world as well, albeit perhaps with varying features. Similarly, the Asian
Pentecostal construct involves not only the varieties of Asianness but also
American infl uences, more marked in some cases because of missionary
efforts to be sure, but not absent because of globalization trends in any
case. The point is thus that American Pentecostal and Asian Pentecostal
perspectives are already inclusive of the “other” (in all its complexity, we
should be reminded), and we have not even begun to consider how there
are additional fl ows, for instance from Africa or from Latin America, each
no less diverse than America and Asia, that also ought to be considered.
But our task is to explore, at least in a preliminary manner, the contours
of a triadic hermeneutic as qualifi ed by Asian American Pentecostal per-
spectives. And while it would be important at some point in this inquiry
to consider this matter at the intersection where the hybridic realities of
Asian American and Asian Pentecostal and American Pentecostal meet, to
do so would remain at the historical and even phenomenological plane
of multi- and inter-culturality. I would suggest that in order to make
some progress toward a trans-cultural hermeneutic, a shift to theology
is in order. In that case, Pentecostal cannot be defi ned only historically
or phenomenologically but has to be negotiated theologically. Here, I
focus not on the Oneness-Trinitarian theological divide (in order not to
hopelessly complicate our task), 21 but propose we turn back to the basis
for understanding the multi-cultural stance briefl y articulated above: that
from the perspective of Christian faith-seeking-understanding, the Day
of Pentecost narrative (in Acts 2) provides scriptural warrant for defi n-
ing Pentecostal hermeneutics and even theological method. Hence, while
historical Pentecostalism is manifest only in its various cultural guises—as
American or Asian, or Asian American, in our cases that are under consid-
eration—arbitrating its contestations inexorably leads to explicitly theo-
logical matters. To be sure, appeals to scripture rarely resolve the quarrels,
but this means that their interpretations have to be justifi ed, which leads
us back to the hermeneutical question.
I NTERPRETATIVE SCIENCE, SIGHS, AND SIGNS:
TOWARD A PENTECOSTAL HERMENEUTIC
My proposal is that an Asian American Pentecostal hermeneutic will be
resolutely theological in the Day of Pentecost sense of the Spirit being
poured out on all fl esh, even as such a possibly trans-cultural pneumato-
THE SCIENCE, SIGHS, AND SIGNS OF INTERPRETATION: AN ASIAN AMERICAN... 183