The Subversion of Christianity

by Jacques Ellul

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1606089749
• ISBN13: 9781606089743
• Release Date: June 2011
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Strap On Your Seat Belt

This book will challenge everything you have ever believed. It is not for the faint of heart or for those stuck in the catagories of rational Western thought. Ellul does not leave a single sacred cow alive.

The Subversion of Christianity: Key to Ellul's Thought

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.

an important work for all contemporary church-lovers

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.

A Challenging Work for all Christian Scholars

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.