The Slavery of Death

Short review: Richard Beck (a theologian/psychologist) explores how the Eastern Orthodox understand the Christus Victor model of the atonement to reverse the traditional Western understanding of sin bringing death into the world. Instead the Orthodox understanding of Genesis 3 is that the fear of death (if you eat this tree you will live forever) is what brought sin into the world. So Gen 3 is about the introduction of death, not the introduction of sin. So Beck re-tells the Christian narrative from this Eastern perspective to bring new light on how sin and death have power over us. The second part of the book is about how we can use the sacraments to break the power of sin in our lives.

This is a short book, but is a great example of how bringing in an alternative explanation from a different tradition can bring insight.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/slavery-death-richard-beck/