Ellul and the Ten Commandments: Keeping Reality Open to Truth1
Virginia W. Landgraf American Theological Library Association Chicago, Illinois, USA
The purpose of this paper is not to give a close reading of Ellul's actual use of the Ten Commandments in his work but to show how a certain reading of the Ten Commandments, based on his distinction between truth and reality, expresses different facets of a task which Ellul hoped that Christians and anyone conscious of the vicious cycles of power would take up: to keep reality open to truth. An important component of Ellul's arguments about the autonomy of technique is his belief that fallen human beings have an innate desire to possess reality. Yet he believes that the God revealed in the Bible, who became incarnate in Jesus Christ, promises those in relation with this God that they will not have to bow to this desire and be enclosed by reality but will be able to remain open to truth. Each of the Ten Commandments can be paraphrased in such a way as to express a different aspect of this task and promise. Illuminating as I have found this reading to be, it also raises questions, particularly related to bodies and incarnation, which I discuss at the end of the paper.
Truth and Reality A distinction between truth and reality is fundamental to Ellul's thought. The distinction is not merely of different content but of two different “orders,” each with its own characteristic mode of transmission and logic and inviting a certain attitude towards the world. Truth has to do with human 1 An earlier version of this paper was presented in Lisbon in 2011 and published as “Truth, Reality, and the Ten Commandments: Not for Theology Alone,” in Jacques Ellul and the Technological Society in the 21st Century, ed. by Helena M. Jerónimo, José Luís Garcia, and Carl Mitcham (Dordrecht: Springer, 2013).