Baptist theologian Clark Pinnock dies

Clark Pinnock, 73, an influential theologian whose spiritual pilgrimage led him from a fiery fundamentalism as a young professor to an openness that caused some to brand him a heretic, died August 15 of a heart attack. A longtime professor of systematic theology at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Pinnock had withdrawn from public life since announcing in March that he had Alzheimer's disease, but his death was unexpected.

Pinnock, the grandson of British Methodist missionaries to Nigeria who switched their affiliation to Baptist when their understanding of baptism changed, grew up in a fairly liberal congregation, Park Road Baptist Church in Toronto. But as a youngster he wasn't particularly interested in church. Through influences including Youth for Christ and evangelical theologian Francis Schaeffer, he began his theological career in the context of "post-World War II fundamentalism."

Teaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary from 1965 until 1969, Pinnock became an influential figure in the Southern Baptist Convention's battles over biblical inerrancy. Among his students were Paige Patterson, Adrian Rogers and Jerry Vines, all key leaders in what became known alternately as the "conservative resurgence" or the "fundamentalist takeover" of the U.S.'s second-largest faith group.