International Journal of Public Theology 2 (2008) 163–181
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Dialectic as Method in Public Theology: Recalling Jacques Ellul David J. Neville St Mark’s National Theological Centre and Charles Sturt University, Australia
Abstract This article recalls the contribution of Jacques Ellul’s theological methodology as a resource for public theology. The first part of the study surveys Ellul’s contribution as a public theologian, while the second responds to Ellul’s reflections on the theme of dialectic and evaluates the significance of Ellulian-style dialectical theology for public theology. The term ‘dialectic’ is one Ellul used to describe his own mode of theological engagement. For Ellul, dialectic implies dialogue, which entails both presence (being with, so as to be able to converse) and distance (being apart, so as to be able to contribute something different). What Ellul affirms about a dialectical stance is valuable in so far as it enables theology to grapple with complexity and contradiction, which is important for public theology because the conversation between theology and the wider public now usually occurs in the absence of shared assumptions and values. Keywords dialectic, Jacques Ellul, method in public theology
By any criteria one would wish to name, Jacques Ellul was a public theologian. Yet in the burgeoning literature on what has come to be named ‘public theology’, Ellul seems not to feature among those whose work is perceived to provide resources from which to draw or direction for the way ahead. This is not to say that his legacy has been completely ignored by those interested in the public significance of Christian theology, but as Clifford Christians observes in an issue of The Ellul Forum devoted to the theme of ‘Ellul in the Public Arena’: Those influenced by Ellul’s work continue to make public space their home [like Ellul himself who ‘lived in the public arena’ and whose ‘defining orientation was © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2008
DOI: 10.1163/156973208X290026