New Resources
Written by Mark Van Steenwyk : August 23, 2007
A couple new resources for y’all:
THE DOWNLOADABLE ELLUL
The family of Jacques Ellul has asked JesusRadicals.com to remove pdfs of his writings from their website. This is ironic, since Jacques himself would have certainly approved. These works were out of print. Because of this, I’m making these pdfs available from my site (see the “fodder for the fire” section in my blogroll. You can access his writings here.
THE MISSIO DEI BREVIARY
Well, I’ve begun to post morning and evening prayers from the Missio Dei Breviary. I hope to have them all up within the week. The prayers follow a morning and evening 28 day cycle. Please add it to your feed. There will be a link to buy paperback versions soon: www.thebreviary.com. The prayers on the site are the “general” version. Missio Dei’s breviary makes specific references to the West Bank. The version on www.thebreviary.com makes general references that should fit most contexts. Please get the word out. I’ve put a lot of time and care into this project. I did the work for our community, but want it to bless others. It is more accessible than the Divine Hours, is a bit simpler, and reflects certain theological convictions that I believe are important.
for further reading . . .
- None Found
Christarchy! is a growing network of small groups for people who want to put the ethical teachings of Jesus into practice.
Submergent is a network of leaders who, embracing the Anabaptist impulse, are living into the Kingdom of God in a postmodern, post-colonial, post-Christian world. Together, we will re-baptize the Christian imagination!
Anchored in the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis, Missio Dei is committed to following Jesus' way of peace, simplicity, prayer, and hospitality.
The Missio Dei Breviary includes morning and evening prayers for one month. Edited (and freely shared) by Missio Dei, it draws primarily upon the Gospels, reflects Anabaptist convictions, and emphasizes missional commitment.
It seems to me that Mr. Ellul would still want his readers to honour the wishes of his family, who knew him better than any of us. While you may be happy to have people duplicate all the Breviary content and offer it as a pdf download so people wouldn’t need to buy the book, I don’t think it’s helpful to attribute contrasting greedy motives to the Ellul family and then subvert their wishes. His work is readily available through second-hand sources (with no royalties to the family), but free distribution otoh helps ensure they won’t be reprinted. And like it or not, that decision rests solely with his family.
What you’re saying makes sense, of course. I’ll take them down if asked by the family. But in my mind, the wishes of his family are trumped by the fact that he was writing as a Christian to the church. That is the family I’m more concerned about in this matter.
His work is readily available through second-hand sources (with no royalties to the family), but free distribution otoh helps ensure they won’t be reprinted.
I’m not sure about that… especially due to the new print-on-demand technology that keeps pretty much everything in print these days. A lot of Ellul’s stuff that was out of print was brought back to print in POD format, lilke Anarchy and Christianity, for example. A&C was “brought back into print” in POD format even though it was available online at places like jesusradicals.com.