Part 3 of Clairvaux Manifesto entitled Thinking & Acting dives into the life and times of active contemplatives. The phrase “contemplative activists” doesn’t ring true; our active focus must be on the right thing, contemplation!

If my prayer is not answered, I am.
If my petition is not fulfilled, my person, my soul, is;
as the artist comes to himself and his happiness
in the exercise of the talent he was made for, in spite
of the delay and difficulty of turning his work to money.
If the genius is happy who gets scope, the soul is blessed
that truly comes to itself in prayer.
P.T. Forsyth, The Soul of Prayer

Be generous. Give to the poor.
Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt,
a bank in heaven far from bank robbers,
safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on.
It’s obvious, isn’t it?
The place where your treasure is,
that’s the place you will most want to be,
and end up being.
Luke 12:33-34 (MSG)

“I’ve come to deeply appreciate French sociologist Jacques Ellul (1912-1994). As a Christian leader, he thought and acted wisely amidst the economic meltdowns, political upheavals, and decimating World Wars of the 20th Century. Ellul was a contemporary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer of Germany and Toyohiko Kagawa of Japan, two men who were also Christian scholars and geopolitical activists navigating the Axis Powers.

Ellul’s grandfather was in the shipping business. His father was Italian with a Jewish last name, an English citizen by Maltese birth who was employed by a prestigious wine merchant; his mother was a Portuguese Protestant artist with a Jewish father. Ellul had aspirations to sail the seas, but his father demanded he study law. As a student, Ellul tutored younger students in Latin, Greek, German, and French, later defending his doctoral thesis on ancient Roman law, eventually becoming Professor of History and Sociology of Institutions in the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences at the University of Bordeaux. Ellul read all of Marx and Kierkegaard; he had what he called a violent conversion experience while translating Faust.”