Below I will share my notes from Walter Wink's 3-volume work on the Powers
Volume 1: Naming the Powers
Introduction
1. Modern people have a hard time believing in the 'powers' talked about in the New Testament. It feels like believing in dragons, elves, or a flat world (4)
2. But while "It is a virtue to disbelieve what does not exist. It is dangerous to disbelieve what exists outside our current limited categories." (4)
3. This trilogy is the result of Wink coming to the conclusion that the 'powers' couldn't be 'dymythologized' into modern categories. He now believes that while the powers can be understood as institutions, social systems, and political structures... there is something more going on-- "something invisible, immaterial, spiritual, and very, very real." (5)
4. But Wink only seems to believe that the demonic 'inner component' begins to exist when the 'outer component' becomes idolatrous. "Both come into existence together and cease to exist together." (5)
5. The language of power thoroughly pervades the New Testament
The Powers
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