PDF Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination Walter Wink 9780800626464 Books
PDF Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination Walter Wink 9780800626464 Books
Download As PDF : Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination Walter Wink 9780800626464 Books
Wink explores the problem of evil today and how it relates to the New Testament concept of Principalities and Powers. He asks the question "How can we oppose evil without creating new evils and being made evil ourselves?" Winner of the Pax Christi Award, the Academy of Parish Clergy Book of the Year, and the Midwest Book Achievement Award for Best Religious Book.
PDF Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination Walter Wink 9780800626464 Books
"Engaging the Powers is an award winning book written in 1992 - Why have so few read this incredible book? Agree or disagree with Walter Wink but read this book and have the way you view the world shaken up, seriously. He is a brilliant yet humble writer. I cannot believe that I did not read this book when it first came out. I had to have referrals by ChucK Colson, Rob Bell, Greg Boyd, N.T. Wright and others. He has influenced a whole lot of other leaders in the Body of Christ. Do yourself a favor and read this book. It is not an easy read but whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, you will better recognize why his words, his life, his model have turned the world upside down.
This book will challenge the way you think, the way that you view Jesus and his radical yet simple way and it will help you to better understand the context of the 1st Century in which Jesus wrote and why he was killed by the religious establishment. Wink provides greater clarity to why that world and our world today is so messed up by systemic injustice, by delusional assumptions, the domination system that have lasted for 5,000 years and the principalities and powers that rule, exploit that system and seriously oppress and destroy people. Wink sets out to "unmask" that system and show it for what it really is and then show what we can do about it. He also shows what transformation will look like when it honors both the personal and the social.
His look at Jesus in the context of the culture of the day and domination, equality, purity and holiness, racism and ethnocentrism, family, law, sacrifice, non-violence, women and children, healing and exorcism is worth the entire book. I have read very few authors that have written so deeply. You need to plan in times of meditation, reflection and prayer as this is one of those kinds of books. The implications of this book will cover every area of your life. Let me give you an example on page 136. "He (Jesus) was not a reformer, bringing alternative, better readings of the Law. Nor was he a revolutionary, attempting to replace one oppressive power with another. He went beyond revolution. His assault was against the basic presuppositions and structures of oppression itself. Violent revolution fails because it is not revolutionary enough. It changes the rulers but not the rules, the ends but not the means. Most of the old androcratic values and assumptions remain intact. The world, and even the church, had no categories for such fundamental change. It is no wonder that the radicality of Jesus was soon dampered by the church.......If Jesus had never lived, we would not have been able to invent him. There is, in the integrity of his teaching and living, an expose and repudiation of the Domination System that no one trapped in that system could possibly have achieved."
Wink also spends quite a bit of time looking at violence, the myth of redemptive violence and some key messages of Jesus - non-violence and loving our enemies and becoming what we hate. Page 195, "The very act of hating something draws it to us. Since our hate is usually a direct response to an evil done to us, our hate almost invariably causes us to respond in the terms already laid down by the enemy. Unaware of what is happening, we turn into the very thing we oppose. This is so far from the message about passivity. This is about dying, revolt and resistance to all that is dehumanizing, devaluing and demoralizing. You will see Jesus in another way through Engaging the Powers and maybe you/I will continue the work that Jesus started and continue living his way.
Wink ends this book with revisioning history, monitoring our own inner violence and the critical importance of prayer and the powers. Engaging Powers will teach you about a different kind of prayer. Wink says "that history belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being" and that "intercession is spiritual defiance of what is, in the name of what God has promised." This chapter will encourage you to prayer and to " haggle with God for the sake of the sick, the obsessed, the weak and to conform our lives to our intercessions. "
Read this book. Re-read this book. Maybe we can play a small part in seeing God's dream being fulfilled in our world today."
