Quotes from book
Anarchy and Christianity

Jacques Ellul Original title Anarchie et Christianisme (French, 1988)
Jacques Ellul photo

“All national rulers, no matter what the nation or the political regime, lord it over their subjects. There can be no political power without tyranny.”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

Source: Anarchy and Christianity (1988), p. 61

Jacques Ellul photo

“Why freedom? If we accept that God is love, and that it is human beings who are to respond to this love, the explanation is simple. Love cannot be forced, ordered, or made obligatory. It is necessarily free. If God liberates, it is because he expects and hopes that we will come to know him and love him.”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

Source: Anarchy and Christianity (1988), p. 39

Jacques Ellul photo

“It is impossible for the state or society or an institution to be Christian. Since being Christian presupposes an act of faith, it is plainly impossible for an abstraction like the state.”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

Source: Anarchy and Christianity (1988), p. 28

Jacques Ellul photo

“In his cynical way Napoleon said that the clergy control the people, the bishops the clergy, and he himself the bishops. No one could state more clearly the real situation that the church was an agent of state propaganda.”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

Source: Anarchy and Christianity (1988), p. 28

Jacques Ellul photo

“We must unmask the ideological falsehoods of the many powers, and especially we must show that the famous theory of the rule of law which lulls the democracies is a lie from beginning to end.”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

Source: Anarchy and Christianity (1988), p. 16

Jacques Ellul photo

“Should anarchists vote? ... For my part, like many anarchists, I think not. To vote is to take part in the organization of the false democracy that has been set up forcefully by the middle class. ... The political game can produce no important changes in our society and we must radically refuse to take part in it.”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

Source: Anarchy and Christianity (1988), p. 14

Jacques Ellul photo

“Jesus does not advocate revolt or material conflict. ... He reverses the question, and as so often challenges his interlocutors: "But you ... it must not be the same among you."”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

In other words, do not be so concerned about fighting kings. Let them be. Set up a marginal society which will not be interested in such things, in which there will be no power, authority or hierarchy. Do not do things as they are usually done in society, which you cannot change. Create another society on another foundation.

p. 62
Anarchy and Christianity (1988)

Jacques Ellul photo

“We can denounce not merely the abuses of power but power itself.”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

Source: Anarchy and Christianity (1988), p. 23

Jacques Ellul photo

“I believe that the anarchist fight, the struggle for an anarchist society, is essential, but I also think that the realizing of such a society is impossible.”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

Source: Anarchy and Christianity (1988), p. 19

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