PJCV seeks articles exploring themes of conflict and violence in the life, work, thought, and intellectual legacy of Jacques Ellul (1912-1994). An “atypical, uncategorizable thinker, transgressing disciplinary borders” (François Dosse), Ellul penned a vast corpus of provocative and original writings in two broad categories: first, sociological writings analyzing elements of twentieth-century western society as expressions of technique (understood as a rational and willful drive will towards ordered efficiency); second, essays in protestant theological ethics and meditative biblical interpretation. These writings bring the voices of Ellul’s three major influences—Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, and the Swiss Protestant theologian Karl Barth—into stimulating dialectical conversation about politics, technology, art, media, communications, institutional evolution, morality, language, anarchy, revolution, urbanism—and notably, violence.

Argument

PJCV seeks articles exploring themes of conflict and violence in the life, work, thought, and intellectual legacy of Jacques Ellul (1912-1994). An “atypical, uncategorizable thinker, transgressing disciplinary borders” (François Dosse), Ellul penned a vast corpus of provocative and original writings in two broad categories: first, sociological writings analyzing elements of twentieth-century western society as expressions of technique (understood as a rational and willful drive will towards ordered efficiency); second, essays in protestant theological ethics and meditative biblical interpretation. These writings bring the voices of Ellul’s three major influences—Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, and the Swiss Protestant theologian Karl Barth—into stimulating dialectical conversation about politics, technology, art, media, communications, institutional evolution, morality, language, anarchy, revolution, urbanism—and notably, violence.

Especially in Contre les violents (1972), Ellul approaches violence as an unequivocal expression of necessity, a failure of freedom which consequently enmeshes the human subject in the play of sociological determinisms. Instead, Ellul proposes a positive “violence of love.” His Théologie et technique (posthumous; 2014) continues these themes with an ethics of “nonpower,” an ethical principle of self-limitation which springs from and allows for human freedom. But this rejection of violence was a later move, following Ellul’s youthful willingness to partake in revolutionary violence; and yet, rejecting violence did not mean forsaking revolution, anarchy, or the endless conflict of dialectical thinking—themes which remain dear to him until the very end of his writing career. Revisiting this singular thinker’s contribution to thinking about violence in all its forms promises not only to interrogate dominant approaches to the topic in Western late-modern discourse, but also to unearth fresh ethical perspectives.

Contributions are invited from a range of disciplines and interdisciplinary perspectives. Possible topics may include (but are not restricted to) the following:

• Violence in the dialectic of freedom in necessity
• Ethical explorations of non-power
• Revolutionary violence in Ellul’s own life
• Propaganda and psychological violence
• Violence and language
• Ellul’s critique of just war theory
• Violence and anarchy
• Violence and ecology in Ellul and Bernard Charbonneau
• Ellul on biblical violence
• Ellul’s critiques of Jean-Paul Sartre
• Marxist class struggle in Ellul’s work
• Ellul, Sorel, and revolutionary violence
• Ellul and Girard’s anthropology of violence
• Ellulian perspectives on military and biotechnologies
• Ellulian perspectives on violence/conflict in novels or movies
• Philosophy of technology (Anders, Grant, Heidegger etc.), violence, and Ellul
• Ellul on fascism and totalitarianism

Editor

This special issue will be edited by Jacob Marques Rollison.

Submission guidelines

Interested parties should send a proposed abstract of 200-300 words to jake.rollison@gmail.com and andreas.wilmes@trivent-publishing.eu

by September 1, 2021.

Authors will be informed of acceptance no later than October 31, 2021. Full papers should be submitted by January 15, 2022, should follow the PJCV template available at trivent-publishing.eu/pjcv.html, and should be maximum 20 pages in length. The final publication is planned for May 2022.

Editorial Information 

Editor-in-chief

• Andreas Wilmes, West University of Timisoara (Romania)

Associate editors

• Joan-Antoine Mallet, University Paul-Valéry (Montpellier III)
• Robert Manning, Quincy University 
• Claudiu Mesaros, West University of Timisoara

Advisory board

• Jeremiah Alberg, International Christian University, Tokyo (Japan)
• Sandrine Baume, University of Lausanne (Switzerland)
• Luc-Etienne de Boyer, Lycée Camille Claudel, Digoin (France)
• Elisabetha Brighi, University of Westminster, London (United Kingdom)
• Antonio Cerella, Kingston University, London (United Kingdom)
• Virgil Ciomoș, Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
• Emanuel Copilaș, West University of Timisoara (Romania)
• Grégory Cormann, University of Liège (Belgium)
• David Dawson, University of Aberdeen (Scotland)
• Greg McCreery, University of South Florida (United States of America)
• Paul Dumouchel, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto (Japan)
• Denis Forest, University Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris I) (France)
• Mihaela Frunză, Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
• David Goa, University of Alberta (Canada)
• Bruno Godefroy, Sun Yat-Sen University (Zhuhai)
• Pierre Guenancia, University of Bourgogne, Dijon (France)
• Vicente de Haro Romo, Universidad Panamericana (México)
• Cristian Iftode, University of Bucharest (Romania)
• Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, Institute for Strategic Research (France)
• Samuel Lepine, University Jean-Moulin (Lyon III) (France)
• Florin Lobont, West University of Timisoara (Romania)
• Michela Marzano, University Paris-Descartes (Paris V) (France)
• Julie Mazaleigue-Labaste, University Panthéon Sorbonne (CNRS, Paris I)
• Basarab Nicolescu, University Pierre et Marie Curie (CNRS, Paris VI)
• Wolfgang Palaver, University of Innsbruck (Austria)
• Jean-Luc Périllé, University Paul-Valéry (Montpellier III) (France)
• Patrick Singy, New York Union College (United States of America)
• Mihai Spariosu, University of Georgia (United States of America)
• Laurenţiu Staicu, University of Bucharest (Romania)
• Thomas Sturm, Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain)
• Michel Terestchenko, University Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France)
• Raphaël Verchère, University Claude-Bernard (Lyon I) (France)

Reviewing process 

PJCV double-blind peer reviews all material it receives. Once a submission is received, it is initially received by the editor-in-chief. In order to make a decision, the editor-in-chief will send the manuscript for parallel approval to two external reviewers specialized in the subject of the manuscript. When the submission is accepted and the first version of the manuscript is received, it is checked for review compliance by either the editor-in-chief or the guest editor(s). Reviewers are asked to sign their reports and declare any competing interests on any manuscripts we send to them. Reviewers then advise their editor, who makes the final decision on the form of the publication.