself, a radical negation based on the opposition of those intending neither to conquer authority (and so undertake political activity) nor to exercise it for the good of others (and so be politics). It must be those representing an intransigent moral conscience and an effective force of opposition. The permanent struggle of this group-which is not a class, not organized in advance, not a sociological entity-is itself the Struggle for the freedom of others. There is freedom only with the winning of freedom. *No authority can grant freedom to us. Challenging power is the only means to bring about the realization of freedom. Freedom exists only to the extent that this rejection of power is strong enough, and to the extent one does not allow oneself to be seduced by the idea that surely freedom will come tomorrow if... No. There is No Tomorrow. Freedom exists Today or never. It exists when we shake an edifice, produce a fissure, a gap in the structure where for one moment we can find our always menaced freedom. **But to obtain even a small amount of free play in the interior of the system one must manifest total and radical rejection. Every concession to power permits the totality of power to rush in. That is why the anarchistic position is conceivable. It maintains this free play which permits freedom. Bur we cannot delude ourselves with the vain hope of completely destroying this power and of reconstructing an ideal and fraternal society …. the day after tomorrow!

*re ness as cancerous distraction

**re ness as cancerous distraction

There is a second role Christians can play at the anarchists’ side. For most anarchists, people are by nature good and are corrupted only by society or rather by power. If (here be criminals, it is the State’s fault. It would seem *necessary to believe in this original goodness of humanity in order to have hopes of installing an anarchist society..t We must spontaneously act for the good of all, we must not seek to encroach on the territory or freedom of our neighbor, we must discipline our passions and our fury, we must be willing to work voluntarily for the collective, we must not disturb the peace … otherwise anarchy would be what it is accused of being: simply a disorder, a frightful war of individuals. As far as I know, Bakunin is the only anarchist who had the courage to pose the hypothesis that we are evil, and he drew from it consequences that are critical to his plan for the organization of society.

*devijver assume good law et al

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Assuredly this is not sufficient. That is, when face to face with the evil which is in us-not the moral transgressions of disobeying current morality, but the evil which is a sickness Unto death and which leads us to be slave and tyrant-there are only two options. Either one organizes a repressive system which puts everyone in place, which establishes patterns and norms of behavior, which punishes anyone who oversteps the boundary of the small amount of freedom doled out. (That is, the justification for the power of the State.) Or, one works to transform humanity-the Christian would say conversion-in such a way that renders us able to live with others and serve others as an expression of freedom..t That is the expression of Christian love, of the love of God for us manifested in Jesus Christ.

Anarchists have clearly seen the necessity for such a transformation. They hoped to achieve it through education, through pedagogy, but that is clearly not enough. The anarcho-syndcalists hoped to achieve it through battle: the human qualities of virtue, courage, solidarity and loyalty are forged in combat against authority-a battle to be waged with the weapons of truth, justice, authenticity (and I would easily add non-violence). Without these weapons one perverts the fighter and fails to prepare him to enter the anarchist fraternity.

not deep enough.. and so.. a cancerous distraction

Yes. But there is need for a more profound motivation. These two pedagological methods need to root themselves in a more fundamental truth. A more essential conversion is needed, from which all the rest becomes possible, and which permits us to be courageous despite all the setbacks..t

need 1st/most: means to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature as global detox/re\set.. so we can org around legit needs

This is precisely where the work of the Gospel is found for the anarchists: the Gospel’s witness that there is a possibility for freedom-just where the most amorphous, servile of us, or the most tyrannical, victorious of us-seem to be immune to any change of any kind. For we too, slave and tyrant, are loved by God in Jesus Christ and are not outside the possibility of living in the truth God -discloses before us. I believe that this contribution of the Christian faith is essential to anarchism, for it reveals a unity in practice along with a conformation in theory.

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