Wink, Walter Books

Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way (Facets)

Walter Wink

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Wink Falls Short 2 out of 5 stars.
11 of 23 people found this review helpful.

I come away from Wink's book asking myself the question, "Did Jesus have social and political change in mind when he commanded his followers to love their enemies?" I hardly think so. At least not in the way Wink proposes.

Wink makes many good statements concerning the Christian's love and nonviolence. I enjoyed his interpretations of Jesus' examples (go two miles, turn the other cheek, etc.) However, I feel that his application is off the mark of Jesus' intended meaning. As Christians, we are not to concern ourselves with improving on the injustices of the day by beating them (worldly kingdoms) at their own game. Jesus would not, because he did not, ever shame someone into repentance. His motivation was strictly love of God and man. At times Jesus' actions toward an individual may have resulted in shame, but this was NOT his motivation.

I strongly disagree with Wink's use of "submission." He speaks of submission as if it is a weak thing to be despised. The Apostles Paul and Peter did not seem to think so. I don't believe his understanding of "submission" is New Testament. It seems that Wink is more concerned about causing social and political change through pacifism than he is to simply 'love your enemies' as evidence that we are the disciples of Christ who manifest the Gospel by our lives (Jn. 13:34-35).

Wink uses an unbelieving Ghandi and a promiscious civil rights activist like King to reveal something of Jesus' Third Way. He also uses Bonhoeffer (of whom I am a big fan)as an example of Jesus' resistance. Bonhoeffer's writings are phenomonal... yet he compromised his faith and justified his actions of armed resistance. This should alert the reader to a misunderstanding of the Biblical text.

Love's aim is not at temporarily changing the political oppressive systems in government by peaceful means, but at changing the heart of man for all eternity and bringing glory to God. Was Jesus motivation and purpose geared toward politcal upheaval and bringing down the evil men by love so that he might have partisan power!? I think not!

Do we want peace on earth? Yes, but we recognize peace on earth is a very temporal thing and will never fully be Christ's peace. The "already/not yet" aspect of the Kingdom of God teaches us this.

I disagree with Wink that we should follow Jesus "as best we can." The problems are resolved when we recognize that Christ's life is in us... we must learn to walk in his Spirit and not in our flesh. We can do nothing. Our best is no good.

I believe Wink's attempt at presenting "Jesus' Third Way" falls short of the true way Jesus presented. If we dare say that unregenerated man can mimic the love of Christ... we pollute the Gospel's presentation and form it to fit something we can achieve in our flesh. This kind of love is no longer supernatural... just nice... natural... and self-serving.

I recommend reading Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World by Lee C. Camp after you have read Wink and see that his clever thinking only reflects one more sly attempt at getting a grip on the worldly kingdoms.

If you are looking for a book to carry around with you and one that you can share with people all over the world... try the New Testament. I would like to suggest you not use the patriotic version or some man's interpretation of it. Read the words of Jesus for yourself and let the Holy Spirit discern for you the motivation behind loving your enemies. Does the love of Christ manifested by the Holy Spirit lead you to shame your enemy so you might get your way? Let the Holy Spirit guide and counsel you to the meaning of Christ's nonsense love.

Editorial Review:

In this small book Walter Wink offers a précis of his whole thinking about this issue, including the relation of Jesus and his message to politics and nonviolence, the history of nonviolent efforts, and how nonviolence can win the day when others don't hesitate to resort to violence or terror to achieve their aims.

The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium

Walter Wink

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Powerful, majestic good sense 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

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"

Editorial Review:

"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

Homosexuality and Christian Faith: Questions of Conscience for the Churches

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

As the Christian daughter of a lesbian... 4 out of 5 stars.
20 of 33 people found this review helpful.

I can safely say that this book makes an honest effort to approach the subject kindly and treat homosexuals in a loving way. I do not agree that homosexuality is just another lifestyle. I have watched my own mother go from lover to lover, never satisfied. She has had at least 13 lesbian partners in the past 14 years. She has finally found a woman that she is content to stay with but she is just that, "content," not necessarily happy. She left the church years ago and has no use for religion, but she and I get along beautifully. We have learned to love in spite of our opposing views on her sexuality. I love my Mom and I know that the environment she was raised in was one of maternal loss (her mother died when she was 18 months old), profound loneliness, and verbal abuse from an unaccepting, often cruel grandmother. Jesus encouraged compassion for every mortal, lesbian or straight, conservative or liberal. I leave the judging part to Him.

