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eaclapp41's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
dbg108's review against another edition
5.0
so thoughtful and helpful in de-mystifying the confusing, shadowy language of the powers. I recently incorporated some of Wink's ideas in church ministry, and it has proved quite effective.
reinhardt's review
3.0
This tastes different than what I am used to. I’m not sure I like it, but there are some intriguing flavors here than entice me to take another bite.
He basic argument is that angelic and demonic powers and all invisible powers are real, but not what you think. The powers are the invisible part of human power structures. The powers are fallen, but neither wholly evil nor whole good. In fact, similar to the idea of the flawed Greek gods who influence various people or nature. Sometimes his idea seem strained, as when he talks about the spirit of a mob being a real ‘spirit’ the drive the mob, but then dissipates with the mob. It seems like he’s extending the Platonic reality of ideals to the limit.
At some points, it seems to rely more on Homer than the Bible. Most of the argument could be cast into Hellenistic polytheism with its warring, conflicted gods. And in some sense, he believes there is ‘truth’ in ‘myth’ polytheism as he is essentially a Jungian with his reliance on archetypes.
He relies on some unorthodox sources for his argument, referring to the gospel of Thomas and even Gnostics to support his claims. He also rely heavily on Psuedopigrapha, which can be justified as revealing the context of the New Testament, but he seems to use them as proof texts to directly support his argument
His biggest flaw seems to be a massive semantic misunderstanding. He takes all the NT words for power and stirs them into one pot and uses the ambiguity to support his thesis on the nature of power. This approach seems flawed. Yes, the word for power can mean one thing here and another thing there, but that doesn’t mean that when used everywhere it means all things. Word meaning depend on context, an idea he pay lip service to but fundamentally ignores.
Overall, the book seems flawed and misguided but has some intriguing ideas that demand further attention.
He basic argument is that angelic and demonic powers and all invisible powers are real, but not what you think. The powers are the invisible part of human power structures. The powers are fallen, but neither wholly evil nor whole good. In fact, similar to the idea of the flawed Greek gods who influence various people or nature. Sometimes his idea seem strained, as when he talks about the spirit of a mob being a real ‘spirit’ the drive the mob, but then dissipates with the mob. It seems like he’s extending the Platonic reality of ideals to the limit.
At some points, it seems to rely more on Homer than the Bible. Most of the argument could be cast into Hellenistic polytheism with its warring, conflicted gods. And in some sense, he believes there is ‘truth’ in ‘myth’ polytheism as he is essentially a Jungian with his reliance on archetypes.
He relies on some unorthodox sources for his argument, referring to the gospel of Thomas and even Gnostics to support his claims. He also rely heavily on Psuedopigrapha, which can be justified as revealing the context of the New Testament, but he seems to use them as proof texts to directly support his argument
His biggest flaw seems to be a massive semantic misunderstanding. He takes all the NT words for power and stirs them into one pot and uses the ambiguity to support his thesis on the nature of power. This approach seems flawed. Yes, the word for power can mean one thing here and another thing there, but that doesn’t mean that when used everywhere it means all things. Word meaning depend on context, an idea he pay lip service to but fundamentally ignores.
Overall, the book seems flawed and misguided but has some intriguing ideas that demand further attention.
davehershey's review against another edition
3.0
This might not be a classic, but Wink's book (and the two sequels) are frequently cited. After years of noticing such citations in other books I was reading, I figured I'd go back to the source. Wink's book does a fantastic job in making what the Bible says about spirits/demons/angels and such palpable for modern people. On one extreme are materialists who discount all the Bible, or other literature, says about such things since, well, we modern people know such things do not exist. Wink's book seems to be mostly for such people. I think he succeeds, showing there is a "spirit" that exists behind large companies and corporations, for example. The other side would be those who take the Bible literally. Such readers probably see Wink as a sell-out liberal, which would be a shame. Because I think you can hold a literal view and still gain a lot from Wink's work. Overall, a very helpful book.
everything_was_beautiful's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
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