TY - BOOK AU - Shaw,Jeffrey M. TI - Illusions of freedom: Thomas Merton and Jacques Ellul on technology and the human condition SN - 9781630871871 AV - BR115.T42 S53 2014 U1 - 261.56 23 PY - 2014///] CY - Eugene, Oregon PB - Pickwick Publications KW - Merton, Thomas, KW - Ellul, Jacques, KW - Technology KW - Religious aspects KW - Christianity KW - RELIGION KW - Christian Life KW - Social Issues KW - bisacsh KW - General KW - fast N1 - Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-193); Introduction -- Merton and Ellul : comparative worldviews -- Theological perspective -- Sociological perspective -- Political perspective -- Literature -- Conclusion N2 - Illusions of Freedom examines the opinions and ideas of two twentieth-century writers --Thomas Merton, a Catholic monk living in the United States, and Jacques Ellul, a French Protestant. 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 in formulating their worldview, to include Karl Barth, Søren Kierkegaard, Aldous Huxley, and Karl Marx. Jeffrey Shaw examines the influence that these other philosophers had on Merton and Ellul as they formulated their own ideas on technology's impact 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, one finds that they bring a unique perspective to the debate and offer readers an alternative avenue for reflecting on the meaning of technology and its impact on our lives in the twenty-first century UR - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=834204 ER -