> Three primary settings, three institutions, and three cults of surrender: discipline (ETA), substance (Ennet), ideology (AFR).

I don't think substance is right: I think it's about freedom from it, or maybe a "higher power" of some sorts, mysticism maybe.

I think it makes more sense, also in the context of what Wallace said elsewhere ("This Is Water"): "Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.(...)"