© The Author(s) 2016 267
K.J. Archer, L.W. Oliverio, Jr. (eds.), Constructive
Pneumatological Hermeneutics in Pentecostal Christianity,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58561-5_16
CHAPTER 16
Philosophy and Developmental Psychology:
Relevance for Pentecostal Hermeneutics
William K. Kay
W. K. Kay ( )
Glyndwr/Chester University , Everton , UK
A version of this chapter was presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the
Society for Pentecostal Studies.
John Piaget (1896–1980) was one of the twentieth century’s major
psychologists of human development. His understanding of the stages
through which children’s minds pass was derived from a Kantian reading
of the fundamental concepts by which reality is apprehended. It was then
empirically tested by studies of great simplicity and ingenuity. Piaget’s
stage-developmental theory was later applied to children’s understanding
of parables, and further studies focused on variables like genre, metaphor
and parable. This paper asks if the four main approaches to Pentecostal
hermeneutics identifi ed by L. William Oliverio, Jr. in his 2012 Theological
Hermeneutics in the Classical Pentecostal Tradition: A Typological Account
could be empirically tested in populations of children and young people.
This is an interdisciplinary essay, or one that discusses a type of “applied
philosophy.” In making this statement I am assuming that each discipline
is different from others by virtue of its key concepts and methods and,
also, asserting that theoretical disciplines may have an applied orientation.
