Image: Cullan Smith

Originally published on the Pneuma Foundation (parent organization of PneumaReview.com) website. Later included in the Fall 2021 issue.

Mark J. Cartledge, Charismatic Glossolalia: An Empirical-Theological Study (Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2002), 253 + xvi pages.

Among the proliferation of books aimed at the study of glossolalia (i.e., speaking in tongues) that have been published in the last few decades, I found this new volume to be an interesting addition. While most of the studies that have been done have focused on either biblical, sociological, or linguistic issues, Cartledge’s book takes on the task of empirical theology—that is, theology derived from “the faith and practice of [the] people concerned” (p. 7).

Cartledge’s aim when he prepared his study (which began as a doctoral dissertation) was to use empirical and statistical methods to determine the nature and function of glossolalia. He deals within the context of the New Church movement in Great Britain, with an eye towards other Pentecostal and charismatic assemblies. In order to do so, he began with a survey of one particular independent Charismatic church in Liverpool, England, and then moved on to a more expansive survey of 633 individuals from twenty-nine churches. The survey included general preliminary questions such as gender, age, marital status, and occupation, and from there moved on to more particular questions such as “How do you understand the phrase ‘speaking in tongues,’” “What is the aim of speaking in tongues,” and “What emotions do you feel (if any) when you speak in tongues.”

As I began reading Charismatic Glossolalia, I will admit that I began to grow skeptical about the basic premise of the book. I believed that any serious study of “the nature and purpose of glossolalia”—at least from a Christian perspective—should not try to formulate its theological conclusions from a study of people’s practice and individual beliefs about glossolalia, but rather that the Bible alone should be the sole source of theological development.

However, as I continued to read, I began to understand the idea that Cartledge is presenting. He is not attempting to base our beliefs and theology about glossolalia on our experiences; rather, he is attempting to gain an understanding of how our beliefs and theology affect our experiences and our attitudes. To that end, he included a comprehensive survey of New Testament studies of glossolalia, as well as theological, sociological, psychological, and linguistic studies.

Our experience and attitudes as Christians should always line up with God’s Word, and this equally applies to the practice and understanding of glossolalia. The wonderful thing about this book is that Cartledge didn’t do this survey for the survey’s sake; rather, he took the results, compared them to the scriptural revelation, and pointed out (both to us and to those who participated in his survey) where they do not match up—i.e., where beliefs, experiences, and attitudes needed adjusting. This is indeed the aim of true theology—transformation.

The fourth chapter of the Praying in the Spirit Series.

Robert W. Graves wrote Praying in the Spirit (Chosen Books) in 1987, when it received great reviews from a number of Pentecostal/charismatic scholars and leaders including John Sherrill, Dr. Vinson Synan, Dr. Gordon Fee, Dr. William Menzies, Dr. Howard Ervin, Dr. Walter Martin, and Dr. Stanley Horton. It is the great privilege of the Pneuma Review to republish it here.

I was in a meeting recently where a man began to offer a prophetic word, but before he finished a woman interrupted him with a message in tongues. It was obvious for several reasons that she was out of order: (1) She interrupted the speaker; (2) she disrupted the service; (3) her utterance in tongues was not interpreted; and (4) her utterance was more in the form of an emotional outburst than a clear, distinct pronunciation of syllables.

It is the last of these reasons that forms the subject of this chapter. What exactly is the nature of the prayer language? Is it an emotional or ecstatic utterance beyond the speaker’s control? Is it a language or is it gibberish? If it is a language, must it be an actual foreign language?

Throughout 1 Corinthians 14 the King James translators qualified the word tongues by prefacing it with the word unknown, which does not occur in the Greek. Anti-Pentecostals, who are quick to point out this insertion, believe that “tongues” are the divinely imparted gift of speaking a foreign language without having learned it; that the gift of tongues was not unknown “gibberish,” but rather a human language known somewhere in the world. Others have interpreted this to mean that the King James translators probably meant the language was unknown to the one speaking it, and may have been known somewhere in the world or may not.

Part 2 of Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts

Part 3 of Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts

Richard M. Riss presents evidence for the operation of the gifts of the Spirit throughout the Church Age.

Clare of Montefalco

Among several thirteenth-century figures we have discussed, St. Clare of Montefalco (d. 1308) has had a number of miracles attributed to her, as well as frequent ecstasies and supernatural gifts, which she used for the good of people both outside her convent and within it.⁷⁴ One of her biographers, Mosconio, wrote that an unbelieving physician,, Philip, admitted that he had listened enviously when Clare uttered praises to the Lord and “engaged in holy conversations, speaking heavenly words about heavenly things.”⁷⁵

Bridget of Sweden

One of the most important saints of the fourteenth century was Bridget (A.D. 1303-1373) who founded the Order of the Most Holy Saviour (the Brigittines) in Sweden. It was her personal revelations that had made her famous. In the late 1340’s, she received a command of the Lord to go to the royal court and warn King Magnus of the judgement of God on his sins. She did this, and also warned the queen, the nobles and the bishops. For a while, the king repented. He provided a great deal of money for the founding of a monastery at Vadstena that Bridget had decided to begin in response to another vision. During the fifteenth century this monastery became the literary center of Sweden.

Among the most well know event in the life of Bridget were the many revelations that she received from God on the sufferings of Christ and on events that were about to happen in certain kingdoms. Her prophecies and revelations were directly related to most of the important political and religious issues of her time in both Sweden and Rome. At one point she prophesied that the pope and emperor would soon meet peaceably in Rome, and this was fulfilled between Pope Urban V and Charles IV in 1368. Bridget always submitted her revelations to the judgement of the pastors of the church. In Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints, it is written that “to have the knowledge of angels without charity is to be only a tinkling cymbal; both to have charity and to speak the language of angels was the happy privilege of St. Bridget.”⁷⁶