Presence in the Modern World

The Christian in the World

The Christian’s role in the world is defined by three biblical metaphors that describe a concrete, unavoidable mission rather than optional characteristics: salt of the earth, light of the world, and sheep among wolves.

• Christians must remain in the world but not belong to it: They are sent into the world while maintaining communion with Christ, creating a fundamental tension

  • This positioning is not optional but necessary for fulfilling their specific function that no one else can perform
  • They struggle against spiritual realities (“thrones, powers, dominations”) rather than material forces

• Salt of the earth signifies the covenant: Christians serve as the visible sign of God’s new covenant with the world

  • Without this sign, the earth lacks understanding of its preservation and direction
  • This covenant role is primary to their involvement in world preservation, more than any material activity

• Light of the world provides meaning and criteria: Christians dispel darkness and give logic to history’s seemingly random events

  • Apart from this light, genuine good works cannot be distinguished from evil
  • The church’s presence gives meaning to world history that would otherwise be mere chaos

• Sheep among wolves represents sacrifice: Christians bear witness to Christ’s sacrifice through accepting domination rather than seeking spiritual dominance

  • This is essential testimony that the world cannot survive without
  • They must guard against becoming “wolves spiritually” by seeking to dominate others

• Modern circumstances make Christian witness especially difficult for laypeople: They cannot separate themselves from the world through work, economic systems, or social obligations

  • Mechanical solidarity constrains people to live like others more than in previous civilizations
  • Sin has become increasingly collective, making individual purity impossible

• Two false solutions emerge from this difficulty: Separating spiritual from material life, or attempting to Christianize worldly activities

  • The first approach divides life into spiritual perfection and material compromise, which Christ rejects
  • The second seeks to apply Christian principles to worldly systems, creating a false bridge between world and kingdom

• Christians must accept the tension without resolution: They cannot make the world less sinful, but cannot accept it as it is

  • This unresolvable tension is the only position that can be fruitful and faithful
  • Attempting to resolve it through moral systems or political solutions betrays the actual situation

• Christian ethics differs fundamentally from morality: It rests on the “agonistic structure” of continual struggle between judgment and grace

  • Ethics must be temporary and situational rather than based on permanent principles
  • It is apologetic in that Christian works should lead others to glorify God rather than seeking world approval

• Christians participate in world preservation through their specific role: This differs from adopting the world’s chosen methods and solutions

  • Prayer and spiritual battle should be decisive rather than material warfare alone
  • True preservation requires spiritual work alongside material reconstruction

• Redeeming the time stands at the center of Christian function: This concept bridges conduct and preaching, connecting Christian behavior to world preservation and salvation

  • Christians must position themselves between God’s will and the world’s will to death
  • Understanding the world’s current form of suicidal tendency is essential for effective Christian response

Revolutionary Christianity

Contemporary civilization requires authentic revolution, but the modern world, despite appearance of constant change, exists in complete stasis with fixed structures that resist true transformation.

• The apparent revolution of our time is actually conformity: All political movements, whether labeled revolutionary or conservative, preserve the fundamental structures of civilization

  • The decisive elements (primacy of production, state power, autonomous technique) remain unquestioned across all political systems
  • Communist and capitalist societies operate according to the same basic rules despite surface differences

• Modern respect for “facts” prevents revolutionary thinking: Facts are treated as self-justifying and beyond moral evaluation

  • The atomic bomb exemplifies this: once the fact existed, questions focused on control rather than whether it should exist
  • This submission to facts represents the anti-revolutionary position par excellence

• True revolution requires spiritual authority over material development: Historical revolution has always meant affirming spiritual truth against the error of current circumstances

  • Modern “revolutionaries” merely follow the predictable course of historical development rather than challenging it
  • Without authentic revolution, civilization faces only the choice between mass technological society and human-centered civilization

• Christians occupy a necessarily revolutionary position: Their situation in the world is revolutionary by the nature of their faith, not by human choice

