322 K.J. ARCHER
logical identity. We should be ecumenical and contextual with our herme-
neutical practices. Furthermore, academics who are spiritually shaped in
pentecostal–charismatic communities will employ methods acceptable to
their disciplines as Christians, in particular as Pentecostal or Charismatic
Christians. Their spiritual formation may enable them to “see” and discover
“truth” in ways that others may not. Community formation into the pente-
costal story matters. It makes all the difference. In all of this, Pentecostals
should foster a hospitable charitable conversational hermeneutical attitude
as we engage interpretation from our particular locations. 34 The future is
bright for pentecostal–charismatic hermeneutics.
NOTES
- See the editorial by Robby Waddell and Peter Althouse, “The Pentecostals
and Their Scriptures” in Pneuma 38 (2016), 1–7. - See Lee Roy Martin, ed., Pentecostal Hermeneutics: A Reader (Leiden:
Brill, 2013) which addresses hermeneutics as it relates to the various con-
cerns of biblical interpretation, and Kenneth J. Archer, “Pentecostal
Hermeneutics and the Society for Pentecostal Studies:
Reading and Hearing in One Spirit and One Accord,” Pneuma 37.3
(2015), 317–339. - See Anthony C. Thiselton, Hermeneutics: An Introduction (Grand Rapids,
MI and Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
2009). - I use uppercase Pentecostal to refer to a historic diverse group of Pentecostal
communities that share in a distinct Pentecostal theological tradition and
have close theological affi liation with early Pentecostalism. I am using
lower case pentecostal to affi rm the important diversity that exists among
the various local so-called spirit-fi lled communities and denominations that
comprise the various Pentecostalisms and the charismatic-pentecostal like
communities. At places I will use pentecostal-charismatic for stylistic rea-
sons to accomplish the same concern as pentecostal. I do believe that it is
benefi cial to retain a defi nitional distinction between Pentecostal (those
communities connected to the early classical Pentecostal movements which
developed a distinct theological tradition and those latter pentecostal
groups who are shaped by Pentecostal theological traditions and are still
theologically more fl uid) and Charismatic (which modifi es an already exist-
ing Christian tradition without necessarily creating a new tradition, such as
Charismatic Catholic or Charismatic Reformed). See my “Introduction” in
The Gospel Revisited: Towards a Pentecostal Theology of Worship and Witness
(Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2011), xv-xx; and “A Pentecostal