You Are Not Your Own Quotes

“The deepest dispair occurs when we are unconscious of being in dispair”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“But once we begin to rely on other people to recognize and affirm our identity, it becomes uncertain, shifting according to the whims of other people. I think this is why most of us roll our eyes whenever we are encouraged to “accept” ourselves or “believe” in ourselves or “be whoever we want to be.” They are empty self-esteem slogans that don’t reflect the reality that we need some kind of external affirmation. Self-affirmation simply doesn’t satisfy. We need a witness.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“Your identity is secure only insofar as you feel it to be secure. No one outside of you can truly affirm your identity. Really the best we can do is remind one another that we each individually have the power to declare that our identity is good. In other words, your identity is a creation of pure subjectivity, sustained and affirmed by subjectivity.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“For modern western economies, a rapid expansion of consumer options is the normal experience. What used to be remarkable or a sign of middle-class status is very rapidly trivialized. Standards are never settled. Everything is always in flux, a condition that philosopher Zygmunt Bauman calls “liquid modernity.”32 Rather than a solid sense of what the good life looks like, we are left with ever-shifting values as our choices multiply. The basic principle that Durkheim discovered was that at a certain point, increasing choice actually decreases satisfaction, sometimes precipitously: “Unlimited desires are insatiable by definition and insatiability is rightly considered a sign of morbidity. Being unlimited, they constantly and infinitely surpass the means at their command; they cannot be quenched. Inextinguishable thirst is constantly renewed torture.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“Sometimes you will hear people try to make this obsession with means into a virtue: “It’s not about where you’re going, it’s how you get there.” But if you dwell on these claims long enough, the best you can do is say with Albert Camus, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”8 In his famous essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus suggests that human life is much like the fate of Sisyphus from Greek mythology, who was damned to spend eternity pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to watch it roll down again. Life, then, is an endless, arduous, meaningless existence. Also, to be clear, Sisyphus is in Hades. If all society can promise us is a life in Hades pushing the boulder of the Responsibilities of Self-Belonging, then it’s not much of a promise.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“The injustice my neighbor suffers, whether poor or a minority or disabled or unborn, makes a claim upon me because we all belong to Christ and to this particular community. At times, working toward the common good in a community will require me to advocate for causes that cost me or those who look like me. I may be called upon to accept a loss of freedom that I would never accept if I only thought in terms of identity politics. Our conception of the good ought to arise from our understanding of God’s revelation in His Word and nature.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“Our laws, regulations, rights, and citizenship are shaped by the belief that humans are fundamentally their own. So we have good reason to desire a political solution. If we resist the spirit of the city in our hearts and homes but passively permit its dominance in the political sphere, we cannot honestly say that we are glorifying God in the midst of the city. We are not living faithfully. We are not even really resisting the spirit of the city. We’re just trying to save ourselves.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“Far too many evangelicals have begun their work advocating for justice and righteousness in their communities or nation, only to abandon integrity for pragmatism when they don’t see immediate results. Like the ancient Israelites, we may find ourselves supporting a candidate, policy, or party who promises to protect us if we will only “trust in oppression and perverseness” (Isaiah 30:12”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“If we insist that our society be fixed through a specific political or social agenda, we may grow bitter when God righteously chooses to bring redemption in a way we could never have imagined. Jonah could not save Nineveh. He couldn’t even love it. Neither could Jonah bring about God’s judgment upon Nineveh. What he could do in response to the wickedness of Nineveh, and what we must do in response to the inhuman conditions of our society, is represent God in the city.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“If it really is the right thing to do, the efficiency does not matter. Your obligation is faithfulness, not productivity or measurable results.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“infinite desire is a malady, not a gift. It leaves us empty, addicted, and feeling inadequate. To accept that we are not our own is costly too.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“Our society is so efficient that we can mass produce junk. The best that can be said for it is that at least the designer and factory worker and everyone else along the way had a source of income.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“If you are not your own but belong to Christ, then the entire modern project of identity formation and expression is a sham. That means a major portion of our economy is based on the myth that we need to be someone unique. Expressive individualism is the logic guiding many modern industries,”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“Part of our unease with the phrase stems from being raised in a culture that treats autonomy as sacred. We idolize rebels, free thinkers, and mavericks. Our modern myths are stories of rejecting traditional expectations to discover your true, pure identity. As we have seen, in the contemporary anthropology, to be fully human is to be autonomous.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

“According to the logic of our contemporary anthropology, the key is that these people chose to be exposed—they chose to take the job as a moderator —and if it’s a choice, it is their responsibility, not ours. And if the pornographic entertainers choose to use their bodies and intimacy as a tool, it is their responsibility, not ours. We are all only our own and we can only belong to ourselves.”
― Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World