  • They belong to two cities simultaneously, creating permanent tension and opposition
  • This dual citizenship prevents total allegiance to any worldly institution or system

• The parousia (Christ’s return) makes Christian life inherently revolutionary: Christians live in expectation of the future breaking into the present

  • They judge current events from the perspective of God’s coming kingdom
  • This eschatological orientation enables them to see present reality from the viewpoint of ultimate truth

• Revolutionary realism replaces adherence to principles: Christians must judge situations according to their relationship to God’s kingdom rather than abstract moral rules

  • Positions that seem contradictory can be equally valid depending on circumstances and timing
  • The unity comes from pursuit of the coming kingdom rather than human doctrines

• Christian revolution addresses fundamental structures rather than surface politics: It must go deeper than certified political revolutionaries who merely establish outdated systems

  • The first step is becoming aware of the true nature of our world beyond statistics and opinion polls
  • Christians must pursue ways of living that evade structural influence while remaining engaged with society

• This revolutionary stance is both necessary and risky: Christians must break with current age trends while remaining in the world

  • Success depends on Christians’ willingness to risk everything in accomplishing their function
  • Without this revolutionary consciousness, Christian social and political engagement becomes meaningless imitation

End and Means

The relationship between ends and means has been fundamentally transformed in modern civilization, where everything has become means while genuine ends have disappeared, creating a crisis that only Christian understanding of unified end and means can address.

• Everything in modern civilization has become means without ends: Human beings, originally the supposed end of humanist systems, have become instruments serving economic and technical mechanisms

  • Science now serves technique rather than truth; political systems serve perpetuation of power rather than genuine social goals
  • Abstract ends like “communist society” are pushed into impossible futures while present means dominate completely

• Means have become self-justifying through technical efficiency: Success and effectiveness replace moral evaluation as the criteria for judging means

  • Technical means choose themselves by demonstrating superior efficiency, eliminating human choice
  • This leads to technique being declared “neutral” while actually being considered inherently good

• Modern means are totalitarian in scope: They destroy everything incompatible with their development, including moral judgment, humanism, and critical awareness

  • Technique attacks human values while constructing artificial myths (state, nation, race) to serve its advancement
  • Human beings become objects of technical manipulation rather than subjects directing their tools

• This situation creates a trap that makes authentic Christian witness impossible: External constraints now supplement the internal impossibility of living out faith

  • Modern civilization attempts total control of human beings in ways previous civilizations never achieved
  • Christians must recognize this as spiritual warfare requiring decisive action to break the supremacy of means

• Communication has become impossible due to mechanical information systems: People no longer share authentic common ground but only artificial myths created by propaganda

  • The human person has disappeared, replaced by functional roles (consumer, worker, citizen)
  • Technique destroys personal relationships by preventing genuine contact between individuals

• For Christians, end and means are unified in God’s action: Jesus Christ appears simultaneously as God’s means for salvation and as the realized presence of the kingdom

  • Christians must embody the end (justice, peace) rather than work toward it through separate means
  • This reverses human understanding: God’s end is present within Christian means rather than achieved through them

• This unity eliminates the obsession with effectiveness that characterizes worldly action: Christians become instruments expressing God’s already-present goals rather than accomplishing external objectives

  • The focus shifts from “doing” to “being” - living out the presence of God’s kingdom
  • Human activity gains meaning through relationship to Christ’s lordship rather than technical success

• Contemporary Christian response requires “being” rather than “doing”: In a world oriented entirely toward action, Christians must recover authentic life

  • Life means the complete situation of humans placed before God, which modern civilization systematically destroys
  • This living presence has “remarkably explosive power” despite appearing inefficient by technical standards

• Only the Holy Spirit can provide the power for authentic Christian action: Human work becomes effective only when filled with God’s meaning, value, and truth

  • Without divine transformation, human work becomes merely work of death entering into nothingness
  • Christians must seek first God’s kingdom, trusting that “all the rest will be given” in addition

Communication

Christian intellectuals face a unique crisis where traditional intellectual work has become impossible due to the collapse of authentic communication and the domination of technique, requiring a fundamental transformation of their role and methods.

