Christianity is not some ideal toward which we ought always to strive even though the ideal is out of reach. Christianity is not a series of slogans that sum up our beliefs.
Stanley HauerwasRead
We complain of the increased tempo of our lives, but our frenetic lives are just reflection of the economic system that we have created.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the fast pace of modern life is a product of our economic system rather than individual choice.
Stanley Hauerwas highlights the paradox of modern existence, where individuals often lament the hurried nature of their lives. He points out that this frenetic energy is not merely a personal issue but is deeply rooted in the economic structures we have established, which prioritize speed, efficiency, and constant productivity over personal well-being and reflection.
Themes
TempoLivesEconomic SystemComplainFrenetic
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about work-life balance, one could quote this to provoke thought on societal structures.
More from Stanley Hauerwas
All quotes →My way of putting it is that Christians are called to live nonviolently not because we believe nonviolence is a strategy to rid the world of war, but in a world of war as faithful followers of Christ, we cannot imagine being anything other than nonviolent.
Stanley HauerwasRead
Advent is patience it's how God has made us a people of promise, in a world of impatience.
Stanley HauerwasRead
War is America's central liturgical act necessary to renew our sense that we are a nation unlike other nations.
Stanley HauerwasRead
To kill, in war or in any circumstance, creates a silence. It is right that silence should surround the taking of life. After all, the life taken is not ours to take.
Stanley HauerwasRead
The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely, a place where God is forming a family out of strangers.
Stanley HauerwasRead
Similar quotes
Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse.
Christopher HitchensRead
Who are you to condemn another's sin? He who condemns sin becomes part of it, espouses it.
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The basic question 'will I obey Christ 's teaching?' is rarely taken as a serious issue. For example, to take one of Jesus' commands, that is relevant to contemporary life, I don't know of any church that actually teaches a church how to bless people who curse them, yet this is a clear command.
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Being bodiless, God is nowhere, but as God He is everywhere. If there were a mountain, a place or any part of Creation where God was not, then He would be found to be in some way circumscribed. So He is everywhere and in everything. In what way is this so? Is He contained not by each part but by the whole? No, because then that would be a body. He embraces and encompasses everything, and is Himself everywhere and also above everything, worshipped by true worshippers in His Spirit and Truth.
Gregory PalamasRead
There exists in our society widespread fear of judging…[B]ehind the unwillingness to judge lurks the suspicion that no one is a free agent, and hence doubt that anyone is responsible or could be expected to answer for what he has done…Who has ever maintained that by judging a wrong I presuppose that I myself would be incapable of committing it?
Hannah ArendtRead
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Carl SaganRead