as exemplary for biblical and theological interpretation. I will delineate
such a post-Pentecost-al —the dual hyphenation highlighting connections
fi rst and foremost to the Day of Pentecost rather than to the modern
Pentecostal movement—proposal in three steps, working backward across
the triads in the title of this essay. First, we will look at the challenges for
hermeneutics in our contemporary glocal (all situatedness being irreduc-
ibly local, but yet now also global in various respects in our interconnected
world) context that need to navigate multi- and inter-cultural projects
in search of a more transcendent, overarching, or trans-cultural vantage
point; second, we will unfold the opportunities inherent in this glocal
space for Asian American Pentecostalism in particular; fi nally, in the lon-
gest part of this essay, we will sketch the contours of a hermeneutical para-
digm that is observant of its interpretive rules (science), its subterranean
impulses (sighs), and its historical practices and teleological performances
(signs). The following is intended to invite further hermeneutical refl ec-
tion not only from Pentecostals but also from all who believe there is
something else to be considered when thinking about human interpreta-
tion in relationship to divine presence and activity opened up in the Day
of Pentecost narrative.
M ULTI-, INTER-, AND TRANS-CULTURAL HERMENEUTICS?
Our contemporary context is rife with proposals in intercultural herme-
neutics. 4 Such projects come in many forms, but the underlying theme is
how to generate a coherent interpretive stance amidst a global situation
constituted by many oftentimes confl icting vistas or standpoints. In order
to elaborate on the issues, let us focus for a few moments on the triad of
multi-, inter-, and trans-culturality.
Although multi-culturalism has become politically charged vis-à-vis the
politics of identity and representation, at the descriptive level such a notion
highlights nothing more than that there are many cultural, linguistic, eth-
nic, and other groups within human history and experience. While this has
been the case for millennia, our present information and global age simply
mean that we are confronted by the multiplicity of human difference more
starkly than ever before. Even the notion of culture masks more than it
communicates since often we think of cultures homogeneously and we
overlook (consciously or unconsciously, usually the latter) the heterogene-
ity and developmental character of cultural formation. 5
178 A. YONG