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Title: Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God's Openness (The Didsbury Lectures) by Clark H. Pinnock ISBN: 0-8010-2290-8 Publisher: Baker Book House Pub. Date: September, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.79 (14 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: God, the senstive man
Comment: There is a trend on the fringes of Evangelicalism known as "open theism." Perhaps its best-known expositor is Prof. Clark Pinnock of McMaster Divinity College in Ontario. Open theism is, roughly speaking, somewhere in-between classical theism and process theism. While open theists affirm the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, they reject that claims that God has exhasutive foreknowledge of the future (omniscience), that God is impassible (incapable of suffering), immutable, without emotions, and outside of time. According to open theists, these ideas are the result of the influence of Greek philosophy on Christian theology. While classical theists take Scriptural language concerning God's repenting or changing his mind as anthropomorphisms, open theists take them as literal descriptions of how God's being and his interaction with the world. Not surprisingly, open theists are almost exclusively Arminians (although traditional Arminians oppose open theists as much as Calvinists).
There are some good things about this book. It is reasonably well-written (although it could be more compact and better organized). Also, it contains a good overview of the issue, presenting the opinions of both supporters of open theism and its opponents.
My main objection to this book is that, like some of other of Prof. Pinnock's writings, it seems to be based on what Prof. Pinnock would prefer to believe, rather than what is Scriptural. [See x-xi.] We now have a "sensitive God." Indeed God is just the type of sensitive man a modern woman is looking for - he "risks," wants a relationship based on "love" and not "control" [p. 45]. He "restore[s] the relationship and rebuild[s] the trust." [p. 46.] He "invites us to participate with him in a loving dialogue. . . " [p. 4.] He is "sensitive to experiences." [p. 59.] He is "vulnerable." [p. 92.] (In this respect, see the interesting comments of Leon Podles, The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity, p. 126.)
In addition, Prof. Pinnock fails to discuss in any detail the passages in Scripture that contradict his position. One searches in vain for an exegesis of passages such as 1 John 3:20 and Heb. 4:13 concerning God's knowledge of all events, much less passages such as Ephesians 1:11 that teach predestination. The relationship between God's foreknowledge and predestination is a complex issue. Unless one wants to take the position of certain Calvinists (such as Gordon Clark) that God creates sin and evil, then it is hard to deny that God has given men at least a small amount of freedom, but I think Prof. Pinnock errs to far in the opposite direction.
Rating: 1
Summary: Pinnock in Process
Comment: The most Process-Theism leaning book I have yet read by one who still claims the label Evangelical. I have watched Mr. Pinnock regress theologically from staunch conservative in the late 60's early 70's to the neo-Pinnock of today. It is more than a wonder that he still retains membership in ETS, or that he would even desire to, given his left-liberal leanings articulating his pilgrimatic shift toward Process beliefs.
For a full expose' of his gradual departure from Orthodox Christian Theology into Heterodox Open Theology, see the books
"God Under Fire", "Beyond the Bounds", "God of Lesser Glory","No Other God", "Creating God in the Image of Man" and "What Does God Know and When Does He Know It?"
If I didn't know better when reading some sections of this book,I'd say it might have been issued/edited by Deseret Publishers of Salt Lake City, Utah, whose mantra is: "As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may become." Pinnock's twist would be more like "As man now is, God is becoming; as God once was, He will never be again."
Rating: 1
Summary: Most Moved Pinnock
Comment: The following is what Clark Pinnock once said about the theological views he now holds.