Editorial Review:

Issues surrounding homosexuality threaten to divide the Christian churches and the people within them. This unique resource presents short pieces from some of the nation's most prominent church leaders---Protestant and Catholic, mainline and evangelical---who address the fundamental moral imperative about homosexuality. Together they invite the reader to open his or her heart to the Spirit, to tolerance, and to Gospel values. Through personal testimony, factual clarification, and moral suasion, they provide much-needed clarity on the biblical witness and biblical authority, the nature or character of homosexuality and sexual orientation, and many related topics.

Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination

Walter Wink

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Highly recommended for Christians and non-Christians alike 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful.

I am not a Christian, yet I found this book extremely insightful and compelling in its exploration of the violent basis of our civilization and how the message of Jesus, among others, is not only that of personal salvation, but one of perceiving with clarity the nature of the world, i.e. the Domination System that has blinded us to its true destructive nature.

The type of spiritually grounded, proactive, creative nonviolence advocated in this book is a complete paradigm shift, an entire dimension apart from the simplistic dichotomy of violence vs. "passivism" that most of us unfortunately believe are our only choices.

The book includes numerous examples and interesting Biblical exegesis on top of an incredibly insightful exploration of the myth of redemptive violence and the Domination System that comprises our human society.

Fundamental to Wink's analysis of our society is his assertion that spiritual Powers are real -- but not simply as angels floating in the clouds or demons waiting in hell to gloat over your soul, but as the psychospiritual complexes that are formed from collective human belief and energy. Our governmental and corporate institutions are themselves Powers, having a spiritual existence in the sense of having a Being above and beyond the sum of the individuals that comprise them (as well as enjoying legal status that puts them on the same footing as a human being!). Unrecognized, the Powers run amuck amongst us. We are slaves to our own creation, and blind to our slavery. Our allegiance to the Power of the national security state, for instance, blinds us to its own violence, opens us to being subverted to evil ends, allows us to be convinced that upholding democracy and freedom is synonymous with the killing of others.

A central thesis of the book is that these Powers, having gone unrecognized for so long, have taken on a life of their own and now dominate us. They must be seen and engaged in order to be redeemed and transformed -- and in order for us to redeem and transform ourselves.

Wink spends the book laying bare the way these Powers work, making clear that it is not only spiritual or only psychological or only material, but all of these. He explores in depth the manifestations of violence and its origins in deeply embedded cultural mythology -- as seemingly innocuous as children's cartoons, e.g. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- and the nature of the Powers and the Domination System they create. And he explores what he calls "Jesus' Third Way," the path out of the contagious cycle of violence, not only through the example of Jesus but through examples in history of those who have triumphed through nonviolent means.

As a non-Christian, I expected to gloss over parts that were irrelevant to me, i.e. too heavily Biblical, but surprisingly I found that even many of those parts were very interesting and in no way exclusionary. It actually helps me to see the character and mission of Jesus in a new light, one that makes him suddenly much more relevant to this day and age.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Editorial Review:

In this magnificent finale to his trilogy, Walter Wink engages the Powers with brilliant exegesis and a profoundly creative nonviolence, revealing the way to the Powers' and our own transformation.--James W. Douglass, Ground Zero Community.

Peace Is the Way: Writings on Nonviolence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Greatest Peacemakers of our Time 5 out of 5 stars.
30 of 30 people found this review helpful.

Compiled by Walter Wink, these selections come from the Fellowship of Reconciliation's magazine FELLOWSHIP. The articles were written by the greatest peacemakers of our times. Sixty essays cover theory, practice and spirituality of nonviolence. They also describe racial justice struggle and reconciliation. The book is divided into 6 main categories; VISION, PEACE WITNESSES, SPIRIT of PEACE, INTERRACIAL JUSTICE, NONVIOLENCE IN ACTION and the PATH OF RECONCILIATION. The articles are not easy to read, but are well worth anyone's time and thought. The editor reminds us that the UN General Assembly unanimously proclaimed the first decade of the 21st century to be a Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence! Would that WE would make it so!!!

