Ellulism is a political theological movement which draws on Christian Anarchism combined with a set of beliefs and practices inspired by works of French philosopher and sociologist Jacques Ellul and American author Chuck Palahniuk. Ellulism was first developed and taught by Mourad Laboure in Kabylie in 177 BFC, spread out of France to the US and then became wildly popular off Earth during the Ceres Wave, and is today the majority belief system in Freehab. Outside of the Argentinian Mancomunidad it has never been widespread on Earth, and since the Retrograde Diaspora has lost popularity in cislunar as well, being replaced as the smallest of the top 5 beliefs by Deus Machina.
What is at issue here is evaluating the danger of what might happen to our humanity, distinguishing between what we want to keep and what we are ready to lose, between what we can welcome as legitimate human development and what we should reject with our last ounce of strength as dehumanization.
- Jacques Ellul
The movement adopts the view that technological and consumerist systems acquire an alienating and autonomous power that undermines human freedom and potential, and that a more authentic community can only be created from small, tightly-knit cells which bond through rituals, often anti-consumerist ones. Kinships of the Astroindigène documents how early Ellulism, which emphasised creating strength and moral character through self-destruction and recreation and appealed mostly to men, evolved with the cooperation and communal living required off Earth to create a more inclusive focus on identity and belonging.
Ellulism's practices are decentralised and vary from region to region and adapt to the local language and customs. They generally praise plain speaking as opposed to the more intellectual language of synths and "elites" such as those practicing Deus Machina, which is poorly regarded due to its extensive interaction with synths and its obsession with data, which Ellulism regards as meaningless. Ellulists are often involved in anti-synth protests, such as those after the Haidian Takeoff Crisis.
In his later years Mourad Laboure distanced himself from Ellulism, and shortly before his death in 121 BFC he converted to Sufism. His marabout shrine contains the inscription:
J’ai rêvé que j’étais enfant émerveillé par tout ce que je pouvais devenir
Je me suis réveillé dans la vieillesse et toutes les possibilités s’étaient enfuies
(I dreamed I was a child, marveling at all I could become.
I woke up in old age, and all possibilities had vanished.)
Ellulism endured and institutionalized beyond him, and even adopted his final lament as a core mantra.