Reading group will examine Ellul’s writings

The writings of Jacque Ellul will be explored by the Classics in Religion Reading Group during May.

The group will meet Wednesdays on May 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Community Room of Kingston Library, 55 Franklin St.

Ellul was a French philosopher, sociologist, lay theologian and controversal Christian anarchist who influenced the American theologian Bill Stringfellow and Austrian Ivan Illyich. He was professor of History and Sociology of Institutions on the Faculty of Law and Economic Science at the University of Bordeaux.

A prolific writer, Ellul

authored 58 books and more than a thousand articles over his lifetime, including books on prayer and the religious life. Participants in the May program will delve into his constant concern for the emergence of a technological tyranny over humanity.

The sessions will be led by Carla Barnett. She last led the reading group in Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy. She is a retired civilian Air Force contracting officer and ombudsman, as well as a lover of the outdoors.

Selections from Ellul’s work will be selected by Barnett for reading aloud and discussion. The public is invited to any of the sessions, which run one hour.

The group will not meet in June, July and August. It will resume in Septem-

ber.

Classics in Religion’s previous readings have included Buddhist, Jewish, Rasta, Sufi, Native American, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Confucian, Taoist and Christian works, as well as texts in existentialism,

Jungianism, American transcendentalism, Schools of Meditation, Process Theology, gnosticism, and pragmatism. Library resources, inexpensive editions or copies are distributed for participants. No advanced reading is required.

For more information, contact Albert R. Ahlstrom by sending him an email at aahlstrom@hvc.rr.com or by calling (845) 334-8404.