Amos Yong’s important work, The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh:
Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global Theology , has been infl uential
with regard to the role that culture plays in his hermeneutics. Yong grounds
his theology in a “Lukan hermeneutic” in which Luke-Acts serves as the
lens through which Yong articulates his global vision of theology while
avoiding the “naïve biblicism” of early Pentecostal exegetes. 81 Yong sees
an implicit connection between the characteristic traits of Pentecostalism
and a global theology that embraces—and not merely tolerates or even
ignores—the rich diversity of God’s kingdom. Yong sees the “metaphor of
the plurality of tongues giving witness to the one God” 82 as the basis for
culture guiding the methodological, biblical, and pneumatological aspects
of Pentecostal theology, urging Pentecostalism to give more thought to
“both theology of culture and theology of religion if it is to fulfi ll its task
of developing a world theology.” 83 Yong rejects approaches to theology
that attempt to develop without engaging culture, since “gospel and cul-
ture are not two separate things.” 84 He elaborates:
Rather, the gospel always comes in cultural dress. Even Jesus came as a
fi rst-century male Jewish carpenter. This leads to the incarnational principle
whereby God redeems, at least potentially, all that is taken up historically in
the life of Christ. 85Therefore, Pentecostal theology should be multiperspectival (incorpo-
rating a variety of voices, especially those who are marginalized), mul-
tidisciplinary (incorporating a variety of disciplines), and multicultural
(incorporating a variety of ethnic and cultural groups and experiences). 86
Yong illustrates this by extrapolating from Pentecostal emphases to a plea
for a diverse Pentecostal theology. In particular, he highlights the plural-
ity of attendees at Pentecost (including Jews, Gentiles, despised Cretans,
Arabs, and possibly Africans), the eschatological vision of Revelation 14,
the diversity of tongues at Pentecost, the one baptism by one Spirit into
one body, and the diverse giftings of the Spirit. 87 Another fruitful avenue
hinted at in Yong’s text that could be explored is a theological analysis
of marginalization, connecting the outcast natures of those at Pentecost,
the early Pentecostal community, and marginalized groups in the United
States.
In conclusion, Pentecostal hermeneutics has rich potential to cor-
rect the lacunae of previous generations. In a cultural context still deeply
divided by race, Pentecostalism has a chance, once again, to model for the
244 D.T. LOYNES