The Evangelical Universalist Forum

The Slavery of Death by Richard Beck

Studies Books
#1

Excellent book on how neurotic death anxiety controls us producing shame, ego, grandiosity, paranoia, self consciousness, violence, etc etc. I know it has for me anyway. At the root of my schizoaffective disorder is self conscious shame and anxiety. My psychotic delusions are intense shame and anxiety. Self-conscious in the extreme I become the center of the universe where everything revolves around me. Pretty soon they are coming after me. The slavery to the fear of death causes us to be become self absorbed and preoccupied with survival self and self esteem. Our identities become wrapped up in our worldviews or self-esteem projects. For me it was an intense self -consciousness. As Beck describes in the book we die to self by becoming “nothing” or losing self-conscious shame, guilt, and anxiety. When we lose ourselves in Christ we find our truest selves as Children of God. The self and life are received as a gift as they are grounded in God. Beck calls this the eccentric identity because you don’t turn inward but outward towards God in doxological gratitude.

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This is what I’m referring to when I say self-consciousness. When I say death to self I’m referring to losing self-conscious anxiety, and shame. Love casts out fear as the self is crucified with Christ and resurrected.

Self-consciousness is a heightened sense of self-awareness. It is a preoccupation with oneself, as opposed to the philosophical state of self-awareness, which is the awareness that one exists as an individual being, though the two terms are commonly used interchangeably or synonymously.[1] An unpleasant feeling of self-consciousness may occur when one realizes that one is being watched or observed, the feeling that “everyone is looking” at oneself. Some people are habitually more self-conscious than others. Unpleasant feelings of self-consciousness are sometimes associated with shyness or paranoia.

When feeling self-conscious, one becomes aware of even the smallest of one’s own actions. Such awareness can impair one’s ability to perform complex actions. Adolescence is believed to be a time of heightened self-consciousness. A person with a chronic tendency toward self-consciousness may be shy or introverted.[2]

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#2

Forgetting Self (I am accepted and have worth in Christ)

I am nobody special in the worldly sense of the term. But in dying to self and coming to faith in Christ I have eternal significance. I am special to God. His love is a holy love. Holy means to be set apart (special). I don’t earn my worth but it is a gift of God received by faith. My sense of belonging and sense that I count comes from being a child of God. The ego is nothing. The paradox is that we are set apart and special because we are united to all. We are light in a dark world. What the world considers special God doesn’t. What God considers special the world doesn’t. When I’m nobody I’m somebody. When I’m somebody I’m nobody. We become nobody so that Christ will be glorified in us - our true self. In and of myself I’m nothing so that Christ can reign in my heart. I’m covered and infused in God’s righteousness. Therefore, I have intrinsic worth because I’m in Christ. Everything I have; family, friends, possessions, health, all comes from my heavenly Father (Job 1:21). Knowing this, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). I am “fearfully and wonderfully” made (Psalm 139:14). In Christ, I have my true identity, apart from Him, I am nothing (John 15:5)

In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that - and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison - you do not know God at all ~~ Mere Christianity, page 124

The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself all together or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.
~~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, page 125

#3

This view of atonement used by Beck is the “Christus Victor” view. Mine is the “Christus Victor” view of Greg Boyd. Here’s part of it:

Along the same line, in the Christus Victor view, Jesus was afflicted by the Father not in the sense that the Father’s rage burned directly towards His Son, but in the sense that God allowed evil agents to have their way with Him for a greater good. This is how God’s wrath was usually expressed towards Israel In the Old Testament (Judges 2:11-19; Isaiah 10:5-6) It’s just that with Jesus, the greater good was not to teach Jesus obedience, as it usually was with Israel in the Old Testament. Instead, God the Son, bore the Father’s wrath, expressed through the powers, for the greater good of demonstrating God’s righteousness against the powers and sin (Romans 3:25) while defeating the powers and setting humans free from their oppression.

Here’s the full version:

#4

Here’s an article by Beck on the eccentric identity:

An identity not found by turning inward to plumb the depths of our buffered psyches–searching for the “real me” under layers of Freudian repression–but an identity received as gift, the enchanted, charismatic experience of the Spirit poured out upon us.

