Clark H. Pinnock on the Open and Risking God

1 FROM TULIP TO ROSE: CLARK H. PINNOCK ON THE OPEN AND RISKING GOD by Barry L. Callen By the eighteenth century Calvinistic theology had solidified into dogmatic assertions about the being of a sovereign God and God's relations to the fallen creation. Formalized at the Synod of Dort (1618-1619), this "TULIP" solidification had become firm Calvinistic dogma. Hardly a fragrant flower lacking rigid and defensive thorns, this particular theological TULIP consisted of the five affirmed articles of Dort issued in response to the Anninian Remonstrance of 1610. These articles were: (1) Total depravity; (2) Unconditional election; (3) Limited atonement; ( 4) Irresistible grace; and (5) Perseverance of the saints. The five petals of this TULIP are tightly interconnected as the logical chain that would become standard theological thinking for much of evangelicalism in the twentieth century. John Wesley carried on a long debate with Calvinists, especially the Calvinist George Whitefield. He certainly endorsed the fundamental concepts of a sovereign God and a fallen creation, but his view of the relational and redeeming nature of the sovereign God disallowed any unqualified unfolding of at least points 2-5 of Dart's TULIP. In the North American evangelical community of the last half of the twentieth century, this debate has continued. Wesley's view managed to gain only a minority position. This now may be changing, at least to some significant degree. A school of thought sometimes called "Free-Will Theism" has been pioneered by theologian Clark H. Pinnock. Since the 1970s, the theological work of Clark Pinnock has taken up the task of renewing evangelical theology .1 In large part this renewal has proceeded by Pinnock' s often controversial effort to freshly champion on the contemporary evangelical scene key theistic and soteriological insights similar to those of John Wesley. As it was in the eighteenth century, Pinnock' s contemporary path often has been hazardous since dogmatic (scholastic) Calvinists remain fixed on the TULIP of Dort.2 Even so, considerable progress is now being made to "liberate" God from certain non-biblical and rationalistic strictures. Emerging again is the sovereign but also "open" and "risking" God in whom Wesley rejoiced and about whom the troubled world of this new millennium needs to know. The present task of Pinnock and others is to replace TULIP with what is perceived by them to be the more biblically authentic and pastorally satisfying ROSE (God is Relational, Open, Suffering, and Ever-present). The new flower paradigm captures the heart of Wesley, is at the center of Pinnock' s work since the 1970s, and is a source of hope for contemporary Christian theism. What follows is a brief tracing of the theological journey that has brought Pinnock to this revised theism and the central elements of the new theological flower as it has emerged in his pioneering work. The Results of Reciprocity During the 1950s Clark Pinnock, then a new Christian living in Toronto, Canada, was introduced to some of the key institutions of North American evangelicalism. He attended an early 1 See Barry L. Callen, Journey Toward Renewal: An Intellectual Biography of Clark H. Pinnock (Nappanee, IN: Evangel Publishing House, 2000). 20ne exception is the Calvinist Norman Geisler who nuances aspects of "TULIP" into a "moderate" instead of an "extreme" Calvinism. He judges an extreme Calvinist to be one who is more Calvinistic than John Calvin himself (Chosen But Free, Bethany House Publishers, 1999, 55). .

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