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Tags : Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination [Walter Wink] on . Wink explores the problem of evil today and how it relates to the New Testament concept of Principalities and Powers. He asks the question "How can we oppose evil without creating new evils and being made evil ourselves?" Winner of the Pax Christi Award,Walter Wink,Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination,Fortress Press,080062646X,Biblical Criticism Interpretation - New Testament,Good and evil;Biblical teaching.,Powers (Christian theology);Biblical teaching.,Violence;Biblical teaching.,Biblical teaching,Christian Theology - Angelology Demonology,Christianity - History - General,Good and evil,Mind, Body, Spirit thought practice,NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY,Non-Fiction,Powers (Christian theology),RELIGION / Biblical Criticism Interpretation / New Testament,RELIGION / Christian Theology / Angelology Demonology,RELIGION / Christianity / History,RELIGION / Theology,RELIGIOUS,Religion,Religion - Theology,Religion/Christian Theology - Angelology Demonology,Religion/Ethics,Religion/Theology,Scholarly/Undergraduate,Sets, any number,Theology,United States,Violence,Nonviolence
Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination Walter Wink 9780800626464 Books Reviews :
Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination Walter Wink 9780800626464 Books Reviews
- I am always looking for books that challenge the way I read Scripture and follow Jesus. "The Powers" Trilogy by Walter Wink has certainly done both.
The third book in the series is Engaging the Powers. Of the three books, it may be the most practical, though the other two lay the biblical and theological groundwork for the ideas in this book. Unless you read the first two, the ideas of this book may sound outlandish, unsupported, and even extreme.
For example, in previous studies, Wink showed from cultural background studies of key texts in Scripture that certain Greek words might be translated in ways that better reflect the spiritual worldview of the authors, rather than our modern scientific worldview. Wink discusses some of these ideas and words in this book, and then shows how reading the Gospels and the letters of Paul and Peter with these sorts of translations in mind provide a much different picture to their message than what is traditionally taught.
And it is from such a perspective that Walter Wink writes Engaging the Powers. The most challenging idea of this book may be that the Powers are redeemable, and we humans are part of the means by which the Powers will be redeemed. Wink argues that the Powers were originally created by God for good purposes and functions within the universe, but through the fall, their purposes have been perverted. However, they can be returned to their good purposes, and this is one of the reasons Jesus came and died - to redeem not just humanity, but to redeem the entire universe, which includes the Powers.
It is an interesting concept, and one that Wink develops in practical ways throughout the book. He shows us how we can live in light of this future redemption here and now by living according to the principles of new reality (Kingdom of God) that Jesus inaugurated.
Specifically, he talks about how Christians can view war, love our enemies, live as the church, and pray for the world. All of his ideas in these areas are challenging.
Regarding war, Wink is not a pacifist, but he does not endorse war. He presents a third way of nonviolent engagement where we stand up to evil, but not with violence. He shows how we Christians have terribly misunderstood and misapplied the words of Jesus in Matthew 538-42 about turning the other cheek and walking the extra mile. These are not pacifistic, meek, and mild responses where we allow ourselves to get trampled on, but are actually subversive and empowering forms of standing up for our humanity in the face of dehumanizing evil.
His chapter on prayer was one of the best treatments of prayer I have ever read, right up there with the essays on prayer by C.S. Lewis and the chapter on praying in the Whirlwind in Greg Boyd's Satan & the Problem of Evil.
This was one of those books in which I underlined nearly every sentence, and for that reason, it found its way onto my "Burning Books" list. I highly recommend this book (and other others in the Trilogy.)
By the way, if you are not sure you want to read all three, Wink has just come out with a "summary" of the Trilogy. I haven't read it yet, but it appears he has summarized all three book in The Powers That Be. I will be reading it soon. - Walter Wink, in this insightful book will make you think! He challenges both conservative and liberal Christians and scholars as he presents the very real problem of evil in this world, and what can be done about it. For me, this book has challenged, in a good way, many of my long held ideas about what the spiritual powers are and how they work through the systems and governments of this world in a very real and visible way, even though they remain invisible. I still haven't processed all he presents here, and I don't even know if I will agree with all, but I am sure better off, theologically and sociologically, because of what is presented here. The scholarship of this book is outstanding! It is the most in depth and scriptural presentation I have ever read on the subject. Recommended to those who have not been satisfied with the status quo interpretations given by both liberals and conservatives.
