Citation

Nel M. J. Pentecost. Theol. 2018; 27(2): 307-325.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Church of God, School of Theology (Cleveland, Tenn.), Publisher Brill Academic Publishers)

DOI

10.1163/17455251-02702007

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Early Pentecostalism was mostly a pacifist movement that sees itself as a community that resolves conflicts and disputes through confrontation, forgiveness, and reconciliation in a nonviolent manner. Since the 1940s, this important emphasis was lost due to the influence of the evangelicals with whom the Pentecostals allied. The hypothesis of the paper is that it was due to evangelical influence on their hermeneutics that Pentecostals lost their pacifist stance. To regain the emphasis, Pentecostals need to realign their hermeneutics with its early practice. A hermeneutical pacifist emphasis suitable for the inherently violent South African society is described in order to ground a Pentecostal homiletics of non-resistance. Such a homiletics will fearlessly address the issue of violence against women, combining biblical texts that are exegeted, preferably by women, with a hermeneutic of suspicion to expose male interest in justifying rape and violence and supported by women's testimonies of their sexual harassment.

Language: en