1971. Review of The Meaning of the City by Jacques Ellul. The Presbyterian Journal. Jan. 6: 17.
THE MEANING OF THE CITY, by Jacques Ellul. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ.
Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. 209 pp. $5.95. Reviewed by Gordon H. Clark, professor of
philosophy, Butler University, Indianapolis, Ind.
After quoting the excellent statement of the French Reformed
Confession of 1559 on Scripture as "the rule of all truth," the introduction
says that the authority of Scripture "remains untouched in Ellul as in Karl
Barth." Nothing could be more false. The author himself, speaking of Genesis
4, asserts, "It is of little importance whether this story conforms to factual
reality."
As with Scripture, so the author says it was with Jesus Christ,
who shared the beliefs of His time that the earth was flat, the sky was an immovable
vault, and that there was nothing outside the Mediterranean world.
The theme of the book seems to be that cities are evil, but that
God gives His servants a task to perform in them. Thus the author makes such a dilute
and mediocre expression of belief that one wonders why the book has been published.
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