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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

This book presents proponents of five approaches to biblical hermeneutics and allows them to respond to each other. The five approaches are the historical-critical/grammatical (Craig Blomberg), redemptive-historical (Richard Gaffin), literary/postmodern (Scott Spencer), canonical (Robert Wall) and philosophical/theological (Merold Westphal) views.

The role of the Holy Spirit in the writing of Scripture and the role of the Holy Spirit in the understanding of Scripture are corollary ideas. The first one of these--usually referred to as the Inspiration of Scripture--has been extensively discussed by the Early Church Fathers, theologians, and other Bible scholars from the earliest centuries of the Church until the present. Likewise, the second of these corollary ideas--the role of the Holy Spirit in the understanding of Scripture--has been widely considered from the time of the Early Church Fathers. However, this idea, usually referred to as the Illumination of Scripture, has not been as extensively discussed as the corollary doctrine of Inspiration. Consequently, many aspects of the Holy Spirit's relationship to Biblical Hermeneutics remain open for fruitful discussion. The notion that the Holy Spirit plays some role in the interpretative process of understanding Scripture raises many issues and questions. Does the Holy Spirit even play any role at all in the interpretative process? If so, what, then, is the role of the human interpreter in relationship to that of the Holy Spirit? Can the Holy Spirit's role be conceptualized in some meaningful way? If and when the Holy Spirit plays a role in interpretation, what difference does it make in the outcome of understanding? This book intends to further the discussion of these and other issues related to the idea of the role of the Holy Spirit in Biblical Hermeneutics. It briefly surveys both past and contemporary thought on this theme. It then suggests how the Holy Spirit's role might be conceptualized. Since this conceptualization is necessarily metaphorical, various models are presented as vehicles for furthering discourse on the subject. Finally, it attempts to describe the results of the Holy Spirit's activity of illumination and suggests areas for further study on the topic.