Ellul Replies on Violence

7/28/2019 Ellul Replies on Violence

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ellul-replies-on-violence 1/3



is such a time-effective communication makes peo

ple aware of conflicts that poor communication ob

scures. Yet it is possible that accurate understanding

of a conflict may lead to sane efforts at a solution.

Muddled communications and misunderstanding in

vi te disaster.

Conceivably the churches might make a contribu

tion to the body politic on this issue. They, like all

our communities and institutions, are plagued by

problems in communication and threats of polariza

tion. But they do include, within a voluntary society

sharing some symbols and loyalties, disparate groups

of people who are victimized by the failures of com

munication within our society. Many a local church

CHRISTIANITYandCRISIS

A Chris/ian Journal of Opinion

537 WEST 121 ST. • NEW YORK N.Y. 10027

REINHOLD NIEBUHR, Founding Editor

WAYNE H. COWAN, EditorROBERT A. HARSH, Associate Editor

E D IT O RIA L BO A RD

JOHN C. BENNETT, Chairman

M. SEARLE BATES ARTHUR J. MOORE

ROBERT McAFEE BROWN ROGER L. SHINN

KENNETH W. THOMPSON HOWARD MOODY

RICHARD T. BAKER WALDO BEACH

JOHN D. MAGUfRE JAMES KUHNSTEPHEN C. ROSE MICHAEL NOVAK

TO M F. DRIVER C. ERIC LINCOLN

HARVEY G. Cox

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

WILLIAM F. MA Y J. B. DUROSELLE

CHARLES C. WEST GEORGE D. YOUNGER

GIBSON ''\lINTER ALBERT VAN DEN HEUYEL

VINCENT HARDING M. M. THOMAS

RICHARD SHAULL

CONTENTS

AN INTERVIEW WITH MARCIO MOREIRA ALVES

WAYNE H. COWAN

CHRISTIANITY AND CRISIS, Vol. XXX, No. 13, JUly 20, 1970

Published biweekly for 24 consecutive issues, beginning the thirdMonday in September, by Christianity and Crisis, Inc., 537 West121st St., New York, N. Y. 10027. Subscription price: Canadaand U.S., $7.00; add $1.00 fo r foreign postage; students, $5.00.Second class postage paid at New York, N. Y. and at additionalmailing offices. Please send PO D form 3579 to Christianity andCrisis, 537 W. 121st St., New York, N. Y. 10027. Copyright ©1970 Christianity and Crisis, Inc. ~ ,

might do something for its own h

health of the society if it went to

manding task of becoming a commu

municates.ROGE

BETHGE/S MONUMENT

EBERHARD BETHGE'S monu

phy, BonhoefJ-el', is now av

UnitedStates

as

a $17.95 hardcoverand Row), and one can only hope tha

out in an edition more available t

the general public. Reviewing the b

iel Berrigan has suggested that he

from Bonhoeffer only in rejecting

dagger decisions that led the Germ

mortal conflict with Hitler. Berrigan

from his (our) own State, would

himself with those who espouse pe

frontational and dangerous, resistanc

This, of course, is a central issue ra

of Bonhoeffer. To what extent is the

fied in resorting to violence to brea

of violence? Even lhis phrasing of

too simple. Nevertheless, any final

Bonhoeffer must see him no l merel

of provocative theological notes but

man who, opposed to his nation and

nation's church, chose a violent COlIT

One might compare Bonhoeffer wi

resisted during World War II , Jacqu

recent book, Violence, would seem to

dict on any and all attempts to jus

Christian. Thus one must put a qu

gan and Ellul: Has something hap

those war years .and now to modify

which Christians can assent to viole

we be better served by a careful, prud

porary suggestion of those areas in

might be justified, even called for?

