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Title: Unbounded Love: A Good News Theology for the 21st Century by Clark H. Pinnock, Robert C. Brow ISBN: 0-8308-1853-7 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: October, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.99

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Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (4 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: How DARE he disagree with the Reformed thought police! lol
Comment: I'm giving this book 5 stars...if only to counteract a couple of VERY bad reviews. ;-)

I have to say...Clark Pinnock is not perfect. He has a hard time grappling with the "justice" side of God. He doesn't include as much in-depth exegesis as I would like to back up his points. But I surely don't recognize his works in the descriptions of it among his detractors. There's FAR more of a great traditional background he draws on (Eastern Orthodoxy, Irenaeus, etc.) than what is admitted below. Caricatures such as "universalistic ideals, Pelagianistic theology, and ooey-gooey emotional appeal" are simply unfair barbs by people who are angry that Pinnock can no longer support their rigid dogma. Also, I laugh whenever I hear Pelagius brought up as the "Calvinist boogeyman" against their opponents. They presume that they are by definition loyally Augustinian, and they're not...the Catholic church has disputed the "Calvinized" Augustine for centuries...I invite you to do your own looking into why this is.

The only way to properly deal with this book is to read it for yourself...presumably without an axe to grind and a belief that the Reformation was above all error. Chapter 9 on sacrifice/atonement is the best part of the book. Here are a few of the better insights/quotes therein:

*"In creative love theism, sin is a misuse of human freedom and a repudiation of the divine love- a view that looks more to Irenaeus than Augustine." (p.65)

* "God is not a solitary monarch, but...a fellowship of persons." (p.45)

*"We wish to move our thinking about atonement from legalistic concepts to human and personal terms by seeing Christ's sufferings as God's sufferings for all those under the power of death." (p.96)

*'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.' (Jn. 1:14) In a desire to save humanity, God came along us to suffer and die for us. God's will is that sinners should live and not die." (p.100)

*"God in his wisdom chose the path of incarnation. God decided to become what he was not, to become human, the incarnate representative of all humanity. By doing so God would be in a position as man to surrender his will, resist temptation, suffer and die, rise and reign. As God and man, he could do that perfectly and vicariously for all of us." (Ibid)

*"We must realize that Jesus did not die in order to change God's attitude towards us, but to change our attitude towards God." (p.103.)

*"God is healing relationships through (the cross). He is drawing wayward children home and re-creating right actions. As in the parable (of the prodigal), the father is already reconciled to the son and anxious only to welcome him home. The problem is the prodigal is not yet reconciled to him." (p.103)

*"God forgives those whose sins caused him to suffer. He forgives us only as an involved participant forgives us, as One who was rejected on the Cross." (p.104)

*"In accepting the path of incarnation, God accepted human experiences that he had not undergone before. God immersed himself in the morass of human history to save us, apart form any response of ours. God had loved people, had forgiven sinners and had felt pathos before- but God had not suffered crucifixion until Calvary". (p.105)

To those who just can't stomach God being so loving here's a verse for you:

Ro 2:4 "Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"

Rating: 2
Summary: Creative at best, but Fluffy and Heretical Nonsense at Worst
Comment: Anyone who has ever read Clark Pinnock before will be sorely disappointed in his work "Unbounded Love". Although it is posited to be a theological "BANG!" in favor of Pinnock's "new" love-based theology, it serves as no more than a "blip" on the screen of evangelicalism. It begins with theological presuppositions that can only be characterized as over-simplified fluff with little to no biblical backing. Pinnock's attempt to propose a revolutionary "Good News Theology for the 21st Century"--complete with universalistic ideals, Pelagianistic theology, and ooey-gooey emotional appeal--fails miserably in his marked unwillingness to offend religious groups and social reformers (i.e. feminism, pluralism, black theology, and the like). Basically, the only principle he is willing to stand upright on is that of God's love--and it simply doesn't work that way. Hence, as he desires to say everything to clearly support and define his leftist evangelical case, he comes away having said nothing at all. The only constructive purpose this book can serve a reader is to reveal another giant leap Clark Pinnock made (in 1995) towards heresy in his life-long sprint away from formerly held biblical truth.

Rating: 1
Summary: Awful
Comment: This book is a mixture of "heretic" doctrines: charismatic, feminist, New Age (meditation) and other pagan ideas. Being provocative and challenging is fine as long as one's case is well aegued. There are no cogent arguments in this book, but it is rather a compilation of bad assertions.
A defintely more serious theology can be found in Gordon Lewis' "Integrative Theology"