the everyday. In other words, I am interested in the hermeneutics of the
Pentecostal lifeworld.
H ERMENEUTICS AND THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE
In my book, Testimony in the Spirit , 15 which was a congregational study
of a Pentecostal church in the city of Birmingham, UK, I suggested that
there are three levels of discourse—the ordinary, the ecclesial, and the
academic. Each of them has its own hermeneutical posture, so to speak,
but only the fi rst two are investigated empirically. The third is more the
product of such research.
(1) By “ordinary,” I mean the everyday refl ective God-talk found among
believers in the pews. It is the kind of theology found among members
after the service, when, over coffee, they deconstruct the pastor’s sermon,
and sometimes they do this with knowledge! It is refl ective speech about
God and God’s world. It connects deeply to their everyday lives. 16
Ordinary theology is very confessional and one may indeed talk about
the Holy Spirit in personal terms, or indeed Jesus Christ, his saving power,
and healing love. Many of the testimonies I gathered on the various top-
ics started with an opportunity for people to tell their stories in their own
terms, even if they included inconsistencies, ambiguities, and sometimes
historical error. But because theology is refl ective discourse, many people
only really begin to refl ect in a social context, so my focus group approach
allowed a conversation to develop between the different contributors.
Discussions brought out differences and tensions. Not surprisingly, people
disagree about what they think, which I believe is a healthy indication of
difference, even when they are committed to the same core beliefs and
values. But there is a hermeneutical process going on here of narration and
construction, re-narration and reconstruction, whereby identity is shaped
and reshaped in the telling of the story. Meaning, as it relates to the work
of the Spirit in the experience of individuals and communities, is in fact
negotiated at an informal level. It is a constructed narrative through the
interaction with others, whereby it is modifi ed and received by the group.
(2) Ecclesial theology is the theology of the tradition, found among the
denominations and expressed in statements of faith, doctrinal policy docu-
ments, position statements and the like. Of course, it changes over time
and is itself infl uenced by wider theological contexts. Take, for example,
the abandonment of premillennial eschatology by British Pentecostalism
in recent years. The British Assemblies of God 1924 Statement of
260 M.J. CARTLEDGE