Toward a Theology of "speaking in Tongues"

THE INCREASING frequency of the phenomenon of "speaking in tongues," in the Roman Catholic and other Christian denominations, challenges one to outline a "theology" of this spiritual gift. Morton Kelsey has made an important contribution in the field of psychology. However, while psychological investigations are valid and interesting, they can hardly throw adequate light on supernatural phenomena. One may compare 1 Cor 2:14-16: "The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. Tor who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him?' But we have the mind of Christ. The present essay will be approached purely from the biblical point of view. First, it might be useful to give a brief survey of representative exegetical expositions of the pertinent scriptural texts. After this we shall discuss "tongues" from (a) the individual's and (6) the community's point of view. It is becoming impossible to assemble all the articles relating to glossolalia. Our main interest, however lies in the fact that there is a general tendency among more recent exegetes to accept to some degree the validity of this spiritual experience, to interpret "tongues" as genuine languages uttered in nonecstatic state rather than "gibberish" in ecstatic or frenzied state.