Glossolalia and the Problem of Language

Nicholas Harkness

University of Chicago Press 2021

Pb, 241pp, £28, ISBN 9780226749419

Fifty years ago, as a BBC reporter, I found myself in a church where the congregation spoke in tongues – at the time a rather eccentric practice in Britain. For the first time, I believe, I was able to record the sound on tape for broadcast. A little later I was in Zambia and attended an utterly extraordinary service at the home of Roman Catholic Archbishop Milingo. People were shouting, crying, falling over in the spirit and almost every prayer was in “Spirit-induced” tongues. Not long after, Milingo was summoned to Rome to explain himself.

In recent years there has been an extraordinary growth in glossolalia. Its widespread practice is relatively modern, despite its claims to biblical origins.

Nicholas Harkness’s book sets out to analyse the phenomenon, and makes a detailed study of charismatic congregations in South Korea, where its growth parallels the growth in the urbanisation of the country. He explains how what sounds like gibberish does have audible patterns. Different cultures, and even denominations, have their own identifiable structures of tongues. Yet, as Harkness points out, each individual uses a limited number of sounds, all drawn from the language with which the speaker is most familiar.

He shows how speaking in tongues is a spontaneous flow of sound, perhaps learned from the example of others. Tongues can be a personal dialogue with God, as in private prayer, or be uttered in public with someone in the congregation interpreting their meaning. It can be an emotional release, he argues, for those who would normally be reticent to use words to describe their feelings. The practice is useful in countries where to speak your mind can be politically unwise, and is one that spans class and denomination.

This is an academic work rather than a popular read. Harkness asks intriguing questions, though often in a heavy academic style. Ted Harrison

★★★