The Slavery of Death – Beck

The Slavery of Death – by Richard Beck

Summary of Basic Thesis/Argument:

In this book, Richard Beck engages in an extended analysis of the implications of our fear of death which he believes drives much of what ails humanity. In doing this, Beck explores the “dense and complex causal matrix in which sin, death, and the devil all mutually interact” (page xi). Whereas the usual or traditional Protestant understanding of the relationship of sin and death is expressed in Romans 6:23 as “the wages of sin is death”; Beck seeks to examine the other side of this causal relationship, presented in 1 Corinthians 15:56 which states that “the sting of death is sin.” As part of doing this, Beck closely examines the implications of Hebrews 2:14-15 which states that Christ’s death freed “those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Beck believes that “an exclusive focus on sin tends to oversimplify the dynamics of our moral struggles” (page xi). He explores how our fear of death often contributes to our sinful reactions to this fear, and the attendant forces (principalities and powers) that keep us in slavery to that fear. Beck identifies “doxological gratitude” as a powerful mechanism for resisting the powers that enslave humanity in our fear of death. He offers several practices that help to create a context within which this gratitude might grow in our individual and collective lives.

Analysis:

Beck begins his work by asking his readers to consider the fact that for each of us “death predates our sin” (page 4). He invites us to consider that “Might sin be the sting – the poisonous outcome – of death?” (page 4). From here he explains the difference between the western church’s emphasis on “original sin,” and the Eastern Orthodox Church’s view of “ancestral sin” (pages 4-14). From the Eastern Orthodox perspective, the story in Genesis 3 is “more about theodicy…than soteriology” (page 5). And therefore, the problem facing humanity is primarily one of death, and secondarily, one of sin. In other words, the primary condition we inherit from our forebears is a mortality issue rather than a moral issue. Because of this, “As mortal creatures, separated from God’s vivifying Spirit, humans are fearful and survival-driven animals, easily drawn into sinful and selfish practices” (page 8). In addition, this perspective paints humanity in a particular light where “we are less wicked than we are weak” (page 10). Beck contends that our fear of death, which leads to “the selfish pursuit of survival and self-preservation” causes us to pursue “all sorts of sinful practices” (page 13). In essence, Beck maintains that this fear of death is the primary source of sin in our lives.

Beck then summarizes the atonement theory of “Christus Victor.” While providing this summary, which emphasizes the victory of Jesus Christ over the forces of evil through his death on the cross and resurrection through the power of God, Beck asserts that “the language of the demonic can do important work for us” (page 21). In this context, Beck uses the language of the demonic to refer to the “suprahuman forces – what the Bible refers to as ‘the principalities and powers’ – that are difficult to reduce to isolated moral agents” (page 22). He indicates that these forces exert influence on human moral affairs. They should be the focus of much of our efforts in line with what Ephesians 6:12 states, “…we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers…” (pages 22-23). Beck contends that victory over these forces (who hold humanity in slavery due to their fear of death as described in Hebrews 2:14-15) is signaled by love that is free from self-interest and fear.

Beck then moves into the second section of his work by taking a deep dive into two related subjects: the denial of death in our society; and, how the “principalities and powers” contribute to our” problems dealing with mortality. In this section Beck seeks to show that “psychological science confirms and informs” the theological perspective he outlined in the previous section. In doing this, Beck summarizes the problems humanity faces from two distinct perspectives: “basic anxiety” and “neurotic anxiety.” His analysis focusses on how each of these types of anxiety relate to death (page 28). Basic anxiety has to do with our survival instincts in a world of real or perceived threats and scarcity. On the other hand, neurotic anxiety has to do with worries and fears associated with our self-concept and how we relate to our social world. Beck demonstrates that within the modern world our anxieties associated with death have moved away from basic anxieties and center more toward neurotic anxieties. He shows how our increased life spans, and the attendant modern medical advances have created the illusion in our daily lives of a sense of immortality. Death as a present reality has largely been removed from our lives in comparison to most of human history. In a sense, Beck contends that this “illusion of a deathless society” and its attendant “psychological and social avoidance is driven by an underlying neurotic anxiety” which opens the door for manipulation and temptation for relief or distraction in the form of entertainment and comforts (page 31).

Beck asserts that this cultural death avoidance “creates a suite of demands…to conceal any weakness, failure, and disability…[and that] what we tend to call success in American culture is often a neurotic delusion, a defense mechanism to deny the reality of death… (pages 33-34). In turn, this fear of showing weakness or vulnerability drives us to maintain our social respectability by never expressing our needs to others, or inviting others to honestly view our lives. We are happy to extend help to others, “but are loathe…to ask for help…And when everyone plays this game no one helps” (page 34). In essence, Beck contends that “our slavery to the fear of death produces superficial consumerism, a fetish for managing appearances, inauthentic relationships, triumphalistic religion, and the eclipse of personal and social empathy. These are the ‘works of the devil’ in our lives, works produced by our slavery to the fear of death” (page 35).

