Gordon Clark: Review of The Meaning of the City by Jacques Ellul (The Presbyterian Journal)

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.