One of many books I need to re-read to get it clearer in my mind. Beck, on the surface, seems to be straightforward in his writing, and helpfully, even sums up each previous chapter as he starts a new one. Still there are a number of things here to wrestle with. I've seen him writing on Christus Victor before - being more aligned to the Orthodox Church than the Protestant one, Beck naturally leans towards this approach as to why Christ died. Still, it takes a bit of getting into your head when you've spent decades having the more common (to Western Christians) idea that Christ died to take the punishment for our sins.
Once again, as he did in 'Reviving Old Scratch' he shows how modern Christians tend to underestimate the power of evil in the world, whether it goes under the name of the Devil, or Satan, or in this book, 'principalities and powers.' His thesis in this book is that even more than being slaves to sin, we are slaves to death, and that produces sin. (The Apostle Paul expresses both ideas, in different ways.) This slavery leads us to all the 'self' approaches to life: self-protection, self-esteem, self-promotion and much more.
But Christ came and emptied himself - and that's what a Christian does: empties himself of his own desires and allows God to work His desires in us. This isn't some kind of adapted Eastern religions theology; it's part and parcel of the Gospel. We struggle to take it on board completely, because we want to preserve what we think is our real self. Unfortunately our 'real' self mostly just gets in the way; it's only when we give that away, and allow Christ to work in us that we find our real self.
I'm not explaining this very well, so here's something that Beck says at one point: "Jesus was not motivated by the fears, worries, and neuroses that motivate us. Jesus feared nothing. He was competitive with no one, aggressive toward no one. And why? Because Jesus’ identity was formed in a way that liberated him from the slavery to the fear of death. Consequently, in the words of Chrysostom...Jesus was free from the tyranny of the devil. Because Jesus didn’t own himself, he could not be dispossessed of himself. The fear and neuroses that push and pull our identities had no effect upon Jesus, and thus he was free to love spontaneously and generously. We see from Jesus’ example how the eccentric identity makes love possible." (He's using the word 'eccentric' here in relation to a person who is motivated by something outside himself. He writes: "Your personal identity is defined by God alone and not by any creature. It is eccentrically grounded and defined."
I'm grateful for the Kindle highlighter process because it means such quotes can easily be found, but also because things you wanted to remember are accessible.
There's a good deal more in the book, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to think more deeply about how he or she functions as a Christian.
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G. Budrikis
Christus Victor theology meets modern psychology. The outcome is good.
Reviewed in Australia on June 30, 2015
