Tracking the Maze [Paperback]

Clark H. Pinnock (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579101178
• ISBN-13: 978-1579101176
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,283,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pinnock Thunders Against the Left and the Right, February 18, 2006

By 

Steve Jackson "stevejackson100atyahoocom" (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tracking the Maze (Paperback)

Clark Pinnock is probably the most controversial evangelical theologian of the second half of the twentieth century. Born in 1937 in Canada and raised in a mainline protestant denomination, he converted to evangelicalism of the Reformed Baptist variety. In his early works (1967-1971) he defended biblical inerrancy against attempts to limit the Bible's truthfulness to spiritual matters. By the mid-1970s (if not earlier) Pinnock's views started evolving. He embraced Arminianism and the Charismatic movement. In 1984 he published THE SCRIPTURE PRINCIPLE, in which he rejected the strict view of inerrancy he had previously advocated. By 1992 he was advocating annihilationism (the belief that the finally impenitent will be destroyed rather than condemned to eternal punishment). Not content with these changes he turned his attention to the doctrine of God, contributing an important essay to the 1994 collection THE OPENNESS OF GOD. There Pinnock advocated "open theism." Open theism (also called free-will theism) rejects the classical conception of God in favor of something roughly between process theism and classical theism. Although Pinnock has always considered himself an evangelical, some haven't hesitated in calling the "later Pinnock" a heretic. In 2002 some members of the Evangelical Theological Society sought to expel him. After Pinnock "clarified" his views on inerrancy, the ETS voted to retain him.

Pinnock's 1990 TRACKING THE MAZE is a good example of the "later Pinnock" and this phase of his theology. Pinnock discusses various schools of theology and critiques them in light of his centrist, Arminian theology.

Pinnock develops his own views in some detail. He, in effect, asks the following question: What is left of Evangelical theology if the conservative view of the Bible is wrong? He forsakes the rationalism and propositionalism of much Evangelical theology in favor of narrative theology. The Bible tells a story and that story is true even if certain details (such as the creation accounts) are not historical. Certainly narrative theology is valuable in many ways. At the same time, there is a great deal in the Bible that isn't explicitly narrative. Verses that deal with divorce and the ordination of women (to pick only two examples) might have some role in the Bible's "narrative" structure, but I don't see how their interpretation hinges on their role in the narrative. Even Pinnock concedes that his books are full of propositions and it isn't clear how he prevents religion from becoming a matter solely of experience. The selection on what is "heresy" in theology is all of three pages.

Another theologian who engages in a similar "project" of revising Evangelical theology is Donald Bloesch, who approaches things from more of a Reformed view.