Jacques Ellul- Prophetic or Apocalyptic Theologian of Technology?*

216 THE POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEWER
to human control of innovations in technē through deliberative
reason. The problem that had to be overcome was, for the classical
theorist, thoughtlessness in political-social choice, not the removal
of technē per se. The experience and results of applying new techniques
to the procedures of production could well lead to improvements
in methods that also carry negative consequences. It is
the latter unanticipated consequences that the classical theorists
wished to control by rational assessments. This is the recurrent tension
found in various warnings about technology as diverse as those
of Plato and Alexander Pope. Readings of Plato's utopia in the
Republic that assert he supports a no-growth recommendation fail
to take into account the fact that the point of the text was to
demonstrate the potential consequences of thoughtless or unthinking
acceptance of uncontrolled change. Plato could see in his own
culture that technology affected society and man. Thus, the
"modern" problem of technology is not so modern after all. It is
rather a recurrent problem of balancing man's capacity to develop
means of controlling and restructuring physical nature against
careful assessment of the proper values and purposes to be imposed
as limits-humane limits-on that potentiality. The primary task in
understanding technology is to grasp the phenomenon comprehensively
and precisely enough with our theory so that we can better
understand the normative and empirical consequences associated
with technē and its changes.
Although the problem of social and political assessment of
technology has long been part of social research, the problem of
technology seems more central in current thinking; in part because
of Ellul's writings. Perhaps this currency has increased because of
the omnipresence of machines and computers, or because of our
awareness of such phenomena as organizational growth or the
knowledge explosion. The increased sensitivity may be based on the
fact that new techniques now are being developed more directly out
of scientific discoveries rather than serendipitously occurring as
Jerome B. Wiesner characterized the advances that led to the industrial
revolution, as acts of "practical men and based upon art,
observation and common sense." 5 It is not necessary to resolve fully
whether the definitions of technology have recently shifted in an
essential way in order to recognize that its classical defining
characteristics have remained stable. Techne, or the means for con-
5. Where Sciēnce and Politics Meet (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961), 31.