The Slavery of Death

by Richard Beck

From Wright’s analysis we can see at least two benefits of retaining language that points to spiritual forces at work in human affairs. First, such language points to suprahuman forces—what the Bible refers to as “the principalities and powers”—that are difficult to reduce to isolated moral agents. And yet, because these spiritual forces have real causal effects upon human affairs, we need to reckon with them in some way. But why must we use the word spiritual to describe the forces? We’ll address that issue more thoroughly in chapter 4, but for now suffice it to say that these forces are difficult to locate in any material way, and they tend to exert their moral influence within the realm of human subjective experience—our hearts, minds, and spirits. A second reason to use this language, as Wright points out, is that it helps us shift the moral conversation to a plane where we are less prone to victimize and demonize each other.