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"Tongues" redirects here. For the body part, see Tongue , for other uses, see Tongue (disambiguation) . Glossolalia (from Greek ''glossa'' ''γλώσσα'' "tongue, language" and ''lalô'' ''λαλώ'' "speak, speaking") is the practice of making unintelligible utterances, often as part of religious practices. Frederic William Farrar first used the word ''glossolalia'' in 1879. Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed, 1989 Xenoglossy "the phenomenon of uttering intelligible words of a language unknown to the speaker" which some authors use interchangeably with ''glossolalia'' meaning "speak in tongues", while others use it to differentiate whether or not the utterances are intelligible as a Natural Language . While occurrences of glossolalia are widespread and well documented, there is considerable debate within religious communities (principally Christian) and elsewhere as to both its status (the extent to which glossolalic utterances can be considered to form language), and its source (whether glossolalia is a natural, supernatural, or spiritual phenomenon). The origin of the modern Charismatic Christian concept of speaking in tongues is the Miracle of Pentecost , recounted in the New Testament book of Acts, in which Jesus' apostles were said to be filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in languages foreign to themselves, but which could be understood by members of the linguistically diverse audience. CHRISTIAN PRACTICE Glossolalia is featured both in Christian scriptures and in the practice of some contemporary Christians and Christian Denominations . New Testament In the New Testament , the book of Acts recounts how "tongues of fire" descended upon the heads of the Apostle s, accompanied by the miraculous occurrence of speaking in languages unknown to them, but recognizable to others present as their own native language. The phenomenon described in the is variously interpreted either as religious xenoglossia, the speaking of an actual foreign language, or as the gift of interpretation being given to those present: the ability to understand the tongues (each person in his own language). Some of the Orthodox hymns sung at the Feast of Pentecost, which commemorates this event in Acts, describe it as a reversal of what happened at the Tower Of Babel as described in Genesis 11. In other words, the languages of humanity were differentiated at the Tower of Babel leading to confusion, but were reunited at Pentecost, resulting in the immediate proclamation of the Gospel to people who were gathered in Jerusalem from many different countries. Although the ). Biblical descriptions of persons actually 'speaking in tongues' occur three times in the book of Acts , the first two coupled with the phenomenon of the Baptism With The Holy Spirit , and the third with the laying on of hands by Paul the Apostle (at which time they 'received the Holy Spirit'), which embued them with the power of the Holy Spirit. Church history Twentieth-century Pentecostalism was not the earliest instance of "speaking in tongues" in Church History ; rather, there were antecedents in several centuries of the Christian era, e.g.
Contemporary Christian The modern practice of glossolalia is often said to have originated around the beginning of the twentieth century in the United States. The city of Topeka, Kansas is often cited as the center of the Pentecostal movement and the resurgence of glossolalia in the Church. Charles Fox Parham , a Holiness preacher and founder of Bethel Bible College in 1900, is given the credit to being the one who influenced modern Pentecostalism . During what has been called a sermon by Parham, a bold student named Agnes Ozman asked him for prayer and the Laying On Of Hands to specifically ask God to fill her with the Holy Spirit . This was the night of New Year's Eve, 1900. She became the first of many students to experience glossolalia, coincidentally in the first hours of the twentieth century. Parham followed within the next few days, and before the end of January 1901, glossolalia was being discussed in newspapers as a sign of the second advent of Pentecost. Parham now found himself as the leader of the movement and traveled to church meetings around the country to preach the terminology of that era about ''holiness,'' ''divine healing,'' ''healing by faith,'' the ''laying on of hands and prayer,'' ''sanctification by faith,'' and the signs of '' Baptism Of The Holy Ghost And Fire ,'' the most prominent being ''speaking in tongues''. http://www.originalapostolicfaith.org/1900AFRVol2No3.pdf ''The Apostolic Faith,'' Volume 2, No. 3, January 1, 1900. http://www.originalapostolicfaith.org/our_history.htm http://www.godsgenerals.com/person_c_parham.htm Word of the outpouring of the Spirit spread to other Holiness congregations. Parham wrote, studied, traveled, preached, and taught about glossolalia for the next few years. Parham and