Reception of Scripture and History in Pentecostal Keys

Context, History, and Social RealityReception is very important in the history of religion and theological scholarship.A prophecy is not only revealed but is also received.If prophets spoke and their audiences did not receive their inspired words and deem them worthy to be preserved and handed over to the next generation, then today we would not have their prophecies.Scriptures are not only passed down and live among us as transhistorical elements; rather, they also live and move in reception history.Christians do not only have biblical passages and stories, but rather they also possess histories of their interpretations, which change over time and influence how they receive God's words and thus inform the ethos of their communities.In social (theological) ethics, scholars talk about how particular biblical teachings or stories hit the ground, meaning how the interpretations of the passages collude with, collide with, or confront the hard social realities of human existence to produce and sustain the lived experiences of people.Practical theologians also concern themselves with how "ordinary Christians" receive, process, and innovate the words from Scripture, pulpits, and academic theological systems to fashion their everyday living.Scripture transforms people, not by bully force but by enlargement of perspective.To understand this "weak force" we must comprehend how theologies of Christian Scripture shape the narratives and meaning-making frameworks of the people it encounters and how, in turn, their lived experiences or historical contexts impact their interpretations or uptake of the Scripture and its theologies into their quotidian thoughts and strategies of survival and flourishing.Scrutinizing this dialogical conversation between text and context provides the traces and tracing of reception history of religion, Scripture, and theology.This edition of Pneuma subtly explores the theme of reception through multiple lenses.Two of the essays in it examine how Pentecostals, over time, have described and explained certain biblical passages or narratives.Melissa Archer's 2022 sps Presidential Address, "The S/spirit of Jezebel and the Spirit of Prophecy," offers a brilliant reception history of a biblical text, Revelation 2:18-29, interweaving into it the exegetical analysis of violence against women

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