We
live in a post-Christian society. As a result, our worship of Jupiter, god of
politics, takes on previously Christian forms. Jacques Ellul tells us how in The
New Demons (trans. C. Edward Hopkin, 1975).
1. God. In our contemporary worship of Jupiter, the part of the god, or of his incarnation, is established by an official “cult of personality” (170) or creation of the Great Personality. The establishment of such a cult is unavoidable. On one side, there’s the public’s desire for salvation with “all hopes concentrated on one, fervently adored man” (171). On the other, there’s the leader’s commitment to provide that salvation. The result: a cult of personality that deifies a dictator. Holding all power, he “is the supreme person, corresponding to the personal God of Christianity” (171).