One deals with this issue both be

carnate in Bonhoeffer's life and bec

certain analogous relevance to issue

extreme religious left in America.

hoeffer boom in this country in the

early 1960'S slighted the issue of viol

of Belhge's book indicates that this

area overlooked by Bonhoeffer's Am

izers. Nothing is more apparent in

than Bonhoeffer's lacerating experie

tutional church in his native lan

Geneva-based ecumenical movemen

come the World Council of Churches

154 Ch



__ _ ~ ~ . _ ~ _ ~ " " " " ' _

__ _ _ ._

... ,_._ . . . . . ._ . . . . ....._. __

n the Introduction, Bethge notes that his ac-

is inerely the starting point in what must be

and detailed study of Bonhoeffer.

one thrust of further study must be to

the tantalizing suggestions concerning

in rela

within the ecumenical movement

the international scene to whom the Confessingwas either a nuisance or anathema. For ex

it emerges that the World Alliance for

International Friendship through the

Exploration into US-Brazil Relations

An Interview v/ith Marcia Moreira Alves

our March I6 issue wearticle

L. vVipfiers "The Price of Progress inappear in this country documenting tor

in Brazil. Now, as a part of our continuing exof various aspects of United States inin Latin America, we are pleased to

you an interview with Marcio A10reira Alves.who now lives in exile in Chile, is a well

journalist and ex·member of the Brazilianin which he repTesented the State of(which is the city ot Rio de Janeiro).

of his opposition to the abuses ot power byruling military regime, the army demanded that

of Congressional immunity so that heWhen the Con

refused, President (Geneml) Costa e SilvaI3 , I968, and ordered

of Mr. Alves, who escaped to Chile, and

We invited Mr. Alves, a leadspokesman of the "Catholic Left," to our offices

he was in the US recently on a speaking tour,Editor Wayne H. Cowan in the interoiew is

E. Crahan, who teaches Latin Amer

Lehman College, City University of

York,

Compared with other Latin American na

that were colonies of Spain, Brazil has gen

as less doctrinaire and rigid, and

and pragmatic. How do you explain

in the last decade?

I don't think there is a striking difference

and the rest of Spanish America.happened in Brazil is horizontal

1970

WAYNE H. COWAN

violence similar to the violence in the rest of the

Latin American countries only not on such a na

tional level. What I mean by horizontal violence is

a dispute, a violent dispute of power, between fac

tions of the same class.

What has never occurred in Brazil until now is

vertical violence from the bottom up. Oppression

by small groups of a large percentage of the popUla

tion has been routine: the land owners and the in

dustrial powers have always resorted to violence

when their privileges were threatened. But now rev

olutionary violence is building up because the previ

ous possibility of accommodation under civil rule

no longer exists.

The negotiations between classes that character

ized the decade before 1964 an d that kept Brazil in

sort of a social balance was interrupted by the mili

tary coup. And this generates violence, repression

and armed struggle that is uncharacteristic of Brazil.

Now with the increased structuring of Brazilian so-ciety, with the growing prole tarian consciousness of

the urban working classes, with the revolutionary

mood of the students and of a fairly sizable part of

the church, the elements for revolution are there.

For the the first time in Brazilian history the mili

tary has intervened to stay. The accompanying op

pression has caused revolutionary pressure to build.

The military is very messianic and cut off from

much of civilian society. They think that they have

the formula for saving Brazil and that they are the

only sector of Brazilian society free enough of classbonds to enforce the development model that would

155

_ ~ . . . _ __ . . : I

Churches (predecessor to the WCC) throughout the

1930'S took a quite compromising position vis a vis

the German Christians, sacrificing the Christian to

the expediencies of "unity."

Bethge's book is bound to commence a new

round of Bonhoeffer evaluation in the US. Let us

hope that the issues of violence and the perfor

mance of the institutional church, then an d now,

will not be ignored during this perilous hour in

America, Perhaps there is still time to learn from

recent history. STEPHEN C. ROSE

\1

I

:

,

Ellul Replies on Violence

Documents

Transcript of Ellul Replies on Violence