I have just finished re-reading Walter Wink’s THE POWERS THAT BE and am astounded at how fresh and relevant this book is to our time, 25 years after it was written. I enthusiastically commend it to you.
In The Powers That Be, theologian and biblical scholar Walter Wink helps us reformulate our ancient concepts – such as God and Satan, angels and demons, principalities and powers – in light of what we now know. Wink’s theology is shaped as much by his study of the Bible as by his involvement in the civil rights movement and the fight against apartheid in South Africa. The result is nothing less than a new worldview, one that will help us address the problems of the present and meet the challenges of the future. The Powers That Be is as concerned with salvation as with justice, as relevant for our spiritual selves as for our political lives. Wink closely examines “the Powers, ” and by exposing them for what they are in true prophetic fashion, levels a mighty blow against them.
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Wink is a gift. I thought highly enough of this book, that I read Engaging the Powers, the third book of the trilogy that The Powers That Be (TPTB) summarized. After that, I no longer recommend TPTB unless someone just isn’t going to read Engaging the Powers, which as the last book of the trilogy, focuses on what we can do.
I drew on Wink among others for https://johnabbe.decko.org/Assumptions_of_power_with_culture