Defining Elements and Challenges of a Pentecostal Hermeneutics of Experience
Author(s): Marius Nel (North-West University, South Africa)
Published in: HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, Vol. 77, No. 2 (2021)
DOI: 10.4102/hts.v77i2.6622
Abstract
Nel examines how Pentecostals read Scripture through the lens of spiritual encounter. While Pentecostals hold a “high view” of the Bible in common with most conservative Protestants, their interpretive method distinctively expects the Spirit’s revelation within the act of reading itself. The author names the risk this creates — individualist and subjectivist interpretation — and argues that only communal discernment, exercised by the congregation in the evaluation of tongues and prophecy, can safeguard the faith community against interpretive excess. Combines comparative literature analysis with auto-ethnographical observation.