• Modern people live entirely within appearances rather than reality: They rely on phenomena from media and propaganda rather than personal experience and judgment

  • A fact becomes true only when published and gains importance based on headline size
  • Personal experiences cannot compete with the flood of sensational but unverifiable information

• Explanatory myths provide false coherence to overwhelming information: When phenomena become too confusing, people adopt simplified explanations that unify all facts

  • These myths (bourgeois “hand of Moscow,” fascist “Jewish conspiracy,” etc.) become the sole means of intellectual coherence
  • People lose capacity for independent thinking and critical doubt, accepting predetermined interpretations

• Intellectuals cannot escape this system despite recognizing its falsity: They can reject myths but remain overwhelmed by phenomena they cannot verify or control

  • Some commit “suicide” by adopting myths for social connection despite knowing their falsity
  • Others retreat from engagement, believing reality cannot be grasped, leading to despair and isolation

• Technique has become intellect’s exclusive mode of expression: Intellectual work increasingly follows technical methods prioritizing precision, speed, and efficiency

  • Non-technical approaches (intuition, contemplation) are dismissed as unserious or ineffective
  • Intellectuals become technicians, losing capacity for spiritual or non-material investigation

• Communication has become impossible at the intellectual level: People lack shared authentic ideas and values, encountering only artificial myths in others

  • The human person has disappeared, replaced by functional categories that prevent genuine dialogue
  • Technical expression destroys personal relationships by avoiding complete engagement between individuals

• This situation represents a form of civilizational suicide: The inability to communicate authentically leads toward total destruction of human relationships

  • People place false confidence in technical communication means while losing capacity for genuine encounter
  • Satan habituates people to various forms of suicide, preparing for ultimate civilizational destruction

• Christian intellectuals must undertake the duty of becoming aware: This requires passionate destruction of myths, intellectual idols, and empty doctrines

  • They must find objective reality behind appearances and institutional modifications
  • Awareness must be grounded in concrete human relationships rather than abstract categories

• Only the Holy Spirit can provide necessary insight: Human intellectual means are inadequate for understanding civilization’s spiritual reality

  • Christian intellectuals need spiritual transformation to escape systematic containment within worldly thought systems
  • This awareness must become a living commitment engaging the person’s entire life

• Three results mark authentic Christian intellectual awareness: Recovery of neighbor, event, and sacred boundaries

  • Becoming genuine neighbors requires discovering new language enabling authentic communication across social divisions
  • Recognizing events means finding genuine significance in history through Christ’s intervention rather than sociological abstractions
  • Establishing limits between profane and sacred prevents intellect from destroying what lies beyond its proper reach

• This work is essential for both church and world: Christian intellectuals must provide authentic teaching about reality that enables genuine faith response

  • Without this intellectual foundation, Christian social and political action becomes “childish, useless, and anachronistic”
  • The task requires prayer and meditation to recover authentic sources of intellectual life

Prologue and Conclusion

The church’s primary obstacle in reaching the modern world is not theological but practical: people have been systematically transformed into conditions where they cannot authentically receive the gospel, requiring Christians to create new ways of living that make genuine communication possible.

• The gospel no longer penetrates modern life due to systematic barriers: Countries in “Christian civilization” are rapidly secularizing while missions show minimal progress

  • People seek other solutions and promises, indicating the devil’s success in neutralizing gospel effectiveness
  • Christians must analyze this “wall” preventing gospel penetration rather than simply preaching harder

• Simple preaching without engagement is unfaithful to Scripture: God always takes people in their concrete situations and enables action using contemporary means

  • Confidence in Word’s efficacy without struggling with actual barriers represents spiritual laziness and lack of charity
  • Christians cannot invoke God’s sovereignty until they have exhausted their own efforts like Jacob wrestling until daybreak

