Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79822 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-16
• Released on: 1999-03-16
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.com
"Perhaps we are not accustomed to thinking of the Pentagon, or the Chrysler Corporation, or the Mafia as having a spirituality, but they do," writes Walter Wink. In The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium, Wink returns to the ancient view of a world filled with angels and demons, powers and principalities, and reinterprets these notions for contemporary people. Wink's book is a challenge for Christians to wake up and become dangerously different, by objecting to the Darwinian games of domination that prevail in many of our governments, corporations, and churches. The book also offers stunningly gracious comfort, by showing that we are all caught up in this game, that the game is even a part of our gift, and that as long as we live in the world, not a single one of us can be pure, but we're called, all of us, to be holy. --Michael Joseph Gross

From the Inside Flap
In our fast-paced secular world, God and theologyare second-class citizens. Money, politics, sports, and science seem better suited to thehard realities of our world. As the church steeple has been eclipsed by the skyscraper as the centerpiece of the urban landscape, so has the divine realm been set aside in favor of more immediate human experience. One sad consequence of this shift is the loss of spiritual and theological bearings, most clearly evident in our inability to understand or speak about such things. If the old way of viewing the universe no longer works, something else has to replace it.

The Powers That Be reclaims the divine realm as central to human existence by offering new ways of understanding our world in theological terms. Walter Wink reformulates ancient concepts, such as God and the devil, heaven and hell, angels and demons, principalities and powers, in light of our modern experience. He helps us see heaven and hell, sin and salvation, and the powers that shape our lives as tangible parts of our day-to-day experience, rather than as mysterious phantoms. Based on his reading of the Bible and analysis of the world around him, Wink creates a whole new language for talking about and to God. Equipped with this fresh world view, we can embark on a new relationship with God and our world into the next millennium.

Customer Reviews

Many Christians, Jews and Moslems may have been seduced by the whore of Babylon
I read this book twice as a facilitator of Just Faith a seminar meant to deepen spirituality and faith in Jesus. I agree with much of what other 5 star reviewers have mentioned but these reviews have left a big piece of the puzzle missing which I would like to address in this review. Wink's genius in this book is in pointing out the Babylonian creation story as the archetype behind the myth of redemptive violence. In it he explains the rise of male domination and just as importantly gives us a clear image of what so many people of faith put their nearly blind faith into. It is not Jesus, God, Yahweh, Allah or Mohammed but Marduk a god from the ancient Babylonian creation story. This Marduk is the god that so many people around the globe truly worship in the form of redemptive violence which Wink portrays as myth. We have created endless ritual on our TVs, movies, books, politics, etc. to worship and indoctrinate everyone on the face of the earth into worshipping this God most of us have not heard of. This is hugely important for all of us as we struggle to redeem our world and the "Powers That Be". This may be the most empowering book people of faith can read. IF the work of a Christian is about conversion - turning from darkness to light - this is the book to get you going in the right direction. It is also a fairly easy read but read it more than once. The second time stuck much better than the first.

Powerful, majestic good sense
Wink's argument is passionate, reasonable, and convincing. Non-violent resistance has always been the Christian response to injustice, and now that force of courageous compassion is re-shaping the world. Wink's accounts of the great democratic revolutions of the 1980s and 90s give inspiring tribute to a growing movement for partnership, which is sweeping away the old "powers that be". He shows how Jesus' dream for the world is practical, doable, and just good sense. "God's domination-free order", he feels confident, will prevail.

--author of "Different Visions of Love"

Not the Dominant Perspective
From Constantine forward the majority view in Christendom has been one of domination. In "The Powers That Be" Walter Wink exposes the lie of redemptive violence as it pervades our society, and reveals the "third way" of Jesus (neither fight nor flight). Although clearly not a theological conservative, Mr. Wink deals respectfully with the scriptural text in elaborating his research and ideas. Thus, while a reader may question this or that point, overall he or she will find that this book resounding rings true. Worth more than a single read, "The Powers That Be" serves as a starting point for deeper study and further action.