Charismatic Glossolalia

An Empirical-Theological Study

Mark J. Cartledge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351952668
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

What is the nature and function of the Pentecostal/Charismatic gift of speaking in tongues? Charismatic Glossolalia aims to answer this question. Drawing on detailed observations and interviews with people who themselves speak in tongues, as well as survey data, Cartledge presents explanations on the meaning of this gift for both the participants and their churches. Cartledge argues that an understanding of the gift of speaking in tongues emerges as a symbol of divine-human encounter, especially associated with the context of prayer and worship and symbolising a sense of beauty, awe, power, intimacy and faith-building. In theological terms, speaking in tongues may be described as trinitarian, sacramental and as demonstrating an important feature of the Kingdom of God. An extensive literature review considers material from the New Testament, Pentecostal and Charismatic theology, and the behavioural and social sciences. This book offers a unique contribution to Pentecostal and Charismatic scholarship, as well as the emerging scholarly tradition of Practical Theology.

Chapter 1
Introduction

In the last quarter of the twentieth century there was an explosion of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. Indeed, the churches which appear to be growing are from these traditions characterised by exuberant worship, dynamic evangelism, spiritual gifts and healing. The Pentecostal and Charismatic movements are now producing an increasing number of scholars who are critical participants. This scholarship has been especially interested in what many have considered to be the focus of such movements – ‘speaking in tongues’, otherwise known as ‘glossolalia’. As the literature review (Chapter 4) makes abundantly clear, there has already been a vast amount written on the subject of charismatic glossolalia, so any further work needs to take a slightly different perspective. Hence this study is from the perspective of ‘empirical theology’ – an emerging paradigm within practical theology. Since Chapter 2 reviews this methodology, and my own contributions to it, only a brief outline is given at this juncture.

This study has two principal aims: first, to reconsider contemporary charismatic glossolalia from within the British context; and, second, to employ the empirical–theological methodology of Johannes A. van der Ven in the research task.¹

First, the central question which this study aims to investigate is: what is the nature and function of charismatic glossolalia? In this regard the project is interested in charismatic glossolalia as it is manifested within the New Church movement in Britain, formerly called the House Church movement, although it is also interested in classical Pentecostal and other free Churches within the Charismatic movement, but excluding Church of England churches. Within this main question there are other questions concerning the linguisticality of glossolalia, its acquisition, context of practice, purpose and significance. These areas provoke subquestions within the overall question. It is because the orientation of this study is with the faith and practice (that is, theological praxis) of those within the contemporary Charismatic movement that an empirical–theological approach was chosen. The overall question is being asked within the discourse of theology, although the social sciences are used to enable the exploration. In this sense, this enterprise is a study of the theological praxis within the life-world of the Charismatic movement on Merseyside. It is suggested, however, that the results of this exploration have wider implications for the British context.

Vern S. Poythress defines speaking in tongues, or glossolalia, as ‘free vocalization’ – that is, a connected sequence of speech sounds which do not properly belong to a language that the speaker knows and which the speaker cannot identify. It occurs most frequently in the context of Christian worship²and the casual observer might suppose that the sounds emitted constitute an unknown language. This provides a useful working definition because it clearly identifies the phenomenon and yet remains open to questions regarding its linguistic validity and function. There is often a distinction made between ‘xenolalia’ as referring to real human languages and ‘glossolalia’ as speech which defies linguistic classification and may be ‘nonsense’ language. The literature reviews map out the terminology in more detail. This study uses the term ‘glossolalia’ as a synonym for what Poythress calls ‘tongues speech’. Therefore it may or may not be xenolalia; that cannot simply be assumed a priori. The aim is to avoid begging such an important question at the outset of the study.

The present Charismatic movement is an inheritor of twentieth-century Pentecostal spirituality, the main tenets of which it has assimilated. In other words, it is a continuation of the Pentecostal spiritual tradition outside Pentecostal denominations. Although Pentecostalism has roots in the Wesleyan Holiness movements, its beginnings are associated with the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles led by William Joseph Seymour in 1906.³ The Revival lasted three years, but it spread to Holiness churches throughout the USA and beyond. Alexander A. Boddy, an Anglican priest working in Sunderland, and his colleague and supporter Cecil Polhill, are associated with the early Pentecostal movement in Britain from 1908: this produced Pentecostal denominations in the period after 1915, which remain to this day.⁴

The Charismatic movement in Britain is normally associated with the inauguration of the Fountain Trust in 1964 as Pentecostal spirituality began to affect established Protestant and Catholic denominations.⁵ At this time, there emerged a separate charismatic group of churches known as the House Churches, because they originated from meetings in houses.⁶ Although some suggest that this movement is an offshoot of the main Charismatic movement, many House church leaders have maintained that they originally had no connection with the Charismatic movement and the renewal of existing denominations. Joyce Thurman has argued that while the House churches originated independently of each other and the Charismatic movement, their ranks were increased by charismatic Christians leaving traditional denominations.⁷ These House Churches are now called New Churches and they are a settled feature of British Christianity. It is estimated that approximately 150–200 000 adults align themselves with these New Churches, and this makes them half the size of British Methodism and larger than the British Baptist Union and the United Reformed Church. However, unlike these other denominations, 80 per cent of people from the New Churches are within the 18–45 age range.⁸

In addition to these groups, there emerged in the 1980s a group which has been labelled Third Wave’.⁹ These churches are associated with the Vineyard network of churches and the ministry of John Wimber.¹⁰ They have been very influential in the British Charismatic movement to date.

