#institution

If I have so far argued that Foucault is a kind of closet liberal and thus deeply modern, I need to be equally critical of evangelical (and especially American) Christianity's modernity and its appropriation of Enlightenment notions of the autonomous self. Indeed, many otherwise orthodox Christians, who recoil at the notion of theological liberalism, have unwittingly adopted notions of freedom and autonomy that are liberal to the core. Averse to hierarchies and control, contemporary evangelicalism thrives on autonomy: the autonomy of the nondenominational church, at a macrocosmic level, and the autonomy of the individual Christian, at the microcosmic level. And it does not seem to me that the emerging church has changed much on this score; indeed, some elements of emergent spirituality are intensifications of this affirmation of autonomy and a laissez-faire attitude with respect to institutions. ↗

— James K.A. Smith

#churches #doctrine #emergent-church #foucault #institutions

A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it. ↗

— Walter Bagehot

#critic #cure #go #house #institutions

Paranoia is an illness I contracted in institutions. It is not the reason for my sentences to reform school and prison. It is the effect, not the cause. ↗

— Jack Henry Abbott

#contracted #effect #i #illness #institutions

FOR a long time the conviction has been dimly felt in the community that, without prejudice to existing institutions, the legal day of weekly rest might be employed to advantage for purposes affecting the general good. ↗

— Felix Adler

#affecting #been #community #conviction #day

If I can procure three hundred good substantial names of persons, or bodies, or institutions, I cannot fail to do well for my family, although I must abandon my life to its success, and undergo many sad perplexities and perhaps never see again my own beloved America. ↗

— John James Audubon

#again #although #america #beloved #bodies

Our choice of a reform framework dictated that we looked at the fundamental assumptions that had driven Nigeria's economy, society and policy hitherto and to seek ways of either abandoning or transcending those assumptions and their supporting institutions. ↗

— Ibrahim Babangida

#assumptions #choice #dictated #driven #economy

The crisis in Europe has affected the U.S. economy by acting as a drag on our exports, weighing on business and consumer confidence, and pressuring U.S. financial markets and institutions. ↗

— Ben Bernanke

#affected #business #confidence #consumer #consumer confidence

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. ↗

— Charles Darwin

#great #institutions #laws #misery #nature