Illusions of Freedom

Description

Illusions of Freedom examines the opinions and ideas of two twentieth-century writers – Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk living in the United States, and Jacques Ellul, a member of the French Reformed Church. Although they were contemporaries, they never met or corresponded with each other, but their critique of the influence that technology was beginning to have on the human condition is strikingly similar. Both Merton and Ellul drew upon the ideas of others, including Karl Barth, Søren Kierkegaard, Aldous Huxley, and Karl Marx, in formulating their worldviews. Jeffrey M. Shaw examines the influence that these other philosophers had on Merton and Ellul as they formulated their own ideas on the impact of technology on freedom. Tracing the similarities, and in some cases the differences, between their critiques of technology and the idea that progress is always to be seen as something inherently good, Illusions of Freedom brings a unique perspective to the debate and offers readers an alternative avenue for reflecting on the meaning of technology and its profound effect on our lives in the twenty-first century.