Political Illusion and Reality: Engaging the Prophetic Insights of Jacques Ellul

Are all governments--east and west Muslim and secular authoritarian and constitutional Republican and Democratic--fundamentally the same all of them under the extraordinary growing power of technique and bureaucracy? Is all politics then just an illusory affair of lies deception propaganda partisan passions and chaos on the surface of government and party? In his vast and penetrating writings Bordeaux sociologist Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) points in those directions.Political Illusion and Reality is a collection of twenty-three essays on Elluls political thought. Veteran as well as younger Ellul scholars political leaders activists and pastors discuss aspects of Elluls thought as they relate to their own fields of study and political experience. Beginning with his 1936 essay Fascism Son of Liberalism translated and published here in English for the first time Ellul and these authors will provoke readers to think some new thoughts about politics and government and think more deeply about the main issues we face in our politically divided and troubled times.