Speaking in tongues
Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is an activity or practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables that lack any readily comprehensible meaning. In some cases, as part of religious practice, some believe it to be a divine language unknown to the speaker.[1] Glossolalia is practiced in Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity,[2][3] as well as in other religions.[4]
Sometimes a distinction is made between "glossolalia" and "xenolalia", or "xenoglossy", which specifically relates to the belief that the language being spoken is a natural language previously unknown to the speaker.[5][6]
- ^ Colman, Andrew M., ed. (2009). "Glossolalia". A Dictionary of Psychology. Oxford University Press. p. 319. Retrieved 5 August 2011.
- ^ Lum, Kathryn Gin; Harvey, Paul (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History. Oxford University Press. p. 801. ISBN 978-0190856892.
... would prove influential on the development of black Pentecostalism in the early twentieth century, as glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, would be understood as a third work of grace following Holiness and receipt of the Holy Spirit.
- ^ The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. 1999. p. 415. ISBN 978-9004116955.
While in Houston, Texas, where he had moved his headquarters, Parham came into contact with William Seymour (1870–1922), an African-American Baptist-Holiness preacher. Seymour took from Parham the teaching that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was not the blessing of sanctification but rather a third work of grace that was accompanied by the experience of tongues
- ^ Whelan, Christal (2007). "Shifting Paradigms and Mediating Media: Redefining a New Religion as "Rational" in Contemporary Society". Nova Religio. 10 (3): 54–72. doi:10.1525/nr.2007.10.3.54. Archived from the original on 19 March 2025.
- ^ Cheryl Bridges Johns and Frank Macchia, "Glossolalia", The Encyclopedia of Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI; Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999–2003), 413.
- ^ Esler, Philip Francis (2002). The First Christians in Their Social Worlds: Social-scientific Approaches to New Testament Interpretation. Routledge. p. 49. ISBN 9781134833818.