Transforming Bible Study

by Walter Wink

"For years I had been looking for a way to heal the split between the academic study of the Scriptures and the issues of life. For it was the Bible's way of addressing me that had led me into biblical scholarship in the first place. The sharing of those life-shaking truths was the very vocation to which I had felt so unmistakably called. For a time my generation of scholars was able to light our lamps at the fading flames of what Barth and Bultmann had achieved. When we were on our own, however, it was back to academic scholarship-as-usual. Even our concern for 'biblical theology' was largely academic; we assumed that pastors and laity could make the connections to their own lives. More disastrously, we assumed that the ideas were all that counted, all that had to be applied. So we were a little hurt, and considerably mystified, when a growing chorus of voices outside academia insisted that what we were doing was not addressing human existence." "It was not until I became a parish minister in southeast Texas, however, that I recognized how profound this split had become. There, faced with the need to speak meaningfully twice a week from the biblical tradition, I discovered how isolated scholars had become from the pressures of living, how little of what they found fit to say had any applicability to preaching, to counseling, to the human struggles of those who regarded the Bible as somehow the key to life." "This was the scholars to the one side--like musicians so enamored of technique that they only practice scales; clergy and laity to the other--like people who love music but are too busy to learn to play." (excerpts from Chapter 1: Transformed by the Renewal of Our Minds)

Genres: Faith, Religion, Theology

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Dr. Walter Wink was Professor Emeritus of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. Previously, he was a parish minister and taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. In 1989-1990 he was a Peace Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace.

His newer works include:

The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man
(Fortress Press, 2001.)

Peace Is The Way: Writings on Nonviolence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. (Edited by Walter Wink. Orbis Books, 2000.)

The Powers That Be:Theology for a New Millennium
(New York: Doubleday, 1999)

Homosexuality and Christian Faith: Questions of Conscience for the Churches (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999)

He is author of a trilogy, The Powers:

Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984)

Unmasking the Powers: The Invisible Forces That Determine Human Existence (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986)

Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of
Domination (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992)

His other works include:

When the Powers Fall: Reconciliation in the Healing of Nations
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998). Swedish edition: Healing a Nation's Wounds: Reconciliation on the Road to Democracy (Uppsala, Sweden: Life and Peace Institute, 1997)

Cracking the Gnostic Code: The Powers in Gnosticism (Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993)

Violence and Nonviolence in South Africa (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1987). (Out of print)

Transforming Bible Study, second edition (Nashville: Abingdon, 1990) (Out of print)

The Bible in Human Transformation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973). (Out of print)

John the Baptist in the Gospel Tradition (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1968). (Out of print)

Proclamation 5: Holy Week, Year B (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993). (Out of print)

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic! Here Walter lays out his method, which he adapted from the Guild for Psychological Studies, where they use Socratic dialogue, art, movement, and music to allow the Synoptic Gospels to speak and transform. I read it when it first came out in 1980, and it set me on a journey that included a seminar at the Guild, workshops with Walter and his wife June, and employing this method in my own classes and workshops. Walter died May 10, 2012. Who will carry on his work? If you think that you might be one of many of us, take and read.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes Wink gets excited and goes to crazy places where be produces some psychedelic brain-vom. I'm pretty sure this book is said brain-vom. I liked it but would have appreciated a little less "underlying philosophy and tenets of the group" and more practical content stuff.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wink seeks to engage Bible Study with all senses. It is a great book. I did have a difficult time in receiving the vision of Wink.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good discussion of right brain/left brain understanding of the world and good relevent Bible Study for the 21st Century