Pentecostal Rationality : Epistemology and Theological Hermeneutics in the Foursquare Tradition Hardback

by Rev Dr Simo Frestadius

Part of the T&T Clark Systematic Pentecostal and Charismatic Theology series

Hardback

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Description

This book not only articulates a tradition-specific Pentecostal rationality of Biblical Pragmatism, but also provides the first intellectual history of a major British classical Pentecostal denomination: the Elim Pentecostal Church.

Pentecostal theologians increasingly acknowledge that their theological methodology should be informed by a Pentecostal rationality, epistemology and theological hermeneutics.

Simo Frestadius offers such a Pentecostal rationality from a Foursquare perspective.

Frestadius first analyses and evaluates some of the main contemporary Pentecostal rationalities and epistemologies to date, with a particular emphasis on the works of Amos Yong and James K.A.

Smith and L. William Oliverio Jr., before proposing that Alasdair MacIntyreâ€™s tradition-focused and historically-minded narrative approach is conducive in providing a more tradition-constituted Pentecostal rationality.

Utilising the methodological insights of MacIntyre, the book then provides a philosophically informed historical narrative of a major British Pentecostal tradition, namely, the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance, by exploring its underlying context and roots as a classical Pentecostal movement, its emergence as a religious tradition, and its two major â€˜epistemological crisesâ€™.

Based on this historical narration and analysis, it is argued that Elimâ€™s tacit Pentecostal rationality is best defined as Pentecostal Biblical Pragmatism in a Foursquare Gospel framework.

This form of rationality is then developed vis-Ã -vis Elimâ€™s Pentecostal concept of truth, biblical hermeneutics, and pragmatic epistemic justification in dialogue with William P.

Alston. In doing the above, the book not only articulates a tradition-specific Pentecostal rationality of Biblical Pragmatism but also provides the first intellectual history of a major British classical Pentecostal denomination.