Pentecostal Hermeneutics and the Marginalisation of Women

Abstract

The Pentecostal movement remains one of ambivalence, tensions and paradoxes. On the surface, worship and practice appear democratic, yet research shows that women and men do not occupy the same status because the movement endorses male dominance and submission of women to men. While there is a sense that men and women are equal because both can receive the Spirit, women still remain in the margins. Sometimes women are affirmed and accepted because of the emancipatory role of the Spirit, but at other times they are marginalised through oppressive interpretative practices of the Bible. Although women are given voice, especially because of the belief within Pentecostal churches that the Holy Spirit speaks through men and women, the same voice is taken away when women are subordinated to male power. As such the Pentecostal space is ambivalent, although women are not completely silenced, they occupy a subordinate position. In this article I seek to demonstrate that the marginalisation of Pentecostal women is due to a considerable extent to the ways in which the Bible is read and interpreted within the Pentecostal tradition. I seek to demonstrate that there is a link between the marginalisation of women and Pentecostal hermeneutical strategies such as literal readings and prooftexting of the Bible. I will also highlight how the interpretation of the Trinity is also implicated in the marginalisation of women. In the final section of the article I will demonstrate how Pentecostals' openness to the work of the Holy Spirit should be a destabilising principle for all Pentecostals' oppressive activities, especially Pentecostal hermeneutics which tends to favour men over and above women.

Household and gender

“…Rosina Mmannana Gabaitse, a lecturer in biblical studies and theology at the University of Botswana, has studied how these ideologies and practices of gender in the Pentecostal churches are culturally constructed, especially through their use of the Bible (Gabaitse 2015). I gather that she speaks from within a Pentecostal context where she identifies with the "articulated Pentecostal hermeneutic," over against the "unarticulated Pentecostal hermeneutics."…”

Towards a decolonial hermeneutic of experience in African Pentecostal Christianity: A South African perspective

“…Van Dijk (2000:11) sees the Mission Pentecostal movement as being fundamentalist not only in theology, but in the construction of its identity and relations vis-à-vis pneumatic AICs, mainline Christianity and traditional culture. Dube (2014:2), Gabaitse (2015) and Nel (2017) highlight gender exclusion among Pentecostals which they ascribe to a specific anti-Pentecostal hermeneutic in the movement. According to Dube (2014:2) and Nel (2017), insistence on biblical inerrancy, which Pentecostals have adopted from fundamentalism, explains the exclusion of women from leadership.…”

The Black Charismatic Church Ministries and the New Social Practice of Family in the Eastern Cape

“…Thus, women and children remain on the margins. 81,82 It was clear from the experiences and actions of some respondents that the socialisation which took place in the communal setting of BCCMs embraced the African cultural norms of the caregiving process. This not only suggested the presence of responsible adults and responsible citizens, but also promoted relations of power between boys and girls.…”