Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) was a French jurist, historian, sociologist, and Protestant theologian.
Primarily known as a thinker who criticized the technological civilization of the 20th century, he wrote over 60 books and hundreds of articles, crossing three fields of study: history, sociology, and theology.
Despite this prolific writing, he remains little known in Parisian intellectual circles as a sociologist and in Protestant circles as a theologian.
Yet, his studies of technology and biblical texts, as well as his 'trilogy on ethics', place him among the first French intellectuals in the United States.
He is also recognized for his active research into his ideas.
Of course, recently, research on Ellul's thought has become active in France, and academic societies and symposiums related to Ellul's thought are being actively held.
The reason why Ellul is relatively well-recognized in France after his death is probably related to various issues and phenomena that are seriously highlighted in the present age.
That is, social crises such as the global financial crisis, the increasing risk of environmental destruction due to uncontrolled development, climate change and abnormal weather caused by increased greenhouse gases, nuclear disasters such as the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents, genetically modified foods and mad cow disease, and the possibility of human cloning starting from animal cloning.
However, when faced with such crises, dangers, and disasters, we search for solutions, but we cannot find a thinker who can offer a clear and satisfying solution.
In such a situation, looking back at Ellul's thoughts centered on technology, I found a clue and a clue to the solution.
This book was written with the purpose of introducing Ellul's thoughts to readers in a systematic and clear manner.

Ellul's thought as a whole is clearly divided into sociological and theological aspects.
However, it is characterized by the two aspects maintaining unity and consistency while forming a single whole.
In particular, he was simultaneously influenced by two things: Marx's ideas and the Bible.
Marx's ideas, which were passed on to him through 『Das Kapital』, became a tool for discovering and interpreting the reality of this world.
However, biblical revelation offers him an explanation of personal problems and life that Marxist thought cannot explain, from a different perspective.
He can neither rule out either of them nor synthesize them.
Finally, he leads his entire research with a dialectical approach, studying two areas: sociological and theological aspects.

Ellul explains why he has been actively involved in the work for 20 years: as a Christian, he could not remain indifferent to the misfortune of those young people.
He cannot say that there is nothing good in the young people he has come into direct contact with; he sees them as simply filled with weakness and misery.
Jesus Christ approached the weak and unfortunate not because of any potential goodness within them, but simply because they were weak and unfortunate.
So he confesses that through this activity he has moved towards a more open theology and his preaching has become more concrete.
He even reveals that while he was running the club, he led a Bible study class for young people interested in religious matters.


Ellul argues that the world is not driven by economics, politics, ethical values, or spiritual values, and he makes the following groundbreaking argument:
That is, technology determines all other aspects of society, reshapes them according to its own logic, and gradually reshapes humans themselves.
First, technology becomes an artificial environment that replaces the natural environment and turns it into an equivalent surrounding environment.
Therefore, technology is no longer a set of tools that humans can use at different times.
Technology binds humans in every way and becomes the only environment that permeates humans.
From this point on, technology becomes an autonomous phenomenon that increasingly escapes human control and oppresses humans.
Today, technology, like nature in the past, is an environment, an autonomous process over which humans have no real control.

--- From the text