other form of mediation. In other words, we cannot escape the vicious
circle/s of mediation.
It is here that I need to mention the role that testimony plays in the
context of Pentecostal spirituality because it is the means by which media-
tion is communicated, even if it is rarely communicated in fi rst-order terms
as mediation. Pentecostals are constantly giving witness to what God is
doing in their lives. This witness varies according to the traditions that
shape the telling of the story and the expressions that are supported and
encouraged in different contexts and cultures of Pentecostalism. The nar-
rative of testimony allows the person witnessing to bring their experiences
into resonance with the Scriptures in order to demonstrate to the audience
that experience of the Holy Spirit is in continuity with the early church
and its profound experience in its constitution and mission. Elsewhere,
I have discussed the role of testimony in terms of epistemology, that is,
how knowledge of the Holy Spirit is mediated via the spirituality narra-
tives of Pentecostals. 13 Testimony has a coordinating function that brings
together other sources of knowledge (perception, memory, introspection
and reason) and expresses them in a narrative shape. However, it needs to
be acknowledged that empirical research cannot go behind the testimony.
It can only do what forensic enquiry does, namely to investigate whether
it is coherent with what is known from other sources. Where no other
evidence is present, then the coherence of the narrative depends on the
assumptions of those discerning the evidence of the testimony.
The descriptions we have in Scripture are mediated through the agents,
writers and redactors, however inspired and authoritative they may be.
Equally, our experiences of the Holy Spirit are mediated in all sorts of
ways. Therefore, what we are researching when we include the Holy Spirit,
is the person and work of the Spirit as mediated via Pentecostals in the tes-
timonies to these experiences, in their narratives about what is going on,
via the symbols that are important artifacts and events of such mediation
as well the patterned action, the praxis of the communities, which are
imbued with beliefs and values. 14 A theological reading of this mediation
seeks to understand the theology of the Pentecostals not as something to
be explained in other terms, namely, sociology or anthropology, however
valuable these perspectives may be, but to be explained by means of the-
ology. To read something theologically, one needs to put on theological
spectacles, which leads me to the question of hermeneutics. I am con-
cerned not just with the hermeneutics of written texts, which remain criti-
cal of course, but also with the hermeneutics of theology expressed in
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