others who believed in or manifested tongues were persecuted from both inside and outside of the church. In 1905, he opened a Bible school in Houston. It was there that William J. Seymour became indoctrinated. It is notable that Seymour was black, and Parham was white. It is further notable that Seymour did not speak in tongues while in Houston. When Seymour was invited to speak in Los Angeles about the baptism of the Holy Spirit in February 1906, he accepted. His first speaking engagement was met with dispute, primarily because he preached about "tongues" being a primary indication of the baptism of the Spirit, yet he did not himself speak in tongues. It was not until April that his preaching and teaching about glossolalia paid dividends, first to a man named Edward Lee, and later to Seymour. Similar to the experience of Parham in 1901 , Seymour's students received the ability to speak in tongues a few days before he did. By May , and (at best) too overly focused on the Holy Spirit instead of Jesus Christ . The matter of glossolalia was then (as it is now) hotly debated within the Church as being either Heresy or exemplary and necessary for a spiritual rebirth in Jesus Christ. The revival at Azusa Street lasted until around 1915. But from it grew many new Protestant churches and denominations, as people visited the church in Los Angeles and took their new found beliefs to communities around the US and abroad. Many denominations rejected the doctrines of Parham and Seymour, while some denominations adopted them in one form or another. Baptism Of The Holy Spirit was a doctrine that was embraced by the Assemblies Of God (est. 1914 ) and Pentecostal Church Of God (est. 1919 ) and others. Glossolalia became entrenched into the doctrines of many Protestant churches and Denominations in the twentieth century. The later Charismatic Movement was heavily influenced by the Azusa Street Revival and Pentecostalism 's glossolalia. Some Christians practice glossolalia as a part of their private devotions and some sections of Christianity also accept and sometimes promote the use of glossolalia within corporate worship. This is particularly true within the Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions. Both Pentecostals and Charismatics believe that the ability to speak in tongues, and sometimes the utterance itself, is a supernatural gift from God. Three different manifestations or forms of glossolalia can be identified in Charismatic / Pentecostal belief. The "sign of tongues" refers to Xenoglossia , wherein one speaks a foreign language he has never learned. The "gift of tongues" or "giving a tongue" refers to a glossolalic utterance by an individual and addressed to a congregation of, typically, other believers. This utterance is believed to be inspired directly by the Holy Spirit and requires a natural language interpretation, made by the speaker or another person if it is to be understood by others present. Lastly "praying in the spirit" is typically used to refer to glossolalia as part of personal prayer. Christians who practice glossolalia typically describe their experience as a regular and even mundane aspect of private prayer that tends to be associated with calm and pleasant emotions. This is in contrast to the perception of glossolalia amongst Christians who witness but do not practice glossolalia, and those who have no experience of glossolalia. Both tend to see speaking in tongues as a group activity associated with heightened emotion and excitement.Grady, B., & Loewenthal, K. M. (1997). Features associated with speaking in tongues (glossolalia). ''British Journal of Medical Psychology, 70'', 185-191. Controversy The discussion regarding tongues has permeated many branches of the Christian Church, particularly since the widespread Charismatic Movement in the 1960s. Many books have been published either defendingExample: Christenson, Laurence, ''Speaking in tongues : and its significance for the church'', Minneapolis, MN : Dimension Books, 1968. or attackingExample: Gromacki, Robert Glenn, ''The modern tongues movement'', Nutley, N.J. : Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1973, ISBN 0875523048 (Originally published 1967) the practice. Like almost any other issue, it mostly depends on how centralized a church is, or how much they regulate policy for assemblies and individuals. Most churches fall into one of the following categories of the theological spectrum: 1) Pentecostals - believe glossolia is the initial evidence of receipt of the full blessing of the Holy Spirit; 2) Charismatics - believe glossolia is not necessarily evidence of salvation, but is edifying and encouraged; 3) Cessationalists and Dispensationalists believe glossolia is not evidence of salvation, and that most or all authentic miraculous gifts have either ceased abruptly, or were phased out gradually, sometime after the death of the "last" apostle John, and sometime before or around the time the