Desert, Wilderness, Wasteland, and Word

“Jacques Ellul is a gift who keeps on giving. The great French sociologist has seen clearly (and before the rest of us) the toxic dangers of modern technological development. . . . This book is an important probe into Ellul, and a shrewd discernment about what serious faith requires and makes possible when we are woke to the undercurrents of the power of death that are all around us.”


—Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary





“From the biblical topic of desert to modern desert and spiritual wilderness in our lives, this book is a fascinating course between void and voice, fullness and silence, death and life, on the way to the real life which rises from void and death. Jacques Ellul and several high experts on Ellulian thought lead us along this hard road. A nourishing, thirst-quenching and essential book!”


—Frédéric Rognon, professor of philosophy, University of Strasbourg





“Desert, Wilderness, Wasteland, and Word is a wonderful collection of essays, a gift not just to Jacques Ellul scholars but to thoughtful readers, especially Christians, everywhere. As Ellul provided us with a fully-developed biblical study of The Meaning of the City in 1970, so he provides here an insightful collection of insights and challenges about ‘the meaning of desert and wilderness’—thanks to the careful reconstruction of his notes by Jean-Philippe Qadri and Jerome Ellul. This is an extraordinary and timely book.”


—David W. Gill, president, International Jacques Ellul Society