Two Perspectives on Gift Theory Jacques Ellul and Paul Ricoeur

At the end of the 1960s, when growth was in full swing and promised happiness for all, Jacques Ellul and Paul Ricœur, two committed Protestant intellectuals, denounced the consumer society. They both felt that it was not enough to respond to the quest for meaning and found in giving, the tip of their questioning. Yet they draw opposite conclusions. One focuses on production and consumption, the other on distribution. One sees gift as an eschatological sign; the other wants to inscribe the logic of superabundance at the heart of reality. One denounces the economic model as alienation; the other tries to orient it by questioning its meaning. In their divergence and opposition, these two complementary perspectives invite us to rethink the place of gift in the economy and, finally, the economy itself.