Awarded to divinity students or emerging leaders focused on nonviolence or whose work creates change and challenges power, the Walter Wink and June Keener Wink Fellowship honors the life and legacy of FOR member Walter Wink (1935-2012) and the ongoing transformational work of his wife June Keener Wink. Together Walter and June prepared a generation of peace leaders, pastors, and scholar-activists to engage the left and right sides of the brain in the pursuit of peace and justice.
Current Fellows (2025)
Diana Oestreich
Diana Oestreich is an author, activist, and combat medic turned peacemaker. A nationally recognized speaker at the intersection of peace, faith, and justice, she teaches how to wage peace across dividing lines. Her book Waging Peace was Amazon’s #1 new release in war and peace. Diana founded the Waging Peace Project, empowering everyday people to commit small acts of courage. She also serves on the board of Red Letter Christians. Her work spans from middle schools to refugee camps, challenging narratives around violence and injustice. Diana lives with her partner Jake and two sons along Lake Superior on Ojibwe land. Learn more at her website: dianaoestreich.com.
Dr. Iskander Abbasi
Iskander Abbasi (PhD) is a scholar of Contemporary Islam, Islamic Liberation Theology, Environmental Ethics, Decolonial Theory, and Islamophobia Studies. He is currently a Lecturer at Fordham University, where he teaches classes in Theology, Islamic Studies (law, theology, mysticism), and Religion and Ecology. He is a convener of and faculty at annual Critical Muslim Studies summer schools, previous co-chair of the Liberation Theologies unit at the American Academy of Religion, and has been an activist within Palestine solidarity movements in the USA and South Africa over the past fifteen years. His published writings can be found here.
2025 Book Club – Led by Dr. Iskander Abbasi
Gatherings via Zoom 4:30 PM ET on third Wednesdays of March through June, 2025
Led by Dr. Iskander Abbasi
Join us for an exciting exploration of Walter Wink’s landmark text “The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium” led by 2025 Wink Fellow Dr. Iskander Abbasi. This four-session series will dive deep into Wink’s transformative work through guided readings, reflections, and group discussions.
About the Series
Dr. Abbasi will begin each session by reading an excerpt and providing a reflection from the selected chapters, followed by guided questions and open group discussion. This format creates space for deep engagement with the text and meaningful dialogue among participants.
Reading Schedule
| Gathering Date | Discussion Text |
|---|---|
| March 19th | Preface – Chapter 1 |
| April 16th | Chapter 2 – Chapter 4 |
| May 21st | Chapter 5 – Chapter 7 |
| June 18th | Chapter 8 – Epilogue |
Note: The reading schedule is designed to provide maximum flexibility so people can join meetings when they’re able. While we encourage reading the assigned chapters before each session to ensure the most vibrant conversation possible, we welcome all levels of engagement.
We can’t wait to see you there, in sha Allah!
About “The Powers That Be” by Walter Wink
The renowned 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. 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. Wink’s theology is shaped as much by his study of the Bible as by his involvement over decades in struggles for racial justice, human rights, ending war, and other pressing social concerns.
Get the book from us: The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium by Walter Wink
Previous Fellows
2023-2024: Rabbi May Ye
Rabbi May Ye (she/her) is a Chinese-American Jew from unceded Wabanaki land. A weaver of tradition and fashioner of new liturgy and ritual, she seeks to center and highlight the experiences of those who have been disenfranchised and marginalized from Judaism and Jewish spaces. A passionate activist, she explores how to decouple Judaism from Zionism and is an ardent supporter of Palestinian liberation. She is the rabbi for New Haven’s Mending Minyan, a community that practices joy-based Jewish ritual decoupled from zionism and in service to building radical Jewish practices in support of struggles against white supremacy, capitalism, and colonization.
Jewish Women’s Archive Q&A with Rabbi May Ye
JWA sat down with Chinese-American activist and rabbi, May Ye. May is the inaugural rabbi for Mending Minyan and was previously involved with Tzedek Chicago, Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy, and Jewish Voice for Peace, among many others. Read more…
2022-2023: Pastor Tabatha Holley
Fernando was live with June Keener Wink at her home in Massachusetts (meeting for the first time after over a year of pandemic-mandated zoom meetings). They discussed the past year and June’s work with her late husband, Walter Wink. Together they welcomed Tabatha Holley, our second Wink Fellow.
Wink Two-Part Series: Peace in a Violent World
Part 1: Thinking Critically about Peace in a Violent World
Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 • 6:30 – 8:00 pm ET (Zoom event)
With the state investing billions of dollars into war and carceral systems how do advocates of peace and abolitionists think critically about strategies of resistance? How should movements for peace and abolitionist organizations think about them together, critically and constructively? Our 2022-2023 FOR Walter Wink Fellow, Tabatha Holley and her peers reflected on nonviolent philosophies and the role of violence in global movements for liberation using the methodologies of Walter Wink.
Part 2: Teaching Peace in a Violent World
Saturday, May 20th, 2023 • 1:00 – 3:00 pm ET
(Hybrid event, hosted at Auburn Seminary in New York City)
Join us as we gather in “pods” around the country for a teach in where we will critically engage nonviolent philosophies alongside historical narratives of armed resistance using the methodologies of Walter Wink and June Keener Wink.
Wink Talks: On Becoming Human with Pastor Tabatha Holley
Part 1: With Claude Copeland from @vetsaboutface
Claude Copeland a retired Army veteran and current organizer with @vetsaboutface joins Walter Wink Fellow Tabatha Holley to discuss how being deployed to Iraq made him anti war.