• The parable of pearls before swine describes current church-world relationship: The church offers gospel pearls to people trapped in materialist conditions who cannot use them

  • People rightly reject what seems irrelevant to their actual situation, then attack the church for inadequacy
  • The church must do groundwork so people can be placed in conditions to actually hear and respond to the gospel

• Revolution is needed to transform people from “swine” into those capable of receiving truth: This requires attacking civilization’s deep structures that systematically dehumanize

  • Current civilization converges toward transforming all humans into “swine” incapable of receiving Scripture’s pearls
  • Christians must work to change material conditions so spiritual receptivity becomes possible

• Creating a new Christian way of living is the essential missing element: Previous eras had distinctive Christian lifestyles, but contemporary Christians only follow patterns imposed by social class and economic conditions

  • This way of living must encompass everything from political thinking to hospitality, dress, business practices, and personal relationships
  • It cannot be prescribed in advance but must emerge from Christians’ creative response to their faith

• Such investigation requires authentic solidarity among Christians: Material support must enable each person to embody their faith rather than simply avoid starvation

  • Individual Christians cannot undertake this path alone; community support is essential for genuine alternatives
  • This solidarity must be created willingly through obedience to God rather than mechanical social forces

• The church must maintain independence from world movements while engaging them: When the church becomes nationalist, socialist, or follows other trends, it ceases being salt, light, and sheep

  • Theological justifications are always available but represent compromise rather than authentic Christian witness
  • The church must find the independent path God provides rather than adopting worldly solutions

• Christians can only proceed through confidence in God’s goodness: The way appears as “folly, utopia, ineffectiveness” to human sight

  • Yet Christians have seen God’s goodness manifested and can face worldly powers in “absurd powerlessness”
  • Nothing can separate them from God’s love in Jesus Christ, providing foundation for engagement despite apparent futility

Introduction to Jacques Ellul’s Life and Thought

Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) was a French intellectual whose unique position as both sociologist and theologian produced a unified body of work examining the relationship between faith and modern civilization from the margins of academic and religious establishments.

• Ellul lived and worked from the geographic and intellectual margins: Based in Bordeaux rather than Paris, he was a Protestant in Catholic France and a believer in an increasingly secular culture

  • An only child from an economically struggling family, he became self-supporting at fifteen and worked among dockworkers
  • His marginal position shaped his prophetic perspective on mainstream society and institutions

• Two major intellectual influences converged in his university years: Around 1931, he discovered Marx’s Das Kapital and experienced Christian conversion through Bible study

  • Marx provided sociological method for understanding economic crises, though Ellul never joined the Communist Party
  • His “brutal” conversion led to lifelong biblical study and alignment with Reformed theology of Karl Barth

• His academic career combined practical engagement with scholarly work: Professor of History and Sociology of Institutions at University of Bordeaux from 1944-1980

  • During WWII, he worked with French Resistance forging papers to protect Jews while studying theology
  • His five-volume Histoire des institutions became a standard university text for decades

• Ellul maintained extensive involvement beyond academia: He co-founded juvenile delinquency prevention programs, defended the Atlantic coast from development, and served in church leadership

  • Organized professional Christian associations for reflection on faith and work
  • Led a house church that began in his living room and built a chapel on his property

• Three keys illuminate Ellul’s approach: Focus on main currents rather than surface events, prophetic vocation to intellectuals, and dialectical thinking

  • He studied broad historical forces (technique, bureaucratic state, propaganda) rather than current events or metaphysical depths
  • As prophet to thinking people, he provided resources for independent thought rather than seeking followers
  • Dialectical method required holding tensions (in world/not of world) without intellectual synthesis but with existential resolution

• His extraordinary literary output exceeded fifty books and one thousand articles: He wrote longhand on topics ranging from history and sociology to politics, art, and ethics

  • Claimed to have written “one book with fifty chapters” indicating unified vision across diverse subjects
  • His challenging perspectives often ran counter to conventional wisdom but were backed by deep research