The Reception of Jacques Ellul's Critique of Technology: An Annotated Bibliography of Writings on His Life and Thought

THE RECEPTION OF JACQUES ELLUL'S CRITIQUE OF TECHNOLOGY: An Annotated Bibliography of Writings on His Life and Thought by Joyce Main Hanks. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2007. 546 pages, indices. Hardcover; $139.95. ISBN: 9780773453739.

Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) would certainly make a short list as one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the twentieth century. His prolific writings have evoked admiration and controversy in many different arenas of academic and public life including the environmental movement, biblical and theological circles, social criticism, political theory, ethics, philosophy, and finally, law, the area in which he was formerly trained and worked as a university professor at Bordeaux. (He also was a lay preacher in the French Reformed Church.) The far-ranging nature of his writings and the provocations they encapsulated are still invoked by an extraordinarily diverse group of people across the sociopolitical spectrum.

Hanks, a professor of French language and literature at the University of Scranton, has been a long-time member of the International Jacques Ellul Association and very active in scholarship related to this seminal thinker. She is widely known as the premier bibliographer of Ellul, who left behind a huge volume of material--much of it totally disorganized and scattered. Her most recent effort along these lines before this volume was Jacques Ellul: An Annotated Bibliography of Primary Works that was published as Research in Philosophy and Technology, Supplement 5 in 2000 by JAI Press. This volume is the result of a multi-year effort to collect in one volume significant writings in English and French about Ellul's work and life from the 1930s to the present, based largely but not exclusively on collections at Regent College Library in Vancouver, BC, and Wheaton College, IL. Entries are grouped into three main categories (chapters): (1) books, articles, and interviews; (2) dissertations; and (3) reviews of Ellul's books. Notes for each entry range from a few words to a few paragraphs. A very comprehensive set of indices covers authors and subjects. This resource is invaluable for anyone who wants to explore the impact and ideas of Jacques Ellul as viewed through the eyes of others.

Reviewed by Dennis W. Cheek, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 4801 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110.

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