Post your articles online and promote your website for free! Boost your sites ranking by linking it from the ArticleZap database! Free Article directory and instant translation publishing!
tongues, gift of, or GL0SS0LALIA (Greek glOssa, “tongue,” lalia, “talking”), utterances approximating words and speech, usually associated with intense religious excitement. The vocal organs of the speaker are affected, the tongue moves without the conscious control of the speaker, and unintelligible speech pours forth. According to religious interpretations of the phenomenon, the speaker is considered to be possessed by a supernatural spirit, in conversation with divine beings or the channel of a divine proclamation. Glossolalia occurred in some of the ancient Greek religions and in various primitive religions. There are references to ecstatic speech in the Old Testament (I Sam. 10:5—13, 19:18—24; II Sam. 6:13—17; I Kings 20:35—37), and in Christianity it has occurred periodically since the beginning of the church.
Glossolalia first occurred among the followers of Jesus at Pentecost (Acts 2) when “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”. (Acts 2:4). The Apostle Paul referred to it as a spiritual gift (I Cor. 12—14) and claimed that he possessed exceptional ability in that gift (I Cor. 14:18). The account in Acts (4:31, 8:14—17, 10:44-48, 11:15—17, 19:1—7) indicates that in the beginning of the Christian Church the phenomenon reappeared wherever conversion and commitment to Christianity occurred. Paul urged restraint in the practice, however, since such a spectacular spiritual gift could be abused. Edification, as opposed to personal satisfaction, was set as the test of acceptable glossolalia. If the meaning could not be disclosed, Paul regarded it with suspicion, and he “would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in atongue”The greatest emphasis upon the gift in the early church was made by followers of the 2nd-century prophet Montanus.
His excommunication about 177 and the later declme of the sect probably contributed to a climate of opinion unfavourable to tongue speaking and the practice declined.
During later church history, glossolalia occurred in various groups, including the 13th- century mendicant friars, the French Protestant Camisards (18th century), the French Catholic Jansenists (17th and 18th centuries), and the members of the Catholic Apostolic Church (organized in England in the 19th century). It has been said that some of the early Quakers, the Shakers, and some early converts to Methodism also experienced glossolalia. In modern times, it occurred during various Protestant revivals in the U.S. in the early 20th century. These revivals resulted in the establishment of many Pentecostal churches, which in the early 1970s had more than 8,000,000 members. During the l960s speaking in tongues also occurred in some of the older Christian churches; including the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, In addition to the religious interpretations of
glossolalia as a supernatural occurrence, various psychological interpretations have attempted to explain it as a natural occurrence. It has been suggested that it is a charlatan’s technique; a neurotic or psychotic symptom; a form of epilepsy; or, most commonly, a hypnotic phenomenon resulting from religious excitement.
