Overview

To Will & To Do presents one of the most significant theological contributions of the dynamic twentieth-century thinker Jacques Ellul. Benefiting from recent scholarship on Ellul and a discovery of a lost manuscript, this new edition renders the full text available in English for the first time, combining a fresh translation of volume I with a first English translation of volume II. Together, the two volumes constitute the introductory first part of Ellul's planned four-part treatment of Christian ethics. Volume I examines the origin of the problem of good and evil, outlines the contemporary morality of Western society, and provocatively sketches the paradox of an impossible and yet necessary Christian ethics. Volume II carries this discussion forward, outlining the characteristics and conditions of Christian ethics. It then treats the relationship between ethics and the legal texts of the Bible, the relationship between ethics and dogmatic theology, and concludes by reimagining the theological use of the ""analogy of faith"" for scriptural interpretation. In constant dialogue with Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Ricoeur, and many other theologians and philosophers, To Will & To Do constitutes a major intervention in twentieth-century theological ethics.

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9781532676178

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Reviews

The appearance of this lost volume is the publishing event of the decade in theological ethics. Finally we have Ellul's own account of his relation to Barth as well as his understanding of Christian ethics as a prophetic vocation, to take two of the most exciting topics covered. Jacob Marques Rollison tells the remarkable story of how this volume resurfaced fifty years on, as well as why our understanding of Ellul will never be the same. --Brian Brock, University of Aberdeen Volume II of To Will & To Do in French had never been published by Jacques Ellul, and the manuscript has been recently discovered and published in 2018. The work of translation in English has been so fast and excellent. . . . This is a very important piece of the ethical thought of Jacques Ellul. --Frederic Rognon, University of Strasbourg Jake Marques Rollison's careful and fluid translation of these two volumes of Ellul's introduction to Christian ethics does an immense service to the French scholar's English-language readers, both new and old. The provision of such a splendid edition of this previously fractured, abridged, and neglected work will allow Ellul's singular vision of the nature and task of Christian ethics to be considered afresh. That Ellul's 'ethics of witness' is increasingly angular to leading trends in the field of theological ethics only heightens its provocation and makes it restatement in these new volumes all the more welcome. --Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen

The appearance of this lost volume is the publishing event of the decade in theological ethics. Finally we have Ellul's own account of his relation to Barth as well as his understanding of Christian ethics as a prophetic vocation, to take two of the most exciting topics covered. Jacob Marques Rollison tells the remarkable story of how this volume resurfaced fifty years on, as well as why our understanding of Ellul will never be the same. --Brian Brock, University of Aberdeen Volume II of To Will & To Do in French had never been published by Jacques Ellul, and the manuscript has been recently discovered and published in 2018. The work of translation in English has been so fast and excellent. . . . This is a very important piece of the ethical thought of Jacques Ellul. --Frederic Rognon, University of Strasbourg Jake Marques Rollison's careful and fluid translation of these two volumes of Ellul's introduction to Christian ethics does an immense service to the French scholar's English-language readers, both new and old. The provision of such a splendid edition of this previously fractured, abridged, and neglected work will allow Ellul's singular vision of the nature and task of Christian ethics to be considered afresh. That Ellul's 'ethics of witness' is increasingly angular to leading trends in the field of theological ethics only heightens its provocation and makes it restatement in these new volumes all the more welcome. --Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen

Author Information

Jacob Marques Rollison is a postdoctoral scholar living in Strasbourg, France. He is coauthor of Jacques Ellul (Cascade, forthcoming). He is on the board of directors of the International Jacques Ellul Society.

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