Living Faith : Belief and Doubt in a Perilous World

Description: Living Faith is a groundbreaking exploration of the meaning and dynamics of Christian faith today by a major theologian and social critic of our time. Jacques Ellul thoughtfully examines all aspects of the phenomenon we call faith to distill the essential characteristics of true Christianity. He argues cogently for a crucial distinction between religion, based on a faith that is nothing more than a reflection of our own circumstances and consciousness, and genuine Christian Faith, which concerns itself primarily with revelation. Such a Living Faith, he points out, is an open, honest, courageous response to a divine disclosure of the Wholly Other God that impels us beyond comfortable answers to see ""everything in a light which is not that of reason, experience, or common sense."" Endorsements: ""Disquieting yet optimistic . . . . Ellul distinguishes between the authentic and inauthentic manifestations of Christian faith and points the way toward a solid foundation for personal and social renewal."" --Spiritual Life ""Stimulating and provocative . . . compels us to reflect on the current state of 'faith' and the condition of our own faith and belief."" --The Christian Century ""In the midst of darkness Ellul bears witness, in a highly self-critical form, to 'the specificity, the unique and irreplaceable character of the Christian faith [which] gives a point-by-point answer to our excesses and our misery.'"" -- New Oxford Review About the Contributor(s): Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), a French sociologist and lay theologian, was Professor Emeritus of Law and of the History and Sociology of Institutions at the University of Bordeaux. He wrote more than forty books, including The Technological Society, The Humiliation of the Word, and The Technological Bluff.