Beck then turns for help to the work of Ernest Becker and his work on death denial. Becker’s analysis focuses on humanity’s need for self-esteem, significance, and meaning, and how these desires push us toward heroism. Becker maintains that this heroism is achieved through “following cultural pathways that mark a life…as both admirable and well lived” (page 36). Becker says that individuals hope “that the things [they] create in society are of lasting worth and meaning, that they outlive or outshine death and decay, that man and his products count” (page 36). What motivates this heroism, Becker asserts, is “the terror of death: heroism is first and foremost a reflex of the terror of death” (page 37). Beck concludes that what we need to make life count in the face of death is the hero systems that help us to achieve meaning that transcends our death. We often achieve these heroics in service to various institutions or ideologies in our world. Our identity as “hero” in this system provides us with the means to face the existential crises of our impending death. The problem is, often our identity within this system or in service to these institutions and ideologies becomes an idol. In maintaining our identity we render service to the cultural hero system which functions as a principality and power. As Beck says:

It’s difficult to simply opt-out, because the problem is too pervasive and goes too deep. Radical measures are necessary. This predicament gives us a glimpse into why the biblical authors speak of conversion and discipleship as a death – our identities are too saturated with death to be rehabilitated as they stand. Consequently, in order to fully and completely confront our slavery to the fear of death, we must die to our entire identity as it is currently configured. Moreover, we must die to the overarching cultural hero system, the way everyone around us makes meaning and defines success and significance. And that is a terrifying prospect…(page 39).

And yet, Beck acknowledges that all death anxiety isn’t bad. The problem concerns when the hero systems that all cultures possess collide with out-group values and systems. He says, “In order to protect the worldview that gives our life grounding and significance, we are driven to victimize out-group members and persecute those who are different” (page 42). At that point we are slaves to our systems because of our slavery to the fear of death.

Beck contends that breaking these bonds of slavery requires us to enter into conflict with “the principalities and powers – a battle fought primarily around issues related to identity, self-esteem, and the pursuit of significance” (page 45). In defining these powers, Beck relies on the work of Walter Wink, who indicates that spiritual powers are not viewed as “separate or ethereal entities, but as the inner aspect of material or tangible manifestations of power… ‘Satan’ is the actual power that congeals around collective idolatry, injustice, or inhumanity, a power that increases or decreases according to the degree of collective refusal to choose higher values” (page 50). Beck summarizes this by saying that “death is the Idol behind all idols, the great force sitting behind all fetishes of success and significance proffered to us in the world by the powers” (page 54).

In the final section, Beck seeks to answer the question “What has to be accomplished in relation to our fear of death for love to flow forth freely and authentically?” (page 59). He highlights three ways that neurotic forms of death anxiety “compromise” the flourishing of love in our midst. First, as alluded to earlier, our technological advances have helped us shield our needs from one another. Beck asserts that without the expression of needs, an “economy of love, sacrifice, and care cannot take place. A society without need offers no occasions to serve each other, or bear one another’s burdens” (page 60). Secondly, Beck shows how our thirst for excellence often feeds the illusion that we are without limits as humans in pursuit of improvement. The drive for better results often “presupposes a false anthropology that assumes that we are gods and not human beings…excellence is here revealed to be a euphemism for sacrifice and idolatry” (page 63). And thirdly, Beck states that given “our worldview is the source of significance and self-esteem, we want to defend it from out-group members…[who] become a source of anxiety and existential threat” (page 64). The mindset which looks at other worldviews as “inferior, mistaken, or even dangerous” often “sows the seeds of violence” (page 65).

The antidote that Beck offers to combat these three ways that neurotic forms of death anxiety affect us “comes from two places – the formation of a new identity and the formation of a new sort of community” (page 65). In forming a new identity, Beck contends that we need to recognize that “an identity built upon possession – material or social – is vulnerable to the forces of death,” and this rests on a foundation of fear (pages 67-69). To counteract our tendency to build our identity upon a possessive base, Beck references the work of Arthur McGill who labels Jesus’ identity as an “ecstatic identity” not “owned, but received as a gift” (page 69). This type of identity “is defined by God alone and not by any creature. It is eccentrically grounded and defined” (page 70). It stabilizes the ego and is resistant to “social shaming, hostility, and violence” (page 73). Beck maintains that the example of Jesus provides us with a blueprint for what it looks like to be free from every form of death anxiety.

For Beck, the cross as a symbol of our dying to self and living for others and the ritual of baptism serve to guide his thinking in how we move into a life free from slavery to the fear of death with a new identity. These two symbols set the stage for Beck’s description of the type of the training Christians need in order to live lives free from this slavery to the fear of death. Because living without fear is unnatural, Beck reminds us that this training is crucial to forming us into people able to resist the powers that keep us bound in fear. The first practice in training that Beck describes is what he refers to as “doxological gratitude” (page 100). This is a gratitude experienced in worship and “expressed within worship” (page 100). In particular, Beck directs us to consider gratitude for our “self” as part of receiving our identity as a gift from God (page 101). He indicates that from within a doxological setting our self-esteem projects are exposed as idolatry.

