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Glossolalia: the Challenges and Remedies of the Nature and Functions Evaluating Tongues in the Christian Church: an Integrated Approach

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Glossolalia: the Challenges and Remedies of the Nature and Functions Evaluating Tongues in the Christian Church: an Integrated Approach IAR Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies ISSN Print : 2709-3328 | ISSN Online : 2709-3336 Frequency : Bi-Monthly Language : English Origin : Kenya Website : https://www.iarconsortium.org/journal-info/iarjhcs Review Article Glossolalia: The Challenges And Remedies of The Nature and Functions Evaluating Tongues in The Christian Church: An Integrated Approach Article History Abstract: Received: 05.09.2020 Accepted: 02.10.2020 Revision: 09.10.2020 Published: 10.10.2020 Keywords: Release Kinetics, TDDS patch & Tramadol HCL. Author Details INTRODUCTION “The rise of the charismatic movement within virtually every mainstream Chesosi Bonface Kimutai Church has ensured that the Holy Spirit figures prominently on the theological agenda. A new experience of the reality and power of the Holy Spirit has had a major impact upon the theological discussion of the 1 Authors Affiliations person and the work of the Holy Spirit.” Anglican priest and a Lecturer St Pauls Tongues in other Religion. Theological college Kapsabet,Kenya “Descriptions of ecstatic speech are common in the study of comparative religions. In some cases the phenomena bearing Striking resemblance to Corresponding Author* the glossolalia speech described in the N.T. Ecstatic behavior is found Chesosi Bonface Kimutai most frequently in the Shaman, the seer and the prophet. Generally the How to Cite the Article: ecstatic state is associated with the divine or spirit possession and Chesosi Bonface Kimutai; (2020) Glossolalia: The inspiration.”2 Challenges And Remedies of The Nature and Functions Evaluating Tongues in The Christian The nature of Glossolalia Church: An Integrated Approach. IAR J Arts Human Cul Stud. 1(1)1-11. It goes without say that determining the nature and character of Copyright @ 2020: This is an open-access article speaking in tongues or glossolalia is no mean feat. The New Testament distributed under the terms of the Creative position of but not a permanent feature of the gospel. Mandel Creighton Commons Attribution license which permits categorically affirmed that: unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non commercial use (NonCommercial, or CC-BY-NC) provided the The Apostles were endowed with extra- ordinary powers, necessary for original author and source are credited. the establishment of the church, but not necessarily for its permanent maintenance. These powers were exercised for healing the sick and for conveying special punishment. These special powers were committed the church as a means of teaching it the abiding presence of God. They were withdrawn when they served their purpose of indicating the duties to be permanently performed. To „gifts of tongues‟ succeeded orderly human teaching to the gifts of healing by educated human skills; to supernatural punishment succeeded discipline orderly human agency.” 3 This position main contention is that tongues together with other miracles ceased with the apostolic age. Hence the manifestations that are prevalent in the contemporary church are not only counterfeit but also superfluous and irrelevant for the purpose of this miracles are not It is abundantly clear that speaking in tongues was not a novel idea before or at Pentecost. As Lombard crisply observes that, “the Christian of speaking- in- tongues probably had its roots in ancient religions of Asia Minor.”4 1 Alister McGrath, Christian Theology, (Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1994), 240 2 Ibid 3 Mandell Creighton, Persecution and Tolerance; Being the Holsean Lectures preached before the University of Cambridge in 1893-4, (London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1906), 55-56 4 L Carlyle May, A survey of Glossolalia and Related Phenomena in Non-Christian Religions, https://onlinelibrary,wiley.com>doi>pdf, Retrieved on 17th July 2018 at 2055 GMT. 1 Chesosi Bonface Kimutai; IAR J Arts Human Cul Stud; Vol-1, Iss- 1 (Sep-Oct, 2020): 1-11 It is evident from a study of comparative religion in Biblical times that tongues were not a phenomenon only prevalent in the Christian church. The Delphic and Pythian religion of Greek understood and comprehended ecstatic behavior and speech to evidence of divine inspiration.5 E Schweitzer in his classic masterpiece the church as the Body of Christ cryptically noted especially in relation to Corinthian church that, “Spiritual phenomenon like speaking in tongues, or other ecstatic experiences occurred also in the lives of the people in heathen cults.”6 This may have been the germ that precipitated the misunderstanding of tongues in the church in Corinth.7 It is evident that speaking in tongues was done by a Manticor prophet who sought divine inspiration that enabled the prophet to speak in an ecstatic manner .then a second person who is an interpreter sought to make this incomprehensive ecstatic utterance intelligible to the customer.8 