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#5

Here’s a bit more from the Greg Boyd link on Christus Victor Atonement. This is the model I hold to be central to atonement

Jesus Substitutionary Death
Most evangelicals today understand Jesus’ death on Calvary in substitutionary terms (Jesus died in our place), not in Christus Victor terms. The Christus Victor model affirms that Jesus died as our substitute, bore our sin and guilt, was sacrificed for our forgiveness and was punished by the Father in our place (e.g Isa 53:4-5, 10; Rom 3:23-25; 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 2:17; 9:26; I Jn 2:2). But unlike the common substitutionary view espoused by many today, the Christus Victor view can affirm these important truths while avoiding a number of paradoxes that accompany the common substitutionary view — that is, without supposing that our individual sins, guilt and just punishment were somehow literally transferred onto Jesus and without supposing that Jesus had to literally placate the Father’s wrath.

In the Christus Victor view, Jesus died as our substitute and bore our sin and guilt by voluntarily experiencing the full force of the rebel kingdom we have all allowed to reign on the earth. To save us, he experienced the full consequences of sin that we otherwise would have experienced. In so doing, he broke open the gates of hell, destroyed the power of sin, erased the law that stood against us, and thereby freed us to receive the Holy Spirit and walk in right relatedness with God.

Along the same lines, in the Christus Victor view, Jesus was afflicted by the Father not in the sense that the Father’s rage burned directly toward his Son, but in the sense that God allowed evil agents to have their way with him for a greater good. This is how God’s wrath was usually expressed toward Israel in the Old Testament (e.g. Jud 2:11-19; Isa 10:5-6). It’s just that with Jesus, the greater good was not to teach Jesus obedience, as it usually was with Israel in the Old Testament. Instead, God the Son bore the Father’s wrath, expressed through the powers, for the greater good of demonstrating God’s righteousness against the powers and sin (Rom 3:25) while defeating the powers and setting humans free from their oppression. (17)

So too, the Christus Victor model can wholeheartedly affirm that Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many, but without supposing that Jesus literally had to buy off either God or the devil (Mk 10:45; Mt 20:28; cf. I Tim. 2:6; Heb 9:15). The word “ransom” simply means “the price of release” and was most commonly used when purchasing slaves from the slave market. (18) Hence, the Christus Victor model can simply take this to mean that Christ did whatever it took to release us from slavery to the powers, and this he did by become incarnate, living an outrageously loving life in defiance of the powers, freeing people from the oppression of the devil through healings and exorcisms, teaching the way of self-sacrificial love, and most definitively by his sacrificial death and victorious resurrection.

#6

Just found this from psychology today:

When normal existential death anxiety is chronically repressed or avoided, it frequently, at least in part, likely underlies and drives various psychiatric symptomatology and mental disorders such as panic disorder, agoraphobia, depression, bipolar disorder, and psychosis. But we all harbor some degree of existential death anxiety which is normal, healthy, and an inescapable part of being human.

#7

The way Beck says we do this is by worshiping God through singing. When we let go and empty the self as we turn the focus outward on Christ we die to self in praise and worship. This is the living sacrifice of praise. We drink from the cup that Jesus drank from as we are baptized with His baptism. We die to self and are resurrected for the salvation of the world through praise and worship in singing. It’s also done though baptism and the Eucharist. We drink from the cup as we come into union. We are baptized and crucified with Christ and resurrected to new life. We receive the new identity as a gift of grace by drinking the cup of life with gratitude. Christ becomes the center.

#8

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

― CS Lewis

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#9

Catechism of the Catholic Church

2097 To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and absolute submission, the “nothingness of the creature” who would not exist but for God. To adore God is to praise and exalt him and to humble oneself, as Mary did in the Magnificat, confessing with gratitude that he has done great things and holy is his name. The worship of the one God sets man free from turning in on himself, from the slavery of sin and the idolatry of the world.

#10
#11

While many of these components may be present, it is not necessary to experience all of them for flow to occur: Clear goals that, while challenging, are still attainable. Strong concentration and focused attention. The activity is intrinsically rewarding. Feelings of serenity; a loss of feelings of self-consciousness.

#12

A good book on losing self-consciousness and getting in the zone (present moment) is called “Flow”. When we lose ourselves in love we find our truest self.

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