Kerygmatic Hermeneutics (Review)

One of my passions in theology is hermeneutics. As a Pentecostal, I want to understand the biblical text in its’ original context and apply it faithfully to our current cultural context. Whenever, I see a book on the subject with an emphasis on Pentecostal understanding, I want to grab it. Kerygmatic Hermeneutics is one of the better works I have read.

I am not super familiar with Dr. Swee Sum Lam. She is from Singapore and works with the Asian Pastoral Institute. This is one of the things I was encouraged by when I agreed to review this book. I wanted a non-American and non-Western view on the subject of biblical interpretation. Despite our attempts, our cultural boundaries bleed through our educational bais. (Everyone has them!)

According to her bio, she came from being a financial analyst and accountant before teaching finance at the National University of Singapore. I wondered how being in secular academia was going to influence how biblical theology was handled. Most professors in our universities have only experience in the church and not the “real world.”

Early in the book, it became clear because she has about a five page list of definitions for the rest of the book. It was clearly formed as you would expect an analyst would!

Epistemology and Biblical Interpretation

One of the main subjects in the book is the matter of epistemology and how we address it in connection with hermeneutics. In order for the scriptures to be truly divine, we have to test them against self-deception and self-service. Could man manipulate the text to serve their own purposes?

Kerygmatic hermeneutics is about knowing what to say, how to act, and live in the Spirit. (p. 99)

Epistemology in biblical interpretation puts a high emphasis on the “here and now” of truth. In other words, how does the Bible changes us, transform us and deliver us from sin. A lesser emphasis is put on theories such as eschatology. One of the strengths of the book was coming back to having fresh insight into the scriptures found in prophetic revelation in the ongoing work of God’s plan for humanity.

In a Western mindset that tends to focus on theory over practical, this is a challenge to our theological process. How we do value the journey of our hermeneutics, not just what we came to believe. American education is really about the “bottom line” and its defending of it. Therefore, reading about the process or the journey and why that is more important was a culturally foreign challenge for Americans.

What is called Spirit Epistemology is the continuity of the Spirit’s work in our lives through biblical understanding of the text. As we rightly break into the passages, we would be alerted and awakened to the move of the Spirit in encountering the living Word. An example of this when someone who has never pray in tongues is reading Acts 2 and for the first time, they pray in tongues (even if they theologically don’t agree with it!)

Overly philosophical?

For some, they might find the book to be a little too much philosophy? This book was actually a doctoral dissertation for the School of Theology and Religion at Durham University. As a result, there are some points in the reading that I realized that the “common Christian” might be lost in theological and academic language. This is a challenge for many professors. However, the issue is present at Kerygmatic hermeneutics.

In fact, the title in and of itself has that challenge. Most people do not use kerygmatic in their everyday language. It means to “proclaim the whole gospel of Jesus.” In other words, it is a hermeneutic that is full gospel that includes the healing and delivering elements of the atonement in our understanding of scripture. However, expecting the common person in the pew of our churches to know kerygmatic is a little outlandish.

This is somewhat expected when you consider that Dr. Swee Sum Lam has two doctorates of Philosophy (Ph.D) Being able to “kiss” (Keep it simple, stupid) is not a normal concern. For someone that is not academic in nature, having Google open might be helpful if her little dictionary at the front of the book for terms doesn’t help.

When I was teaching at the bible college level in the Philippines, I realize that being philosophical in nature was a boundaries between myself and my students. I have learned since then to move away from sounding smart to make sure everyone understands what I am presenting. This could be a major issue for some.

Required reading for hermeneutics

When I teach classes on the subject, this is one of the required reading. I use it next to Craig Keener’s Spirit Hermeneutics and Amos Yong’s The Hermeneutical Spirit. The issue of Epistemology is such an issue for growing in understanding of the biblical text that I make it a text on the bible college level. The reasoning behind this is that I want people to learn how to read scripture, not just tell people what they read. The process of how to think biblically is more important than repeating some greek words.

Many people don’t walk in the Spirit as they engage with the narrative of the scripture. This has been a common challenge for people, especially outside of the Pentecostal churches. They see biblical reading and prayer as two different disciplines of the believer. It is foreign to them as see them as something like a rope that comes together as one thing to strengthen the believer in the canonical writings and in the Spirit through prayer.

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