Clark H Pinnock Journey Toward Renewal

Evangelical theology in the twentieth century often wrestled with the ideas of Prof. Clark H. Pinnock of McMaster University. To understand the tensions of Pinnock's work is to grasp the diversity of theological options now confronting evangelicalism and to glimpse the future of evangelical theology.This biblical conservative has interacted constructively with the whole Christian community -- Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, Wesleyanism, Process Theology, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Roman Catholicism. Described as a theologian who has prayed his head into his heart, Dr. Pinnock is not ashamed to say that he has changed his mind on theological issues several times. He insists that Christian theology is best done on one's knees.

In From Pentecost to the Triune God Steven Studebaker puts forth a provocative Pentecostal Trinitarian theology, arguing that the Holy Spirit completes the fellowship of the triune God and therefore shapes the identities of the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit, Studebaker maintains, is not simply a passive end-product of a procession from the Father and Son but, rather, a dynamic person who plays an active role in the Trinity and a constitutional, consummational role in the history of redemption. In the course of his study, Studebaker shows the theological yield of the Pentecostal experience of the Holy Spirit and uncovers the biblical narratives of the Spirit from creation to Pentecost. A constructive and ecumenical contribution to Trinitarian theology, From Pentecost to the Triune God also engages major historical and contemporary figures such as Augustine, the Cappadocians, Weinandy, and Zizioulas, as well as representatives from the evangelical and charismatic traditions. Finally, Studebaker applies his Pentecostal Trinitarian theology to the theology of religions and creation care, proposing that Christians embrace an inclusive posture toward people of other religious traditions and have an earth orientation that sees creation care as Christian formation.

Rarely does a new theological position emerge to account well for life in the world, including not only goodness and beauty but also tragedy and randomness. Drawing from Scripture, science, philosophy and various theological traditions, Thomas Jay Oord offers a novel theology of providence—essential kenosis—that emphasizes God's inherently noncoercive love in relation to creation.

The promises of God formed the basis of John Wesley's optimism of grace. Wesley believed God not only could but in fact would fulfill all his promises to bring salvation to the nations; to make new heavens and a new earth; to liberate the whole creation from its bondage to decay (Rom. 8:21). This collection of essays by respected Wesleyan theologian Howard A. Snyder reflects the spirit of Wesley's optimism of grace. The first half of this collection offers an overview of Wesley's theology and practice, particularly with regard to gospel, mission, and culture. Part Two examines the inter-dynamic between church renewal and global mission. The collection also includes Wesleyan appraisals of Clark Pinnock's theology and the ecclesiology of Karl Barth. Howard A. Snyder serves as distinguished professor and chair of Wesley Studies at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Previously he was professor of history and theology of mission in the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky from 1996 to 2006. He has also taught at United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio, and pastored in Chicago and Detroit. He has written numerous books, including " The Problem with Wineskins " (IVP), " The Radical Wesley " (IVP) and, most recently " Populist Saints: B. T. and Ellen Roberts and the Birth of Free Methodism " (Eerdmans). "

Clark H. Pinnock (1937-2010) was arguably one of the most noted, productive, and provocative Christian theologians in North American evangelical Christianity in the late twentieth century. Considering how challenging he is to classify and yet how significant his work has been, Pinnock should be widely studied today. However, for many, their first introduction to Pinnock's writing is facilitated through various critical sources. For too long, Pinnock's theology has been stuck within the confines of tired stereotypes and overly simplistic summaries. Andrew Ray Williams, then, gives Pinnock a fresh and fair hearing, outlining some of his major themes while also providing an accessible point of entry into his theology. In doing so, this book is usable and profitable for both longtime fans as well as critics of Pinnock, while also offering first-time readers of Pinnock an open-minded position from which to read him.

In the late 1990s, "Open Theism" took the theological world by storm. Advocated by several prominent theologians, among them Clark H. Pinnock, the view argues that human beings cannot have a genuine relationship with God if God possesses what classical theology has affirmed to be exhaustive foreknowledge of future events. Such foreknowledge, open theists claim, would make human freedom (and salvation itself) meaningless and divine power akin to little more than meaningless, cosmic puppeteering. While several works have taken the important step of addressing open theisms scriptural deficiencies in its denial of Gods foreknowledge, none have dealt with the vital issue of divine-human relationality and how it can be understood in a classical, orthodox framework that maintains such foreknowledge. Consuming Glory remedies that lack by first providing a fresh critique of open theism using Clark Pinnock's version of it as representative, but then offering a reconstruction of divine-human relationality centered on the Biblical principle of Christus in nobis (Christ in us). Christus in nobis is coupled with an outworking of meticulous divine providence that serves Gods own self-glorifying orientation. It reverses the relational ordering advocated in open theism by grounding human love of God theologically rather than anthropologically. Love of God and divine-human relationality is established precisely because it is Gods own self-love that is providentially given to us and thus reciprocated as believers are brought into adoptive communion with the Triune Godhead. Drawing on diverse resources throughout the corpus of historical theology, Murphy concludes that divine-human relationality can be summarized as God delighting in himself, in us.

"Argues that a dynamic concept of God as articulated in open theism better serves the evangelistic mission of the church than does conventional theology."--Back