Between Service and Scripture: A Qualitative Study of Missional Hermeneutics

Abstract

Using a qualitative research method known as narrative inquiry, the authors undertake an exercise in empirical hermeneutics in a Latino church context in order to explore the formative effects of participation in mission on biblical interpreters. The analysis leads to the construction of a twofold hermeneutical model that provisionally answers our research question: the relationship between participants’ experiences of mission and their understandings of the Bible seems to consist of dynamics designated as missional emplotment and narrative fusion.