bible was completed and canonised. OTHER RELIGIONS Aside from Christians, certain religious groups also have been observed to practice some form of ''theopneustic glossolalia''. Glossolalia is evident in the renowned ancient Oracle Of Delphi , whereby a priestess of the god Apollo (called a Sibyl ) speaks in unintelligible utterances, supposedly through the spirit of Apollo in her. Certain Gnostic magical texts from the Roman period have written on them unintelligible syllables like "t t t t t t t t n n n n n n n n n d d d d d d d..." etc. It is believed that these may be transliterations of the sorts of sounds made during glossolalia. The Coptic Gospel Of The Egyptians also features a hymn of (mostly) unintelligible syllables which is thought to be an early example of Christian glossolalia. In the 19th century, Spiritism was developed into a religion of its own thanks to the work of Allan Kardec and the phenomenon was seen as one of the self-evident manifestations of Spirit s. Spiritists argued that some cases were actually cases of Xenoglossia (when one speaks in a language unknown to him). However, the importance attributed to it, as well as its frequency, has since decreased significantly. Present-day spiritists regard the phenomenon pointless, as it does not convey any intelligible message to those present. Glossolalia has also been observed in Shamanism and the Voodoo religion of Haiti . SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES Linguistics The syllables that make up instances of glossolalia typically appear to be unpatterned reorganizations of Phoneme s from the primary language of the person uttering the syllables; thus, the glossolalia of people from Russia , the United Kingdom , and Brazil all sound quite different from each other, but vaguely resemble the Russian, English, and Portuguese languages, respectively. Many Linguists generally regard most glossolalia as lacking any identifiable Semantics , Syntax , or Morphology .http://www.meta-religion.com/Linguistics/Glossolalia/contemporary_linguistic_study.htm Glossolalia has even been postulated as an explanation for the Voynich Manuscript .1 Psychology The first scientific study of glossolalia was done by psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin as part of his research into the linguistic behaviour of Schizophrenic patients. In 1927, G.B. Cutten published his book ''Speaking with tongues; historically and psychologically considered'', which was regarded a standard in medical literature for many years. Like Kraepelin, he linked glossolalia to schizophrenia and Hysteria . In 1972, John Kildahl took a different psychological perspective in his book ''The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues''. He stated that glossolalia was not necessarily a symptom of a mental illness and that glossolalists suffer less from Stress . He did observe, however, that glossolalists tend to have more need of authority figures and appeared to have had more crises in their lives. A 2003 statistical study by the religious journal Pastoral Psychology concluded that, among the 991 male evangelical clergy sampled, glossolalia was associated with stable extraversion, and contrary to some theories, completely unrelated to psychopathology.Francis L.J. and Robbins M., Personality and Glossolalia: A Study Among Male Evangelical Clergy, Pastoral Psychology, Volume 51, Number 5, May 2003, pp. 391-396(6) Nicholas Spanos described glossolalia as an acquired ability, for which no real trance is needed (''Glossolalia as Learned Behavior: An Experimental Demonstration'', 1987). Neuroscience In 2006, at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers, under the direction of Andrew Newberg, MD, completed the world’s first brain-scan study of a group of individuals while they were speaking in tongues. The study concluded that while participants were exercising glossolalia, activity in the language centers of the brain actually decreased, while activity in the emotional centers of the brain increased. During this study, researchers observed significant cerebral blood flow changes among individuals while exercising glossolalia, concluding that the observed changes were consistent with some of the described aspects of glossolalia. Further, the researchers observed no changes in any language areas, suggesting that glossolalia is not associated with usual language function. One of the researchers is a practitioner of glossolalia and a self-described "born-again Christian".Andrew Newberg, Nancy Wintering and Donna Morgan (Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ): Cerebral blood flow during the complex vocalization task of glossolalia, J Nucl Med. 2006; 47 (Supplement 1):316P New York Times wrote about the study, and it has been published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, Volume 148, Issue 1, 22 November 2006, Pages 67-71 . BIBLICAL REFERENCES
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