An Unjust God?

First-timeTranslation in English
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The relationship between Christians and Jews has often been very tense, with misunderstandings of Paul's teachings contributing to the problem. Jacques Ellul's careful exegesis of Romans 9-11 demonstrates how God has not rejected Israel. The title is taken from the verse, ""Is there some injustice in God?"" The answer is a clear ""no."" God's election simply expanded outward beyond Israel to reach all peoples of the earth. In the end, there will be a reconciliation of Jews and Christians within God's plan of salvation.

Written in 1991, three years before Ellul died, An Unjust God? brings a new understanding to a section of Scripture known for its conventional and limited interpretations. One significant feature of the book is Ellul's personal experience of the suffering of Jews under the Nazi regime; and this has direct bearing for the way he links the sufferings of Israel with the sufferings of Jesus. Ellul is then bold enough to say that a major reason why the Jewish people have not accepted Jesus as Messiah is because the Christian Church has not done well to emulate the Jewish Savior of the world.


""Unfazed by the deeply rutted and predictably interpretive pathways established in Romans 9-11, Ellul is massively open to hearing what God might actually be saying.""
--From the Foreword by David W. Gill, President of International Jacques Ellul Society

""Jacques Ellul reads the Scriptures closely, consequently getting surprising--and brilliant--insights that stun us. I don't always agree with his conclusions, but he always stimulates me to contemplate afresh. May this book propel us all to cherish Israel and its biblical task more wholly.""
--Marva Dawn, editor and translator of Sources and Trajectories: Eight Early Articles by Jacques Ellul that Set the Stage



Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), a French sociologist and lay theologian, was Professor Emeritus of Law and of the History and Sociology of Institutions at the University of Bordeaux. He wrote more than forty books, including The Technological Society, The Humiliation of the Word, and Technological Bluff.