- Engaging the Powers is an award winning book written in 1992 - Why have so few read this incredible book? Agree or disagree with Walter Wink but read this book and have the way you view the world shaken up, seriously. He is a brilliant yet humble writer. I cannot believe that I did not read this book when it first came out. I had to have referrals by ChucK Colson, Rob Bell, Greg Boyd, N.T. Wright and others. He has influenced a whole lot of other leaders in the Body of Christ. Do yourself a favor and read this book. It is not an easy read but whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, you will better recognize why his words, his life, his model have turned the world upside down.
This book will challenge the way you think, the way that you view Jesus and his radical yet simple way and it will help you to better understand the context of the 1st Century in which Jesus wrote and why he was killed by the religious establishment. Wink provides greater clarity to why that world and our world today is so messed up by systemic injustice, by delusional assumptions, the domination system that have lasted for 5,000 years and the principalities and powers that rule, exploit that system and seriously oppress and destroy people. Wink sets out to "unmask" that system and show it for what it really is and then show what we can do about it. He also shows what transformation will look like when it honors both the personal and the social.
His look at Jesus in the context of the culture of the day and domination, equality, purity and holiness, racism and ethnocentrism, family, law, sacrifice, non-violence, women and children, healing and exorcism is worth the entire book. I have read very few authors that have written so deeply. You need to plan in times of meditation, reflection and prayer as this is one of those kinds of books. The implications of this book will cover every area of your life. Let me give you an example on page 136. "He (Jesus) was not a reformer, bringing alternative, better readings of the Law. Nor was he a revolutionary, attempting to replace one oppressive power with another. He went beyond revolution. His assault was against the basic presuppositions and structures of oppression itself. Violent revolution fails because it is not revolutionary enough. It changes the rulers but not the rules, the ends but not the means. Most of the old androcratic values and assumptions remain intact. The world, and even the church, had no categories for such fundamental change. It is no wonder that the radicality of Jesus was soon dampered by the church.......If Jesus had never lived, we would not have been able to invent him. There is, in the integrity of his teaching and living, an expose and repudiation of the Domination System that no one trapped in that system could possibly have achieved."
Wink also spends quite a bit of time looking at violence, the myth of redemptive violence and some key messages of Jesus - non-violence and loving our enemies and becoming what we hate. Page 195, "The very act of hating something draws it to us. Since our hate is usually a direct response to an evil done to us, our hate almost invariably causes us to respond in the terms already laid down by the enemy. Unaware of what is happening, we turn into the very thing we oppose. This is so far from the message about passivity. This is about dying, revolt and resistance to all that is dehumanizing, devaluing and demoralizing. You will see Jesus in another way through Engaging the Powers and maybe you/I will continue the work that Jesus started and continue living his way.
Wink ends this book with revisioning history, monitoring our own inner violence and the critical importance of prayer and the powers. Engaging Powers will teach you about a different kind of prayer. Wink says "that history belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being" and that "intercession is spiritual defiance of what is, in the name of what God has promised." This chapter will encourage you to prayer and to " haggle with God for the sake of the sick, the obsessed, the weak and to conform our lives to our intercessions. "
Read this book. Re-read this book. Maybe we can play a small part in seeing God's dream being fulfilled in our world today. - This author truly helps the reader understand the full nature of Jesus' intervention in history to engage and unbalance abusive powers of his time. For those who see Jesus as radical, even revolutionary, but know he also was nonviolent, this is your book for an underpinning. There are new understandings of Jesus' meaning with things such as "Turn the other cheek", and "Go the extra mile" (Chapter 9) that will blow your mind. How could we not know this! Wow! So different and so meaningful. This is not the little sweet Jesus we have been taught about. He was real and sought to unbalance abusive powerful people for the sake of the underdog. Read it and learn.
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