AFTERWORD: ON THE FUTURE OF PENTECOSTAL HERMENEUTICS 319
church history. Third, New Testament Christianity for Pentecostals was
found narrated in the Book of Acts, even though a few engaged in early
Christian theological writings. Fourth, New Testament Christianity was
a reference to the New Testament, not necessarily a reference to the his-
torical period called early Christianity. Finally, early Pentecostals were
paramodern, living more so on the margins of mainstream society, then
formally educated in the thought world of modernity. The vast majority
were not from high society and were hard working, lower income folk.
They sought to “restore” pure and powerful apostolic faith and practices
to what they considered to be cold and cerebral Christianity. Thus, they
saw their present forms of Christianity lacking the vital outward expres-
sions of Spirit Baptism. They were shaped by Protestantism’s quest to
restore the Gospel and pietistic expressions of Christianity.
Today, pentecostals–charismatics could benefi t from revisioning the
early Pentecostal story with its latter rain motif and restoration stance in a
critical nuanced manner. 22 Acts-Luke should still be prominent in future
Pentecostal theological refl ection, yet not so much as early history of the
Church but more so as a theological entrance into the canonical story
of Scripture as well as a formational grounding for particular pentecostal
theological vision. 23 Pentecostals should encourage a greater appreciation
for the working of the Spirit throughout history, including the period
between the Constantinian shift and the Protestant revolution against
Roman Catholicism. 24 Without denying the importance of primitive and
early Christianity, Pentecostals might fi nd the ancient-future faith para-
digm, as articulated by Robert E. Weber, for example, helpful. 25 Dialogue
with Radical Orthodoxy could also prove fruitful. 26 Another frontier would
be to venture into “metamodernism’s” philosophical refl ection for theo-
logical reasons. Pentecostalism was born in protest to certain controlling
intellectual aspects of enlightened modernity. She is not solidly “modern”
or “post” modern, nor is she “pre” modern. 27 The concerns of metamod-
ernism are more conducive to the theological identity of Pentecostalism
than either modernism or post-modernism. 28
The future of Pentecostal hermeneutics must take seriously Pentecostal
storied identity as its primary fi lter for engaging in interpretive activity
at various levels, whether that is reading sacred texts such as the Bible or
interpreting biological matter. For example, how has American popular
fundamentalism, with its emphasis on a six 24-hour day understanding of
the Genesis creation story (1:1–2:4), impacted Pentecostals when it comes
to interpretation of biological matter? What about Pentecostal biologists,
