Reading Scripture and Nature: Pentecostal Hermeneutics and Their Implications for The

Article Reading Scripture and Nature: Pentecostal Hermeneutics and Their Implications for the Contemporary Evangelical Amos Yong Theology and Science Conversation Amos Yong This article recommends that more intentional focus on the theological character of the biblical message that involves the work of the Holy Spirit can be helpful in resisting the concordism, prevalent in some evangelical circles, that insists on harmonizing Scripture with science. Help in developing such an interpretive approach can be found, surprisingly, in Pentecostal Bible-reading practices. Our case study of Pente- costal hermeneutical sensibilities opens up space for a reading of nature that is complementary with a reading of Scripture. The objective is to invite evangelical Christians to develop a theology and hermeneutic of nature that sustains the scientific enterprise even while registering Pentecostal perspectives, especially in the dialogue between theology and science. any conservative evangelicals Insofar as many Pentecostals consider Mare concordists when it comes conservative evangelicals their allies and to their views regarding how agreewiththemabouttheauthority, the Bible relates to modern science.1 infallibility, and even inerrancy of the What this means is that they assume that Bible,tothesamedegreemanyPente- the plain sense of Scripture, rightly under- costals also presume a concordist her- stood, should be confirmable by and har- meneutic along with the accompanying monizable with—be in concord—rather young-earth view of the world. This than contradict the findings of modern explains, at least in part, why many Pen- science, correctly interpreted. When ap- tecostals are creationists who are suspi- plied to the creation narrative in the book cious, at best, about the theory of of Genesis, however, such expectations evolution. But what if concordism is are challenged, and many conservative itself a modern concoction, developed evangelicals feel as if they have to opt by modernists—including conservative for what the Bible says (that God created Amos Yong is J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology at Regent Univer- the world in six days) rather than what sity School of Divinity in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His graduate education science says (that the world has evolved includes degrees in theology, history, and religious studies from Western Evan- over a long period of time). This explains, gelical Seminary and Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, and Boston in large part, the popularity of creation- University, Boston, Massachusetts. He has published more than a dozen books, including The Spirit Renews the Face of the Earth: Pentecostal ism—the idea that scientific evidence can Forays in Science and Theology of Creation (Pickwick Publications, 2009), be marshaled in support of the biblical Science and the Spirit: A Pentecostal Engagement with the Sciences account—among conservative evangeli- edited with James K. A. Smith (Indiana University Press, 2010), and The cals not only in North America but also, Spirit of Creation: Modern Science and Divine Action in Pentecostal- increasingly, around the world.2 Charismatic Imagination (forthcoming in 2011 with Eerdmans). Volume 63, Number 1, March 2011 3 Article Reading Scripture and Nature evangelicals—who feel as if they need to adapt the both the life in the Spirit and the modern scientific explanatory power of modern science to interpret enterprise but yet provides an overarching theologi- the Bible, resulting, paradoxically and ironically, in cal narrative that can hold the two together.4 We a scriptural method of interpretation that is itself will conclude with some brief reflections on how at odds with a biblical self-understanding? What if such an approach to Scripture might be helpful, the concordist privileging of modern scientific modes especially for evangelicals who wish to make peace of reference and causality is out of sync with the with modern science.5 way that Scripture presents itself? Might application of concordist assumptions about science do violence to(atworst)ormissthepointof(atbest)theScrip- This Is That! Pentecostal Biblical tures in general and the Genesis creation narrative in particular? Hermeneutics—A Case Study In order to appreciate Pentecostal hermeneutical Others have provided very convincing responses views, let us focus first on how Pentecostals have urging against adoption of such concordist presup- read the book of Acts. Modern historical criticism, positions.3 In this article, I want to add to these argu- of course, has debated about the historicity of Acts. ments from a specifically Pentecostal perspective. Since Luke presents the Acts narrative as derivative In brief, I will suggest, negatively, that Pentecostal from consultation with the relevant eyewitnesses hermeneutical instincts and sensibilities should lead (Luke 1:1–4; cf. Acts 1:1), on modernist historiographi- them to question, even reject, concordism, especially cal terms, the reported events either happened as in its creationist manifestations, since that is incon- indicated or they did not. Modernist readings thus sistent with their own instinctive approaches to are presented either in faith, believing that since the Scripture; put positively, I will present a rudimentary Bible is the inspired Word of God, Acts is accurate argument for a Pentecostal theological hermeneutic regardless of its believability, or in skepticism, coun- that reads the book of Scripture soteriologically— tering that there are too many inconsistencies in the i.e., primarily as a theological book focused on God’s text or that the fantastic nature of what is described redemptive work in the world—while remaining suggests there are ideological motivations or other capable of acknowledging and even benefitting from reasons for what now appears as a largely mythic modern disciplinary perspectives, even modern sci- or legendary, rather than more strictly historical, ence. If this is true, then the result is that evangelical document. Christians can seek to engage existentially with the realities pointed to by the Scriptures, while being On this issue, at one level, Pentecostals are mod- less concerned about what the relevant secular or ernists and read their Bibles in faith as the inspired, scientific disciplines may or may not say about infallible, and often, inerrant Word of God, even if such matters. they may never have heard of these terms. This is in part because the earliest Pentecostals at the turn I will make my case in three steps, corresponding of the twentieth century came mostly from the Holi- to the three major sections of this article, by arguing ness movement and carried over their commonsense that (1) Pentecostal biblical interpretation (herme- realist approach to the Scriptures.6 Yetatthesame neutics), our case study, is fundamentally soterio- time, if their other commonsense realist cousins, the logical and pneumatological, that is, focused on the fundamentalists, were interested in defending the ongoing redemptive work of the Holy Spirit, rather historical veracity of the biblical claims, Pentecostals than merely historical; (2) such a soteriological and were more motivated pragmatically by what the pneumatological way of reading the Bible can be Bible meant for their day-to-day lives.7 Hence, it was appropriately applied to the Genesis narrative as well, not so much that Pentecostals dismissed the histori- resulting in a more expansive theology of creation cal dimensions of the biblical accounts, but that they than that produced by concordism in its creationist collapsed the presumed distinction between the guises; and (3) the result will be a distinctive contem- scriptural text and its contemporary readers. For porary contribution to the Christian understanding them, what was important was not so much what of the “two books” of God’s revelation, Scripture and happened back then, as it was how the back-then creation/nature, one that preserves the integrity of and the here-and-now were connected. 4 Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith Amos Yong Pentecostal scholar Rickie Moore has highlighted history but as salvation history, i.e., not merely as thedifferencethisPentecostalapproachmakesfor a historical document about what happened but as biblical interpretation.8 Whereas the historical-criti- a literary-theological document about what may and cal methodology long prominent in the guild of bib- even should happen. lical scholarship measures the historicity of the Bible against modernist canons of plausibility, a Pentecos- Of course, the wider theological academy has also tal hermeneutics highlights instead the uniqueness been discovering that the Bible can and should be read theologically and soteriologically rather than of biblical history vis-à-vis any contemporary gener- merely historically and that the line between history ation of readers or interpreters. So whereas modern and theology is much more blurred than assumed historical criticism emphasizes the objectivity of the within the modernist framework. Thus, many other text over and against the interpreter, Pentecostals scholars have come to recognize, even appreciate, observe instead the “this is that”—our or my experi- the theological nature of the Acts narrative.10 But ence (this) is equivalent to the reality accomplished Pentecostals have, from the very beginning, read Acts in the lives of the biblical characters or anticipated as having ongoing and contemporary relevance, as by them (that)—character of the Bible in relationship

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