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Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit, by Clark H. Pinnock (InterVarsity, 280 pp.; $24.99, hardcover). Reviewed by Roger E. Olson, professor of theology at Bethel College in Minnesota and editor of the Christian Scholar's Review.

As a classical Pentecostal, I searched high and low for a theologian and a theology to bridge the gap between my own tradition/community and the wider evangelical world. I failed in my search, and that was one reason for my regretful departure from the warm, experiential—but often disappointingly anti-intellectual—tradition of my youth and my entry into non-Pentecostal evangelicalism. Throughout that transition and the years since I have encountered many kindred spirits whom I have come to call post-Pentecostal evangelicals.

We post-Pentecostals live with a perpetual sense of spiritual Sehnsucht, longing for the ecstatic "fire" of Pentecostal worship and devotion while at the same time finding ourselves unable to accept the Pentecostal doctrinal distinctive of speaking in tongues as the necessary sign of Holy Spirit fullness.

Clark Pinnock's Flame of Love is that bridge for which we searched. Its construction is from the evangelical side toward the Pentecostal side. How many classical Pentecostals will walk onto it? Of course, some classical Pentecostals have been working on their own bridges toward the traditional evangelical side in recent years. Among them are men and women like Russell Spittler, Gordon Fee, and Edith Blumhofer. But until Pinnock's volume, no systematic theology has appeared that synthesizes these two sides in a creative, coherent, and contemporary way. The bridge is now in place. How many non-Pentecostal evangelicals will venture to cross?

Some conservative evangelicals will be nervous about the bridge's underpinnings. Pinnock writes, "This book is an attempt to view old truths from fresh angles and in new contexts in order to hear a relevant word from the Lord." Furthermore, he strongly affirms the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the individual and church and extends the category of "divine revelation" beyond the bounds of the written Word: "Revelation is not a closed system of propositional truths but a divine self-disclosure that continues to open up and challenge." Yet Pinnock clearly does not endorse the view common among some neo-Pentecostals in which the "rhema" (contemporary word from God) takes precedence over the historical, written text of Scripture. Instead, he avers that the ongoing revelatory work of the Spirit is not to deliver new truths, but to lead the church into a deeper apprehension of truth already given in holy writ. Within the overarching process called "revelation," then, "Scripture as the Spirit's text enjoys a privileged position."

Any non-Pentecostal, conservative evangelical seeking a livelier, more vibrant theology of Holy Spirit renewal can safely walk onto Pinnock's bridge without fear of leaving behind the solid ground of sola scriptura (Scripture as the ultimate authority for all Christian faith and practice) or becoming mired in a swamp of "new prophecy."

Classical Pentecostals and some charismatics might hesitate to step onto Pinnock's bridge for their own reasons. It is not a swinging bridge. Though clearly enamored of and influenced by the twentieth-century Pentecostal-charismatic movements, Pinnock does not endorse the centrality of any one gift or group of gifts as special "signs" of Spirit baptism or fullness.

Pentecostals will be attracted to the bridge by Pinnock's confession that he thinks of the charismatic and Pentecostal movement as "the most important event in modern Christianity" and by such statements as "[The] Spirit has not gone into retirement, or the power of the kingdom into recession." But they may hesitate when they read that "Tongues is normal but not the norm" and find that Pinnock fails to include speaking in tongues among the three gifts the church needs to recover: prophecy, healing, and exorcism.

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November 11 1996, Vol. 40, No. 13