2021-2022: Dr. Fernando Ona
Dr. Fernando Ona was the inaugural Walter Wink & June Keener Wink Fellow, an environmental epidemiologist and medical anthropologist on the faculty at Tufts University School of Medicine. His research interests are primarily with refugees, internally displaced populations, and asylum seekers who are survivors of torture.
“The Powers That Be” Book Club with Dr. Fernando Ona
Dr. Fernando Ona hosted an online book club from January to May 2022, reading and discussing Walter Wink’s landmark text “The Powers That Be”.
Session #1, January 27th, 2022 — Introduction & Chapter 1
Our first session of the Wink Fellow Book Club was extraordinary. More than 50 people showed up to participate in our study of Walter Wink’s landmark text “The Powers That Be.”
Session #2, February 24th, 2022 — Chapters 2 & 3
Session #2 Discussion Questions
We look forward to gathering again for another great discussion this Thursday night, Feb 24th at 7pm ET. In order to facilitate our discussion of chapters 2 and 3 of Walter Wink’s The Powers That Be, Fernando has provided the passages he will be concentrating on below. He asks that you reflect on how these quotes sit with you? How do they resonate with you, with your communities, ministries, vocation? Here are the passages to look at…
| 1. Ch 2 p. 42: from “A domination system must have a domination myth…(to the end of that paragraph)…and pick up “The belief that violence “saves” is so successful…” to the end of that paragraph. 2. Ch2, p. 60: “People today no longer are bound together by…” to the end of that paragraph. 3. Ch 2 pp. 61-62: Last paragraph on 61 “The myth of redemptive violence…” to the sentence on the next page, “And it is immensely popular”. 4. Ch 3, p. 67: “It is rather the poor whom God elects and blesses…” to the end of that paragraph. 5. Ch 3, p. 77 “Jesus renounces the family as constituted by…” to the end of that paragraph 6. Ch 3 p. 81: “Violent revolution fails because it is not revolutionary enough. It changes the rules but not the rules, the ends by not the means…” to the end of that paragraph. |
Closing Prayer for Session #2
Jesus’ Third Way
by Walter Wink
- Seize the moral initiative
- Find a creative alternative to violence
- Assert your own humanity and dignity as a person
- Meet force with ridicule or humor [“Jesus in effect is sponsoring clowning” (p.21)]
- Break the cycle of humiliation
- Refuse to submit or to accept the inferior position
- Expose the injustice of the system
- Take control of the power dynamic
- Shame the oppressor into repentance
- Stand your ground
- Force the Powers to make decisions for which they are not prepared
- Recognize your own power
- Be willing to suffer rather than you retaliate
- Cause the oppressor to see you in a new light
- Deprive the oppressor of a situation where a show of force is effective
- Be willing to undergo the penalty for breaking unjust laws
- Die to fear of the old order and its rules
Amen
Session #3, March 31st, 2022 — Chapters 4 & 5
Meeting during the fifth week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the topic of Session #3 is Chapters 4 & 5 of “The Powers that Be.” In those chapters Wink discusses breaking cycle of violence and Jesus as the Third Way.
Session #4, April 28, 2022 — Chapters 8 & 9
Session #5 (final), May 26, 2022
Our fifth and final session of “The Powers that Be” book club yielded a powerful conversation of Walter Wink’s text as it applies during this particularly fraught moment in both the world and in the United States. How do we work nonviolently when the powers appear to be overwhelmingly strong?
Wink Fellow Conversation with Kafi Dixon
During session #2, Fernando mentioned his conversation with Kafi Dixon, co-producer of the documentary “A Reckoning in Boston”. That conversation can be found here.
Wink Fellow Conversation with Steven Bingaman
Steven Bingaman, executive director of the Outdoor Church, joins Fernando to discuss the Outdoor Church’s work as well as Walter Wink’s conception of domination systems– which is the subject of chapters 2 and 3 in The Powers That Be.
Wink Fellow Conversation with Samuel Lowe
Samuel Lowe, Chief of Chaplaincy at Boston Medical Center — the largest safety net hospital in New England. Their conversation focuses on chapters 4 and 5 from Wink’s “The Powers That Be” that deal with breaking cycle of violence and Jesus as the Third Way.
Wink Fellow Conversation with Bill Wylie-Kellerman
Bill was a student of Walter Wink’s at Union Theological Seminary in the early 1970s. He is a retired Methodist pastor, nonviolent community activist, teacher, and author.
2 Responses
Thank you again to everyone for your presence and thoughtful engagement at the first session of the Wink Fellow Book Club. Looking forward to our second session on Thursday Feb 24th at 7pm ET. We will keep you updated via email (if you haven’t registered for the book club please do so by clicking the button below).
In the meantime, please add any questions or comments you might have here and we will do our best to answer them.
I am a long-time fan of FOR, and of the work of Walter Wink. I confess to a personal struggle with the format of the FOR’s study of Wink’s work. As I sit in the viewing audience, I see a number of members of The Atlantic Life Community, and I feel so at home. At past Atlantic Life Community retreats, I have had the courage to attend the early morning Bible studies with, for example, Phil Berrigan, Liz Berrigan, and others. These were some of the most informative (and challenging) experiences I have ever encountered. There was no opening exegesis by a “luminary.” Instead, we each and all were given equal opportunity and time to voice our understanding of the passage of the day.
Among the participants at the current FOR event there are also women who actively live the Gospel with the understanding set forth in “The Powers that Be.” Is there a way they can be heard by the group?