Towards a Pentecostal, Postcolonial Reading of the New Testament

Abstract

Although both Pentecostalism and postcolonial thought seem to stand poles apart, they have a remarkable amount in common. Early Pentecostal revivals largely sprang from ‘subaltern groups’, people groups marginalized by colonial power and dominant groups. Bringing together Pentecostalism and postcolonial thought is a complex task, but one that promises to yield positive results. Exploring the text through the twin lenses of postcolonial thought and the distinctive Pentecostal emphasis on pneumatology results in a fresh hermeneutical perspective: that the Holy Spirit might be understood as a postcolonial agent of change that empowers those who have experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit to resist dominant structures of oppression. The New Testament text can therefore be understood as a ‘hidden transcript’, a disguised work of resistance composed by subaltern groups against dominance and oppression. This article therefore seeks to explore the theoretical underpinnings of a ‘Pentecostal, postcolonial reading’ of the New Testament.