Good friend Steve Taylor, via his blog, just alerted me to the fact that theologian Walter Wink died. Like Steve, I’m grateful to Wink, not least for his “Powers” trilogy (which I’d love to see published as a single hardcover edition), but also for the other books he wrote around the subject, and on the subject of theological education. Like Steve too, my early return to Christian faith was in a Charismatic Anglican context and Wink opened my eyes to rigorous theological / biblical reflection on themes which in typical charismatic fashion were poorly understood and thus practically embodied in ways that were decidedly Christianity-lite.
Walter Wink died on May 10 at age 76 in his Massachusetts home after a long struggle with a form of dementia that is closely associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Obituary here. Another here.
More importantly Wink prepared me for William Stringfellow, and that, theologically speaking, was life-changing. Wink didn’t introduce me to Stringfellow, Charles Campbell did that, but as noted above, Wink provided the biblical / theological underpinning. I also discovered Wink had a significant respect for Stringfellow as well, contributing, for example, an essay Stringfellow on the Powers in the Andrew W. McThenia collection of essays Radical Christian and Exemplary Lawyer.
More on Wink and his passing here, from NCR:
http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/walter-wink-our-best-teacher-christian-nonviolence
Posted by: Paul Fromont | Thursday, 31 May 2012 at 07:56 PM