Spirit Hermeneutics


Book Description

How do we hear the Spirit's voice in Scripture? Once we have done responsible exegesis, how may we expect the Spirit to apply the text to our lives and communities? In Spirit Hermeneutics biblical scholar Craig Keener addresses these questions, carefully articulating how the experience of the Spirit that empowered the church on the day of Pentecost can -- and should -- dynamically shape our reading of Scripture today. Keener considers what Spirit-guided interpretation means, explores implications of an epistemology of Word and Spirit for biblical hermeneutics, and shows how Scripture itself models an experiential appropriation of its message. Bridging the Word-Spirit gap between academic and experiential Christian approaches, Spirit Hermeneutics narrates a way of reading the Bible that is faithful both to the Spirit-inspired biblical text and the experience of the Spirit among believers. -- from book flap.




The Hermeneutical Spirit


Book Description

In the contemporary biblical studies climate, proposals regarding the theological interpretation of Scripture are contested, particularly but not only because they privilege, encourage, and foster ecclesial or other forms of normative commitments as part and parcel of the hermeneutical horizon through which scriptural texts are read and understood. Within this context, confessional approaches have been emerging, including some from within the nascent pentecostal theological tradition. This volume builds on the author's previous work in theological method to suggest a pentecostal perspective on theological interpretation that is rooted in the conviction that all Christian reading of sacred Scripture is post-Pentecost, meaning after the Day of Pentecost outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh in anticipation of the coming reign of God. In that respect, such a pentecostal interpretative perspective is not parochially for those within the modern day movement bearing that name but is arguably apostolic in following after the scriptural imagination of the earliest disciples of Jesus the messiah and therefore has ecumenical and missional purchase across space and time. The Hermeneutical Spirit thus provides close readings of various texts across the scriptural canon as a model for Christian theological interpretation of Scripture suitable for the twenty-first-century global context.




Spirit, Word, Community


Book Description

The main thesis of 'Spirit-Word-Community' is that Christian theological reflection in a postmodern world starts with the experience of the Holy Spirit, but is at the same time post-foundationalist in terms of being formed by the word and being adjudicated by various communities of interpretation. Yet the book's hermeneutical and methodological proposals are not merely prolegomena to theology but already involve and assume theologically substantive claims derived from a pneumatological point of view. Hence, this is a pneumatological theology which illuminates the hermeneutical process precisely by showing how the Holy Spirit engages the human imagination to empower liberative practices in a world that remains graced by her presence and activity. 'Spirit-Word-Community' is meant in each of these senses to be a contribution to the formulation of a comprehensive theology of the Third Article for the twenty-first century.




A Pentecostal Hermeneutic for the Twenty First Century


Book Description

The purpose of this book is to present a critically informed contemporary Pentecostal hermeneutic rooted in Pentecostal identity, in its stories, beliefs and practices. As Pentecostals began entering academic communities of higher learning, their interpretive methods became both mainstream and modernistic as they adapted the historical critical methods, or the so-called scientific hermeneutic. The proposed hermeneutic contained in this book desires to move beyond the impasse created by Modernity, instead pushing Pentecostals into the contemporary context by critically re-appropriating early Pentecostal ethos and interpretive practices for a contemporary Pentecostal community. The Pentecostal hermeneutic is a three-way interaction for theological meaning between the Holy Spirit, the Pentecostal community and sacred Scripture.




A Pentecostal Hermeneutic


Book Description

In this state of the art study, Kenneth J. Archer provides the most detailed and comprehensive analysis of Pentecostal Hermeneutics to date. Archer identifies the hermeneutical filter through which the Pentecostal story and identity is understood and meaning is made, with specific attention given to the Central Narrative Convictions of the Pentecostal Community. The model here proposed builds upon the tridactic negotiation for meaning that draws upon the biblical text, the Pentecostal community, and the role of the Holy Spirit. Archer offers a significant paradigm for all those interested in the topic of Pentecostal hermeneutics and its significance for contemporary belief and practice. 'Archer has provided . . . an insightful proposal for the kind of Pentecostal hermeneutic that is appropriate to our contemporary context.' (R. Bauckham, Prof of NT, Univ of St Andrew's, UK).




