Unbound bible: Empirical hermeneutics in latin migrant pentecostal congregations in the nordics

Abstract

The triad of Spirit, Word, and Community is a model that often represents Pentecostal hermeneutics. Focusing on the Word—a particularly elusive term for the Pentecostal hermeneutics—this study suggests some insights from an ethnography among Latin Pentecostal networks in the Nordic countries. Despite holding the Word with high regard, it exists as an “unbound Bible.” The Word is multiform: the Bible as an artifact, the relational divine agent, and a message. Many interpretative practices shape and limit the content of this unbound Bible. These interpretative practices include an analogical narrative reading that associates migration stories with biblical content, transnational and multilingual contexts, and a fragmentary and recursive reconfiguring of biblical texts for proper occasions. This study contributes to understanding migrant hermeneutics and discusses the Pentecostal triadic model of Spirit, Word, and Community.