It is evident from the religions that were prevalent in Biblical words that: There is no topic that stirs and evokes a great storm of controversy generating more heat than light as that of tongues. In Pneumatology the controversy is necessitated by divergent views of tongues. First, are tongues intelligible and natural languages or are they ecstatic, unintelligible language. Secondly, it is a gift that is still evident in the contemporary church or the gift was only relegated to the primitive church alone. Thirdly, is this phenomenon of tongues exclusively Christian or was it prevalent in other religions in the New Testament. As a result in order to delve into the subject- matter of tongues and deduce a theological sound perspective, a Biblical compliant and balanced position on the tongues. It is imperative that the researcher will delve into the study of Greek Religion, the Old Testament and culminate with the study of the New Testament in order to ascertain the nature, authenticity and import of tongues in Christian life ministry and church. There seems to be a paradigm in the subject-matter of the Holy Spirit from divergence of the experience and the theology to convergence of the experience and the rational formulation of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The dogma of the Holy Spirit is technically known as Pneumatology. This is the teaching, “on the third person of the trinity. The word „Spirit‟ (Hebrew ruah, Greek Pneuma) is the word in ancient time to describe and explain the experience of divine power working in, upon and around men, and understood by them as the power of God.”9 Pneumatology is a subject matter that has generated more heat than light. There are two antagonistic presuppositions of Pneumatology those who conceive the Holy Spirit with arid intellectualism without any experience on one hand and those who contemplate on this Holy based on the prism of human experience devoid of any theological reflection. Clark Pinnock in his Magnus Opus, Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy is perceptive of the misconceptions and succinctly addresses the quagmire by stating that, “in theology, the mind and heart study and prayer are both important with the mind we analyze data, while in the heart we wait for illumination it.” 10 In a nutshell if Pneumatology is to be adequately addressed the theologian must of necessity rise above neither demeaning intellectual discourse nor repudiating the human experience. The recrudescence, resurgence of the Pentecostal charismatic movement and the influence that has pervaded and permeated the entire Christian church including the mainstream protestant churches and the Roman Catholic churches has catapulted the study of the Holy Spirit to the fore: weather tongues is an intelligible as in Acts 2: 6-8 or unintelligible tongues (1 Cor 14:3-5), confounds the situation. In order to comprehend tongues it is imperative that we delve into Etymology with specific reference to the theological jargon glossolalia. The term glossolalia is a nineteenth – century formulation that is derived from the compound Greek words of glossa which means tongue or language and lalein which has the meaning to speak. The two words appear with particular frequency in the New Testament in the writings of Paul and Luke (Acts 2:4, 11, 10:46, 19:6, 1 Cor 12:10, 28, 14:2, 4, 13:12) 11 . The variation of the use of the term by Paul and Luke is unmistaken and distinguishable. It is clear that, “whereas Acts of the Apostles emphasized the role of speaking in tongues as a form of God‟s self disclosure in public witness and the mission of the church (Acts 2:4-21, 10-44-48; 19:1- )12 1 Corinthians discusses the subject in the context of spiritual gifts, private prayers and in the life of the individual, (1 Cor 12:27-, 13:3, 5 C. Robeck, “Tongues, Gift of” the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia , Vol 4,(Grand Rapids, Michigan: W. M B Eerdmana Publishing Co, 1982), 872 6 E Schweitzer, The Church as the Body of Christ,(Richmond: Richmond Publishing Company,1964) 23-40 7 Robeck,872 8 Ibid 9 James D.G Dunn, “Holy Spirit”, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Walter A Elwell, Ed, (Michigan: Baker Book House, 1988), 986. 10 Clark H Pinnock, Flame of Love: A theology of Holy Spirit, (Downer Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1996), 12. 11 W Vondely. “Glossolalia” William Dryness and Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Global Dictionary of Theology. (Nottingham, England: Intervarsity press, 2008), 346 12 Ibid 2 Chesosi Bonface Kimutai; IAR J Arts Human Cul Stud; Vol-1, Iss- 1 (Sep-Oct, 2020): 1-11 14: 1-40).13. There are those insinuate that tongues are a language that is both intelligible and a known language and those who are persuaded that tongues are unintelligible but it edifies the individual. It is feasible for the two antagonistic positions to complement and not compete with each other. Do we maintain only one position or embrace both positions. The challenge of tongues is found on the contestation on whether it was a phenomenon that was only prevalent in the primitive church only or it is evident in the contemporary church.
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