Gospel and Spirit


Book Description

For those who believe the Scriptures are the inspired word of God with a message relevant for living today, nothing is more crucial than understanding sound principles of interpretation. Disagreement arises when people and groups differ over how one gets at that message and what that message is. In this collection of essays and lectures, Dr. Gordon Fee offers hermeneutical insights that will more effectively allow the New Testament to speak on its own terms to our situation today. This is not a collection of subjective, theoretical essays on the science of interpretation; rather, these essays target issues of practical--and sometimes critical--concern to Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and anyone interested in letting the Bible speak to today's situation. Fee brings to the task what he himself advocates: common sense and dedication to Scripture. Readers already familiar with some of these essays, like "Hermeneutics and Common Sense: An Exploratory Essay on the Hermeneutics of the Epistles," will welcome its reappearance. Others will appreciate the challenge of essays such as "The Great Watershed--Intentionality and Particularity/Eternality: 1 Timothy 2:8-15 as a Test Case"--an essay defending the role of women in ministry--or "Hermeneutics and Historical Precedent--A Major Issue in Pentecostal Hermeneutics." Anyone wanting to wrestle with key issues in New Testament interpretation will want to read this book.




Illumination and Interpretation


Book Description

This work seeks to take an abstract concept and make it concrete by establishing proper categories and definitions for the doctrine of illumination, while reemphasizing the cooperation of Word and Spirit. In doing so, this book treats issues such as the relationship between illumination and other hermeneutical doctrines, the accessibility of the Spirit's illumination when interpreting the Scriptures, and the question of unregenerate biblical interpretation. --from publisher description




The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh


Book Description

Offers a fascinating look at Pentecostalism's place in global theology and shows how Christians from other traditions can benefit from recent developments in Pentecostal theology.




Spirit and Scripture


Book Description

This book considers the academic treatment of biblical interpretation in the renewal movement, the fastest growing tradition in Christendom today. After an initial chapter surveying the history of biblical interpretation, Part II outlines a proposal for the future of biblical hermeneutics in the tradition. Six renewal scholars address certain key questions. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in biblical interpretation? What are the distinctive presuppositions, methods and goals of renewal biblical hermeneutics? Three prominent biblical scholars (Craig G. Bartholomew, James D.G. Dunn, R. Walter L. Moberly) respond to the proposals outlined above. These critical responses deepen the examination of renewal biblical hermeneutics as well as increase its appeal to biblical and theological scholars in general. The final chapter offers a synthesis and evaluation of the accomplishments of the discussion, as well as an assessment of the state of the discipline with an eye toward the future.




Hermeneutics as a General Methodology of the Sciences of the Spirit


Book Description

With a Foreword by Lars Vinx, this book is the first complete English translation of the Italian jurist, Emilio Betti’s classic work Die Hermeneutik als allgemeine Methodik der Geisteswissenschaften, originally published in 1962. Betti’s hermeneutical theory is presented here as a ‘general methodology of the sciences of the spirit’, such as to allow the achievement of objectivity, however relative it might be. Its central focus is the tension between an object, to be considered in its autonomy, and the subjectivity of the interpreter, who can understand the object only by means of his or her own categories, historical-cultural conditions, and interests. Set against the work of Bultmann and Gadamer, Betti is concerned to limit the arbitrariness of subjectivity without diminishing the place of interpretation. Detailing the principles that govern, and therefore, guide any interpretation, Betti traces how interpretation in art and in literature, as well as in the fields of science, jurisprudence, sociology, and economy, can be said to be objective, albeit only ever in a relative sense. This summa of Betti’s key contribution to hermeneutic theory will be of interest across a range of disciplines, including legal and literary theory, philosophy, as well as the history and sociology of law.