Exploring the Marcan account of the Baptism of Jesus through psychological type lenses: An empirical study within a Black-led Black-majority Pentecostal church

Abstract

This study explores the effect of psychological type preferences on the interpretation of scripture among members of a Black-led Black-majority Pentecostal church in a multi-cultural city in the Midlands of England. The passage of scripture studied, the Marcan account of the baptism of Jesus, is rich in Pentecostal imagery. The data demonstrate that, while particular themes and nuances of the Pentecostal tradition are clearly voiced in the interpretation, the way in which sensing types and intuitive types approached the interpretation of Mark 1: 4-9 are distinctively different. The sensing types paid clear attention to the details of the text, while the intuitive types gave greater emphasis to the ideas and connections sparked by the narrative. These findings extend the validity of the psychologically-informed reader perspective approach to biblical hermeneutics pioneered by the SIFT method into the field of Pentecostal hermeneutics.

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