A Proposed Pentecostal Quadrilectic: Explorations for Asian Pentecostal Hermeneutics

Developing a general framework for Asian Pentecostal hermeneutics is necessary for a continent where the Holy Bible is "Scripture among scriptures." Although Pentecostal Christianity in Asia is growing, interpreting Scripture in a manner relevant to local contextual realities is necessary to propagate grassroots theologies. As such, the current Pentecostal hermeneutical triad of Spirit-Scripture-Community (Archer) or Spirit-Word-Community (Yong) needs further articulations of a reader's tradition and cultural/ethnic contexts. The concept of an interpretive "Pentecostal community" needs clarification in the Asian setting where multiple interpretative communities exist. This study proposes a framework that recognizes the dialectical role of the text's context and the reader's context in biblical interpretation. The offered framework is a quadrilectic—a dialectic of Spirit-Scripture-Tradition-Context. Modifying Yung Suk Kim's critical contextual biblical interpretation with the pneumatological lens of Craig Keener's Spirit hermeneutics, the author suggests that Asian readers (in this study, Filipino Pentecostals) use a pneumatological lens (ala Keener) in their critical contextual biblical interpretation.