Desert, Wilderness, Wasteland and Word. A New Essay by Jacques Ellul and Five Critical Engagements

Jacques Ellul; edited by Michael Morelli, translated by Kelsey Hackett

Jacques Ellul’s unpublished essay ‘The Desert’, featured in this new volume, explores the typology of desert and wilderness. He introduces it either as a place of divine encounter or a man-made place of emptiness and dehumanisation. Ellul’s essay is often insightful, especially in its connexion to technique, but remains weak in his exegesis. While insightful, the essay’s fragmentary nature and weak exegesis pose challenges. The essays of the book’s five contributors expand on Ellul’s themes, addressing modernity’s alienating technologies, communication breakdowns, and the temptation of autonomy. They propose theological responses like sabbath, eucharist and spiritual solitude, but some lack depth in ecclesiology or societal transformation.