Christians cannot hide from the world but must create a community to engage in it, said Sarah MacMillen, associate professor of Sociology at Duquesne University, in a talk titled “Reflective Presence: Jacques Ellul on the In-Between” hosted by Hillsdale College Sociology and Social Thought program Oct. 3. 

“We have to present ourselves a certain way because we feel damaged from the system,” she said. “And yet, if we don’t have an identity, we’re really prone to propaganda.” 

MacMillen lectured on sociologist Jacques Ellul’s theological and sociological beliefs. She said that Jacques Ellul believed Christians should have a “reflective presence” towards others. 

She also discussed Ellul’s views on the post-industrial revolution’s emphasis on maximum efficiency or “technique.”

MacMillen introduced Jacques Ellul as a French theologian and sociologist who held ideas unlike those around him. According to MacMillen, he was against a world becoming increasingly reliant on what he called technique, or “instrumentalized consciousness.” 

In this culture, the technicians are dominated by the principles of efficiency, according to MacMillen. The world is now globalized, and has become one of conformism, dominated by propaganda.

“Success is the perfect value for our particular culture. Whatever the goal, the procedure becomes the value,” she said. 

MacMillen said Ellul argues our world is judged by appearances instead of true realities. 

“Modern production mechanisms wreck havoc on everyday people,” she said. 

Technique can be thought of as the totality of rational procedures and processes, according to Chairman and Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Media Ethan Stoneman.

As defined by Ellul, the goal of technique is maximum efficiency in which the means are the focus point instead of the ends. Technique is also the dominating principle in every realm of human activity. 

“The world of means recreates our drives and personalities,” Stoneman said. “We move from one instant to another.” 

Stoneman said he appreciates how Ellul broadly considers technique as a whole instead of mere technology, which is simply a material aspect of technique. 

“Technique is a totalizing autonomous and monistic system,” Stoneman said. “Ellul makes a distinction between technology and technique by not reducing technique to material artifacts.”

MacMillen said Ellul believes the use of technique creates an illusion of freedom — while humanity may think they are free, everyone desires to fit in just like everyone else instead. 

MacMillen said to combat technique, Ellul rejects both capitalism and Marxism because of the way those economic systems dehumanize the body.

“Ellul’s ideal of government is considered a form of anarchism for it rejects a power or state apparatus,” MacMillen said.

Ellul desires Christians to think globally but act locally as God accompanies them throughout history, according to MacMillen. 

MacMillen also referenced sociologist Max Weber.

“Max Weber argued that with the spread of instrumental rationality, the ‘end means’ distinction collapses,” she said. “Separation then results due to disenchantment with the world.”

MacMillen said depression and anxiety have become an epidemic because we feel empty and yet fill ourselves with things that are meaningnless.

“We have to present ourselves a certain way because we feel damaged from the system,” she said. “And yet, if we don’t have an identity, we’re really prone to propaganda.” 

MacMillen said humanity must curb instrumental rationality. To do this, Christians should be guided by faith and aim to give others a “reflective presence.” MacMillen said Ellul believes it is up to the individual to figure out what this presence looks like. 

“We don’t get to hide from the world. We need to create a community and engage with it,” she said.

MacMillen said Christians must remember that the categories of this world are illusory and will come to pass. We should live knowing this and that our call is that we have a bigger set of concerns, according to MacMillen.

MacMillen emphasized that Christians should see through the temporal lies that dominate humanity. Christians should be in the world but not of it.

“It is a testament to the thoroughness of technique that we don’t talk about it more in general circles,” Stoneman said. “It is essential to see what’s in your environment.”

He said that the modern world leaves us feeling increasingly overburdened. Ellul traps us by claiming the only solutions are further technical ones which go on and on in a dehumanized world. 

“There is no way out except for a kind of freedom in seeing how you are unfree which is how he leaves things,” he said. 

Freshman Masha Logvin said she had no previous knowledge of Ellul before the lecture. 

“I’m going to explore the idea more for myself and spread it to people I know,” she said. 

Logvin said a big takeaway from the talk was the idea that no matter what society one lives in, giving fully into the society’s system will destroy the human psyche. And yet, Christianity can free the human person. 

“There is a liberation from the fly trap. There is an escape from the system,” she said. 

Stoneman disagrees with the notion that one can find hope through Ellul’s theological works. 

“There is no way out except for a kind of freedom in seeing how you are unfree,” he said.