Unmasking the Powers (Powers, Vol 2)

Walter Wink

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Volume 2 of an Incredible Trilogy of Theology and Social Analysis 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Volume 2 of "The Powers Trilogy," UNMASKING THE POWERS is one of the most powerful and incisive treatments of the evils which afflict our society and our church that I have ever read. With wisdom, scholarship, and evangelical zeal, Walter Wink deals with the many ways that the powers of evil infiltrate our lives. This book is a must for anyone who would understand the seductive and destructive aspects of evil which are so much a part of human life. It provides not only methods by which the influence of evil can be unmasked, but also hints of how that influence can be counteracted. -- Morton Kelsey (from the back cover of the book)

Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament (The Powers : Volume One)

Walter Wink

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

interesting and often insightful but... 3 out of 5 stars.
16 of 30 people found this review helpful.

Wink writes from a perspective that takes what would almost have to be considered a liberal approach to the gospel. Although there are defintely moments when his scholarship and spirit shines, it must be kept in mind that he is writing from a world view that sometimes implies that the disciples may have misunderstood Jesus's message. His view of the Powers as mere spirits of organizations and his denial of their independent conscious existence is not convincing. Liberal Christians who do not consider the Bible the literal word of God will have a much easier time dealing with this Carl Jung inspired rendition of Christianity than those with more fundamental leanings.

Meticulous scholarship and inspirational interpretation 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 18 people found this review helpful.

This book lists the various words that are used for power in the New Testament and evokes their meaning in the wide variety of contexts in which they are used. It really makes the language of the New Testament come alive. Throughout the book, Wink's warmth and humanity shine through. Speaking of conflict, he says 'I resolved never to embark on a conflict which would not end in my sitting down to a meal with my adversary.' Inspirational - strongly recommended.

The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man

Walter Wink

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A thorny historical issue handled with artistry and imagination

The epithet “the son of the man” (or “the Human Being”) in the Gospels has been a highly debated topic. Wink uses this phrase to explore not only early Christology but the anthropology articulated in the Gospels. Jesus apparently avoided designations such as Messiah, Son of God, or God, though these titles were given by his disciples after his death and resurrection. But Jesus is repeatedly depicted as using the obscure expression “the Human Being” as virtually his only form of self-reference.

Wink explores how Jesus’ self-referential phrase came to be universalized as the “Human Being” or “Truly Human One.” The Human Being is a catalytic agent for transformation, providing the form and lure and hunger to become who we were meant to be, or more properly perhaps, to become who we truly are.

The implications of this are profound, Wink argues. We are freed to go on the journey that Jesus charted rather than to worship the journey of Jesus. We can rescue Jesus from the baggage of christological beliefs added by the church. We are enabled to strip away the heavy accretion of dogma that installed Jesus as the second person of the trinity. Now he can be available to anyone seeking to realize the Human Being within. Jesus becomes uniquely a criterion of humanness. He shows us something of what it means to become human, but not enough to keep us from having to discover our true humanity ourselves. That means we are to be co-creators with God.

Transforming Bible Study

Walter Wink

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Bible Study at its best: personal, experiential, critical. 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 33 people found this review helpful.

Walter Wink has introduced a way of Bible Study that allows room for both your mind and your soul. His activities are designed to make room for the Holy Spirit in your reading, and yet does not support a literalist reading. This book should be required reading for all teachers of the Bible.

The Bible in Human Transformation: Towards a New Paradigm for Biblical Study

Walter Wink

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DYNAMITE! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This little book is dynamite! What a great way to "get into" Bible study. Written by a New Testament scholar it's an indictment of "scientific historical criticism" of the Bible (what they do in universities!) and an attempt to open up the Bible to laypersons and the church, that they might be transformed by the living Word of God. Highly recommended.