Book Review: The Slavery of Death by Richard Beck

This little book is poor in pages but rich in substance. Part of the reason my book-reviewing pace has been so slow over the past few months is that I read this slowly and deliberately. Beck combines the Eastern Orthodox theology of Christus Victor with the psychology of death neurosis and personal experience (both his own and that of Therese of Lisieux). The result is new and old things brought out from the starting point of the verse from Hebrews that Jesus released us from the slavery of the fear of death. The best book to pair with this volume of the Little Way is NT Wright's huge tome on The Resurrection of the Son of God. Even though on the surface they look very different, both are works through which the Spirit spoke into my life, and I can still hear the resonant echoes.