glossolalia

glossolalia [Gr.,=speaking in tongues], ecstatic utterances usually of unintelligible sounds made by individuals in a state of religious excitement. Religious revivals are often accompanied by manifestations of glossolalia, and various Pentecostal (see Pentecostalism ) movements cite for authority the Acts of the Apostles, which records that on the day of Pentecost the Apostles "were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability." There are other New Testament references to the phenomenon. The Corinthian believers overvalued the gift; Paul in 1 Corinthians encouraged the orderly use of the gift and "interpretation" of the utterance so that all might be edified. In Acts, however, the use of the gift produces speech in other human languages as a kind of reversal of the confusion of tongues produced at the Tower of Babel .

Bibliography: See J. P. Kildahl, The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues (1972); G. T. Montague, The Spirit and His Gifts (1974).

glossolalia Greek for ‘speaking in tongues’, one of the gifts to the Church in Paul's list (1 Cor. 12: 10) but scarcely encouraged by him (1 Cor. 14: 23) and not mentioned at all in another list (Rom. 12: 6–8). It may be the phenomenon at Pentecost (Acts 2: 4) when those in the upper room are said in a reversal of the confusion at Babel (Gen. 11: 1–9) to have uttered understandable foreign languages. There are indeed records of similar surprises later in the Church (e.g. among persecuted Huguenots in France) and among Muslims. When, however, linguistic experts have been able to taperecord speakers alleged to be uttering a new language in a state of religious enthusiasm, it has never been possible to identify the language or discern any grammar or structure.

glossolalia the phenomenon of (apparently) speaking in an unknown language, especially in religious worship. It is practised especially by Pentecostal and charismatic Christians.