Modern theology is characterized by an acute awareness of the historicity of the interpreter and an equal passion to relate to what contemporary people bring to the text. It is as if the awareness of our time-bound condition has made us determined to conform theology to our situation rather than to protect it from possible corruption. I see the current tendency to relate theology to struggles of the present day, while commendable if it were to represent a desire to apply the Scriptures, to be a recipe for Scripture-twisting on a grand scale. The desire to be relevant and up-to-date has caused numerous theologians to secularize the gospel and suit it to the wishes of modem hearers (Cf 2 Tim. 4:3-4). The desire to be relevant has overcome the desire to be faithful to God's Word with the result that a great accommodation is taking place. . . . Our desire to be politically radical, or feminist, or gay, or religiously tolerant, or academically respectable-these are the factors moving much modem theology, not God's Word. And we must resist it as resolutely as the Reformers resisted the mistaken human opinions in Catholic theology at the time. Of course, I too am moved by all these pressures. I too would like to think that the Buddhist will be saved by faith apart from Jesus Christ and that the darker picture found in Romans might be overdrawn. But I cannot enjoy the luxury of such speculations when the Bible already indicates its mind on such matters.
In relation to reason I have to strive to integrate independently arrived at convictions with Scripture in a biblically faithful manner. Reason may tell me, for example, that if God knows the future exhaustively, then every detail of it is fixed and certain and the freedom most humans believe they have (and which Scripture itself seems to say that we have) is an illusion. Biblical teaching about the divine foreknowledge appears to contradict biblical teaching about human freedom, and it is nigh unto impossible to see how the puzzle can be resolved rationally. The writers simply do not seem to feel that the two notions are mutually exclusive, but instead they place the two ideas in juxtaposition at every turn and seem indifferent to our intellectual dilemmas. This drives us back to a more precise definition of freedom, to speculations about time and timelessness, to problems of theodicy, to discussions about God's will(s), and the like. The whole issue has been debated practically nonstop for hundreds of years and resists a final word. The lesson we have to learn from this is not to reduce such questions to a simple solution which tampers with the scriptural data. We must not seize the sovereignty pole and block out the human freedom pole, or vice versa, which would violate the Bible's integrity. Theologies which have tended to do this have resulted in really unfortunate positions by way of implication and extension. The biblical balance is what we should strive to maintain in our theology too. The mark of a wise and sound theologian is to let the tensions which exist in the Bible stay there and to resist the temptation from reason to tamper with them. In this particular case, the metaphysical competence of our reason is humbled. I cannot tamper with the data as regards divine sovereignty and human freedom just because it would be easier if one were at liberty to do so.
The principle is that what is not revelation cannot be made a matter of theological truth. Only what is taught in Scripture is binding on the conscience. This was always our objection to earlier forms of Roman Catholicism-we must not add human traditions to the scriptural revelation as if they were binding on the church. . . . We take our stand against all those who infringe upon the authority of the Bible and the liberty of God's people by imposing on the church their own opinions as if they were final and enjoyed a status above God's Word. As Ramm put it, "The encroachment of the word of man upon the Word of God is a danger we should be constantly alert to, and with all our strength we should maintain the freedom of the Word of God from the word of man." Fortunately the inexhaustible richness of Scripture ensures that our loyalty to it does not leave us without a relevant word to say to modern culture but actually unfailingly provides a compelling word to speak into the culture whatever that is.
Reason is a faculty of great usefulness to theology and exegesis. Occasionally it rises up to challenge Scripture and when it does we ought to put it in its place, its place being a supportive, ministerial, non-legislative one. But for the most part reason serves us well.
Clark H. Pinnock, "How I Use the Bible in Doing Theology," The Use of the Bible in Theology: Evangelical Options. Ed. Robert K. Johnston. John Knox Press, 1985. Pages 29-33.
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Title: The God Who Risks: A Theology of Providence by John Sanders ISBN: 0830815015 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: November, 1998 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God by Clark H. Pinnock, Richard Rice, John Sanders, William Hasker ISBN: 0830818529 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God by Gregory A. Boyd ISBN: 080106290X Publisher: Baker Book House Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.99 |
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Title: Divine Foreknowledge: 4 Views by James K. Beilby, Paul R. Eddy, Gregory A. Boyd, David Hunt, William Lane Craig, Paul Helm, James K. Belby ISBN: 0830826521 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Study of Spirituality by Cheslyn Jones, Geoffrey Wainwright, Edward Yarnold, Geoferey Wainwright ISBN: 0195041704 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: January, 1987 List Price(USD): $42.95 |
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