In the modern age, Western hermeneutics increasingly followed the historical-grammatical method. Allegorical, typological, spiritual, and theological readings of Scripture within Scripture were typically attributed to divine authority. As such, they were not commended to future, non-inspired readers of a closed canon. Such readings in pre-modern Christianity were often dismissed as the interpretive approach of a primitive era. In many academic evangelical circles, no room remains for such interpretation, despite its biblical and historical precedent. Instead, the historical-grammatical approach is elevated as the only responsible hermeneutic of Scripture.
Conversely, global evangelicalism includes a host of hermeneutic approaches. These include allegorical, typological, spiritual, and theological readings of Scripture. While such approaches are sometimes connected to heterodox, and even heretical, belief and action, in many cases they are completely congruent with orthodox Christian faith and practice. The global evangelical community offers a rich and diverse collection of hermeneutical approaches to Scripture which commend themselves to modernistic, Western evangelicals.
Recently, the modernistic monopoly on hermeneutics has been challenged in the academy, both by postmodern approaches and the theological interpretation of Scripture. Postmodern approaches indicate the significance of individual, linguistic, contextual, cultural, and social dimensions in biblical interpretation. Theological interpretation of Scripture highlights canonical, intertextual, theological, and applied readings of Scripture as a collection of normative documents for a historical and living faith. Sometimes, these varied interpretive approaches are treated as mutually exclusive or a threat to the integrity of biblical hermeneutics. However, by exploring hermeneutics at the intersection of Scripture, history, theology, and globalism I argue for a different approach.
I contend that pre-modern, modern, and postmodern approaches should be synthesized to read Scripture as a complex collection of literature with literal, allegorical/typological, social/cultural, and spiritual/theological meaning for the Church. Further, such extra-modern readings of Scripture are preferable to an exclusively modern Western approach focused on historical-grammatical interpretation. Instead, the Western church can learn from global evangelicalism as it has historically embraced a far more diverse array of hermeneutical approaches that more fully capture and communicate the textured and complex messages of Scripture.