Churches within the Charismatic movement are identified primarily by their emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and the Church. In this regard it has specific features from classical Pentecostalism, namely: a crisis spiritual experience known as ‘Baptism in the Spirit’ (alternatively known as being ‘filled by the Spirit’, ‘released by the Spirit’); and the exercise of spiritual gifts such as prophecy, healing and glossolalia. Early charismatics stress the importance of the ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’ (evidenced by glossolalia), but more recently it has been regarded as less significant. Instead, prayer ministry has become the focus, together with notable experiences which attend such ministry – for example, the Toronto Blessing (falling over, laughing and weeping as the Spirit encounters people).

Michael Welker, a theologian and outside commentator on the Charismatic movement, gives a useful description of its contours in terms of the following characteristics:

1 Members of the Charismatic movement emphasize that they have experienced with new power the reality and presence of God. One particular component of this experience is recognition of the vitality and contemporary meaning of the biblical world. Another component is development of the capacity – often experienced for the first time – to pray, to enjoy prayer, and to talk about God in a new way with joy and power.

2 Members of the Charismatic movement emphasize that they have come to a new awareness of community and to new community experiences. In this regard members often emphasize the connection between enjoyment of the community and communal proclamation and glorification of God.

3 Members of the Charismatic movement emphasize that, among themselves the abundance and diversity of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12. 8–10; Rom. 12. 6–8; 1 Pet. 4. 10–11) are taken seriously. They also insist that the gifts and endowments of individual human beings are thereby discovered and valued. They say that this leads to dismantling the separation of persons within the community into professionals who play the lead roles and laity who have only minor parts.

4 Members of the Charismatic movement emphasize that for them, the relativizing and removing of confessional boundaries, and an attendant opening to an ecumenical Christianity, have become an important sign of the power of the Spirit's action.

5 Finally, members of the Charismatic movement emphasize the experience termed ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ – an experience that is evidently difficult for them to describe. This baptism can be followed by speaking in tongues. For members of Pentecostal churches and for Neo-Pentecostals, the succession is inevitable. Speaking in tongues is regarded above all as the acquisition of a new form of prayer language, a new way to express oneself in prayer, to give utterance to spiritual power, and to praise God.¹¹

These characteristics can, and must, be expanded to include exuberance in praise and worship, the use of the body such as the raising of arms, the laying on of hands in prayer and features such as dance and the use of the arts in worship. Indeed, Mark Bonnington states that ‘[w]orship stands at the heart of House Church self-consciousness’.¹² In this study, the term ‘charismatic’ is used as an adjective describing those participants within the movement.

These definitions are simply working definitions to enable the reader to chart his or her way through the mass of material on the Charismatic movement contained within this book. More detailed definitions and descriptions will be found throughout Chapter 4.

This study uses the empirical–theological methodology of Johannes A. van der Ven as a basic framework and includes both qualitative and quantitative empirical data as a means of exploring the research question. This research process is based on an understanding of theology that is essentially practical. One starts with the concrete belief and action (theological praxis) of people and returns to it. Therefore, after the initial formulation of the research question, the researcher enters into the concrete situation of those whom he or she wishes to investigate. Empirical material gathered from that exploration is then taken and used in dialogue with the theoretical and empirical literature. From this engagement, certain specific theories and hypotheses are formulated and tested. This means encountering empirical data a second time, although with a different set of people. The results from this empirical data then feed back into a theological discussion, which in turn makes recommendations for renewed theological praxis. Chapter 2 offers a substantial engagement with the work of van der Ven and, as the nature of van der Ven's approach means that any serious engagement will be of a technical kind, some readers may wish to omit this chapter initially and return to it at a later stage.

The construction of the book reflects this methodological approach (see Figure 2.1). Chapter 3 demonstrates a case study approach to a church in Liverpool, which is the first engagement with concrete theological praxis. The material from this case study is used inductively and enables the empirical context itself to raise questions not previously considered within the literature. Chapter 4 is the literature review chapter and reflects the research which has already been completed in this area. In Chapter 5, empirical material is refined in the light of the literature review and specific hypotheses operationalized by means of a questionnaire survey of 29 churches in the Merseyside area. Chapter 6 discusses the implications of this research and, in light of a dialogue with c...