Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit

Summary: A helpful, constructive theology of the Holy Spirit written from an Evangelical perspective. 

I first ran across Flame of Love when Christian Century asked several theologians and biblical scholars for their lists of the Essential books of Theology of the last 25 years (in 2010). I compiled an Amazon wishlist of the books I wanted (and accidentally made it public), and a friend bought me a couple. I started with Flame of Love because Clark Pinnock wrote one of the preaching textbooks I read in seminary, and I remembered it as the best book I had read for that class.

I have been meaning to re-read Flame of Love nearly since I first read it, but it has taken me almost 13 years to get around to it. First, I was waiting until I could pick it up on kindle. And then, once I picked it up on Kindle, it sat on my bookshelf until I saw that a new edition was coming out. But again, the audiobook and some driving led me to pick it up.

Rereading that old review, I am struck by the fact that I compared Flame of Love to Francis Chan's Forgotten God, a book I had completely forgotten. I have done a lot of reading since 2010, and I am aware of new connections in this second read. I was fairly new to atonement theories, and Pinnock and NT Wright were my limited introductions. Richard Beck and many others have expanded my understanding of the atonement, but I recommend The Crucifixion by Fleming Rutledge. She is a pastor, not an academic theologian (and I have read most but not all of the book), but as long as it is (and it is super long), it is very readable.

I find Flame of Love helpful because Pinnock highlights how the Holy Spirit is present in ways that Evangelicals tend to miss. There are seven chapters. The Spirit and Trinity, the Spirit in Creation, the Spirit and Christology, the Spirit and Church, the Spirit and Union, the Spirit and Universality, and the Spirit and Truth. Each chapter examines where the Spirt, who Pinnock sometimes talks about as “The Hidden God” instead of Chan's “Forgotten God,” plays a prominent role.

Amos Yong's commentary on the book of Acts is framed as the church, through the power of the Holy Spirit, doing the work that Christ had done in the book of Luke. And that framing, I think, makes a lot of sense of the type of work Pinnock suggests is common to the Spirit. It is not that the church does the work on its own in Acts. The church is being acted on by the Spirit and becomes the public face of God, but only because of the empowerment of the Spirit.

Similarly, Pinnock brings out how the Spirit has played a role in creation and in Christ's work on earth, and in how we as Christians are brought into union with God. This overly simplifies (and may distort), but I think the first four chapters are more about exploring historical theology and making connections that may have been lost. The last three chapters are more about the theory around the Holy Spirit and can be a bit more abstract theologically. Where I appreciate Pinnock is his limiting of his argument. The sixth chapter about the tension theologically between universalism and exclusivism and the role of the Holy Spirit in drawing people to God nicely bounds what Pinnock thinks can be said biblically with what he would like to be able to say theologically.

I intend to read real theology more than I actually read real theology, but Pinnock is drawing the reader's attention not just to abstractions of how theological reasoning works but to how theological reasoning can impact our devotional and relational lives as Christians. Particularly with the subject of the Holy Spirit, reading theology about the Holy Spirit isn't just about ideas but how we as Christians relate to the person of the Holy Spirit.

Andrew Draper has a thread on Twitter that makes the point that Evangelicals largely have oriented toward biblical studies and not theology. There are some positives to this; Evangelicals tend to know their bible. But the negative that Draper is pointing out is that theology is constructive and orients you toward systems, tradition, and how to act in the world as Christians. Biblical Studies, while important, often is more oriented towards proof-texting and narrow readings. Draper is suggesting we need a better balance because the orientation toward biblical studies as primary has led a number of Evangelicals toward functional heresy (like the Eternal Subordination of the Son) because there is not enough focus on theology as boundaries for our biblical reading. (We can't read Paul's discussions of household codes as modeling how the trinity works if that reading promotes an ancient heresy rejected in the 4th century.)

Overall, I am a more mature reader on this second reading than I was on the first, which causes me to have different questions. I don't think Pinnock got it all right, and I think the commentary by Daniel Costelo is helpful in both pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of Pinnock's work. I also listened to this on audio. The narration was fine. But a weakness of audio is the inability to quickly re-read sections, make highlights, and flip around the book. Flame of Love has clear, readable prose, but it is prose that I wanted to re-read often. Now that I have listened to the second edition (which I recommend if you are buying new), I will reread my first edition book.

If you find a used or cheap copy of the first edition, go ahead and buy it. The second edition adds an introduction and a response at the end of each chapter. This is not a significant addition to the book regarding page length, but it is helpful.
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Short Review: This is the best theology of the Holy Spirit that I have read. Admittedly I have only read a couple. The chapter on the Trinity was excellent. The early chapters are very good, and not controversial. The later chapters are a bit more detailed and more controversial. This was still a very good book, even if some (primarily Reformed) will not like the later chapters.

Full review on my blog at http://www.bookwi.se/flame-of-love-a-theology-of-the-holy-spirit-by-clark-h-pinnock/