In terms of practices that facilitate doxological gratitude, Beck states that two activities stand out as particularly helpful. The first is singing. Beck states that, though he has never heard of singing referred to as a spiritual discipline, he is convinced that it “is, perhaps, one of the most important and fundamental of the spiritual disciplines” (page 102). He reminds his readers that singing has always served as a tool of resistance, and “is as much about courage as it is about gratitude” (page 103). He reminds readers of Paul and Silas singing while in prison. The second activity is prayer. Beck refers to prayer as “a political act that calls into question the loyalties of the surrounding culture” (page 105).

From within this context of doxological gratitude which supports a “Christ shaped identity,” Beck states that we are now free to love well and resist our natural tendencies toward selfishness, pride and violence. The sustainability of this context rests on the notion that “we aren’t asked to live this sacrificial life all by ourselves” (page 108). The vision of Christian community “isn’t the sacrificial heroism of the lone individual…[instead], we undergo diminishment for the sake of others, but we are soon filled and rehabilitated by others” (page 110). He reminds readers that love always involves risk and the fear that attends to that risk. However, “love will be the courage to face my fears that in caring for you I will be used up, wasted, poured out and expended. Love will be the courage to trust that others will care for me as I care for you” (page 112). Beck wraps us this section by describing the “Little Way” of Therese of Lisieux. The little way is not a heroic path of life, but an active pursuit of loving others in the mundane circumstances of life. This way of life includes true freedom from the idolatry of self.

Beck brings his book to an end by addressing the penultimate problem in our slavery to the fear of death, how our concepts of “God and religion undergird and support the cultural hero systems…providing the warrant for our way of life” (page 118). Beck directs our attention to the problem often faced in our world of conflating the current power systems with the status quo. He says “The principalities and powers will always seek to capture and enslave God in an attempt to use the name of God to underwrite current power arrangements” (page 120). Beck, in concert with Walter Brueggemann, says that we need to engage the prophetic imagination to stand against the status quo. This imagination always considers the possibility “that God is free to be against us” (page 121). When this imagination is eclipsed, the signs are that “God can no longer be imagined as being against us and for those we oppress, exclude, stigmatize, marginalize, ignore, or aggress against – God is no longer free but a slave” (page 121). Instead, we know we are free when “we can hear the voice of God crying out against us in the voices of those we ignore, marginalize, victimize, exclude, ostracize, harm, and kill…” (page 122).

Strengths and Weaknesses:

In my opinion, this book offers much food for thought and provides interesting insights into our fear of death. Instead of mentioning the many aspects of this book that I enjoyed or found especially useful, I only mention four. In particular, I think Beck’s emphasis on the power of institutions, and the ways they contribute to our problems with death anxiety serves as one of many helpful points for devising strategies to deal with death anxiety. Also, I think his strong emphasis on the importance of communal vulnerability in our ability to move beyond our death anxiety is particularly important. I also appreciated the importance Beck places on “doxological gratitude” in the process of moving beyond our fear of death. Finally, I think that Beck’s concluding thoughts on the necessity of maintaining a “prophetic imagination” that always entertains the possibility that God is against us is very important in our evaluation of our own thinking in the face of our inevitable anxiety associated with death as we seek to move beyond our fears.

In my opinion, there are very few weaknesses or issues that I wish Beck had handled differently. One of those weaknesses is what Beck shares with many who exegete Romans 7. It is almost universally assumed by the average bible reader that in Romans 7 Paul is referring to himself in individual terms and explaining his personal struggle with sin. However, in this passage I believe that Paul is talking about his solidarity with Israel in the face of her struggle to keep Torah. In the broader context of this passage, Paul is making the point that Jews and Gentiles, because of the work of the Messiah are no longer under Torah. The singular pronouns Paul uses in this passage are actually referring to collective Israel with whom Paul identifies himself as a fellow Israelite. Paul’s larger purpose in this passage is to explain the mysterious task of Torah in concentrating or gathering sin together in order for the Messiah to deal with it once and for all (Romans 7:13 – …that sin…through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure… – see N.T. Wright’s “Climax of the Covenant” and “Paul and the Faithfulness of God” for a full explanation of this particular reading of Romans 7).

I also believe it would have been helpful if Beck had engaged some of the thinking of Rene Girard with respect to competing worldviews, and the propensity of those with differing views to scapegoat others with whom they disagree. I think it would have been beneficial if Beck had explored Girard’s perspective on Jesus as the one who unmasked the scapegoat system and the powers behind that system, and how that idea could contribute to dealing with our fear of death.