It was the footnote that caught me off guard.

[I]n addition to regular spiritual disciplines, I would be ungrateful not to acknowledge the influence of the Toronto Blessing during this period of writing. The flow of grace and love in this remarkable awakening can only be marveled at. (250)

The irony is rich. During the Toronto Blessing, I was an overly-cynical student at a Pentecostal Bible College. While I was sharpening my arguments trying to explain how the Toronto Blessing was clearly not of God, here was a theologian from a Baptist Divinity College experiencing the very life of the Spirit.

It is clear that Clark H. Pinnock’s experience of the Spirit greatly inspired his writing. Trace the aforementioned footnote back to its page in the introduction and you’ll read about Pinnock’s desire to “operate on two levels simultaneously. Even as we are thinking, deep within we can be at prayer and receptive to the divine breath” (14).

Flame of Love is Pinnock’s most thorough systematic theology, covering a wide range of themes—Trinity, Christology, Ecclesiology, Soteriology, and Mission—from a Pneumatological perspective.

I was told (years ago) that I should stay away from Pinnock. After all, he was a proponent of open theism. It turns out the old saying is true. You can’t judge a book by its cover, nor a theologian by his detractors! Flame of Love deserves to be read by any Christian interested in the life and work of the Holy Spirit in the Church and the world. It is a deep well of creative theology and devotion.

(One final irony? I now study at the Divinity College where Pinnock once taught.)

Pinnock, Clark H. Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1996.