This Tuesday evening, we will begin our reading of Richard Beck’s book Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted. Beck is the Chair of the Psychology Department at Abilene Christian University and teaches a bible study at the local maximum-security prison. Beck’s book is about recognizing the existence of evil in the world and our call to resist. Two of Beck’s blog posts about his book can be found here and here. (We have previously read another of Beck’s books: Trains, Jesus, and Murder – The Gospel According to Johnny Cash.)
We will be reading through Chapter 1, “Still Prowling the World,” and Chapter 2, “Scooby-Doo Where Are You!” If you need a book, please let me know. This email can be found online.
Introduction: (pp. xii-xx)
The premise of Beck’s book (and his blog, Experimental Theology) is that we live in a disenchanted world. Working off of Charles Taylor’s book, A Secular Age, Beck writes that an enchanted world is a “world filled with magic, spirits, and supernatural powers. The Devil makes sense in an enchanted world.” p. xvi. By contrast, our modern world is disenchanted, skeptical, and mechanistic, which does not provide room for the spiritual realm. We also live in a world where the use of terms like “demons” or “spiritual warfare” has become an instrument of abuse and oppression. p.xvi.
As a result of disenchantment, we, as modern Christians, have lost the ability to speak of the devil and evil. We have lost sight of what spiritual warfare truly entails. Beck’s purpose in writing his book is to reintroduce a modern, skeptical, and disenchanted audience to the Devil.
Still Prowling the World: (pp. 3-7)
Beck begins his book by observing that in a disenchanted world, the focus of our faith becomes solely about this world. We are no longer concerned with the powers and principalities in the heavenly places but only with those powers and systems of this world. The practice of our faith, therefore, becomes solely reduced to social justice and political action. For example, we may not believe in evil spirits, but we do believe in fighting the evil of sex trafficking. p.5. Beck writes that social action is an important part of the Christian faith, but it needs to be accompanied by an understanding of the unseen spiritual forces that lead to the injustice. p.6.
Naming the Devil: (pp 7-8)
In Hebrew, the noun satan simply means the “accuser” or the “adversary.” For example, Satan is one of the sons of God who attacks Job’s faithfulness, or satan is the “accusers” who attack the Psalmist unjustly. Job 1:6-10, Ps. 38:20. For Beck, “Satan” is more of a relationship than a person. Satan, the devil, etc., is the “name for the personification of all that is adversarial to the kingdom and the people of God, the personified Enemy of God.” p.8. As Jesus tells Peter: “‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.’” Matt. 16:23.
Spiritual Warfare: (pp.8-11)
Beck is non-committal as to whether “Satan” is a person or simply the personification of the forces antagonistic to the Kingdom of God. Regardless, he writes that we must recognize this spiritual force is real and active in the world, and must be fought and resisted. This resistance to forces adversarial to the Kingdom of God is known as “spiritual warfare.” p.9.
Beck urges us to recognize that this adverse spiritual force is real and manifests itself as hate, the satan of love; war, the satan of peace; revenge, the satan of mercy, etc. p.10. Beck also urges us to recognize that Jesus never becomes Satan to fight Satan. Jesus never returns evil for evil or violence for violence but always seeks the good. 1 Thess. 5:15. Love, as Beck writes, “is a heroic act of resistance in a world governed by hate, violence, and indifference.” p.11. Love, on the enchanted and cosmic level, is the supreme act of spiritual warfare.
I hope everyone can join us this Tuesday. Dinner is at 6. The menu is chicken pesto pasta. Discussion about 6:45. I have attached the first two chapters for this week if you have not obtained a book yet. Compline is at 8.
Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith. 1 Peter 5:8-9a