Theology, Ethics, and Technology in the Work of Jacques Ellul and Paul Virilio

This book examines biographical and textual connections between sociologist-theologian Jacques Ellul and philosopher-phenomenologist Paul Virilio. Through an examination of Ellul and VirilioΓÇÖs embeddedness in the socio-historical context of postwar France, the book identifies a relationship between these critics of technology which constitutes a nascent theological tradition. The author shows from various vantage points how Ellul and VirilioΓÇÖs nascent tradition exposes technology as modernityΓÇÖs primary idol; and, how it uses multiple disciplinesΓÇöincluding history, sociology, philosophy, phenomenology, theology, and ethicsΓÇöto resist the perilous consequences of the modern worldΓÇÖs worship of power and the kinds of technologies this misdirected worship produces. Jacques EllulΓÇÖs death in 1994 and Paul VirilioΓÇÖs death in 2018 may have prevented the maturation of this nascent theological tradition, but Theology, Ethics, and Technology in the work of Jacques Ellul and Paul Virilio aids this traditionΓÇÖs ripening through the presentation of an illuminating way to read these two unique, and at times quixotic, intellectuals.