The Pentecostal Reappropriation of Common Sense Realism

Abstract

AbstractThe paper traces the early Pentecostal appropriation of common sense realism. In the first part of this paper, a general overview of the ascent of common sense philosophy will be provided. In the second part, the early Pentecostal's Bible Reading Method shall be examined, as it is characterized by Kenneth J. Archer, highlighting how early Pentecostals employed a Baconian-influenced common sense method, one that produced confidence that the facts of Scripture could be discovered as clearly as the facts of science. Although this paper is primarily a reconstruction of the historical influence that common sense philosophy had upon early Pentecostalism, in the third part I offer a suggestion for (a) contemporary reappropriation of common sense realism within the Renewal movement.