WATCH AS VIDEO One of the initial criticisms of the pre-Industrial world was that the individual was squashed by his responsibility to the wider society in which he found himself. The Enlightenment, and the subsequent liberation movements that it inspired, focused on the rights of the individual often at the expense of the individual’s responsibilities…
Watch As Video Is there some way to avoid the influence of technological development? In the modern world, alas, this is more or less impossible. If Jacques Ellul, writing nearly a hundred years ago, was pessimistic about this possibility, how much less possible is this today? Today’s quote from Ellul reflects this pessimism: “Modern technology…
How do we decide whether or not to adopt a new technology? What criteria do we use when we encounter a new product, new service, or a new way of doing or thinking about something? Unfortunately, many of us do not have clear criteria and so we do not have the necessary filters for making…
WATCH AS VIDEO The next great thinker in our series is the French philosopher, sociologist, and Reformed theologian, Jacques Ellul. Ellul was born in Bordeaux, France, in 1912. He was professor of history and the sociology of institutions at the University of Bordeaux. Among the many topics he discusses in his more than 60 books…
Watch As Video Throughout history and throughout the world, there are different kinds of societies: religious societies, ideological (communist, etc.) societies, and so on. Most of us in the post-Christian West live in what is primarily a technological society. Certainly, this technological society may have influences from religious or ideological societies, but at the end…
