Editing Speaking in tongues (section)

{{Short description|Phenomenon in which people speak words apparently in languages unknown to them}}
{{Other uses|Speaking in Tongues (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Glossolalia|the Steve Walsh album|Glossolalia (album)|the literary debate|Glossolalia debate}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
[[File:Pentecost icon.jpg|thumb|alt=The Theotokos and the Twelve Apostles – Fifty Days after the Resurrection of Christ, awaiting the descent of the Holy Spirit|An icon depicting the [[Theotokos]] with the [[Twelve Apostles|apostles]] filled with the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]], indicated by "cloven tongues like as of fire" ({{Bibleverse|Acts|2:3|KJV}}) above their heads]]
[[File:Glossolalia religiosa, Falando em linguas pentecostal.flac|thumb|People speaking in tongues and in Portuguese during a Christian event in Brazil]]
'''Speaking in tongues''', also known as '''glossolalia''', is an activity or practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables that lack any readily comprehensible meaning. In some cases, as part of religious practice, some believe it to be a [[divine language]] unknown to the speaker.<ref name="DictPsych">{{cite dictionary |year=2009 |entry=Glossolalia |dictionary=A Dictionary of Psychology |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofpsyc0000colm_s3f2/page/318/mode/2up?q=Glossolalia |access-date=2011-08-05 |editor-last=Colman |editor-first=Andrew M. |editor-link=Andrew Colman |pages=319}}</ref> Glossolalia is practiced in [[Pentecostal]] and [[charismatic Christianity]],<ref name="LumHarvey2018">{{cite book |last1=Lum |first1=Kathryn Gin |last2=Harvey |first2=Paul |title=The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History|date=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |isbn=978-0190856892 |page=801 |quote= ... would prove influential on the development of black Pentecostalism in the early twentieth century, as glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, would be understood as a third work of grace following Holiness and receipt of the Holy Spirit.}}</ref><ref name="FahlbuschBromiley1999">{{cite book|title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity|year=1999|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|language=en|isbn=978-9004116955|page=415|quote=While in Houston, Texas, where he had moved his headquarters, Parham came into contact with William Seymour (1870–1922), an African-American Baptist-Holiness preacher. Seymour took from Parham the teaching that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was not the blessing of sanctification but rather a third work of grace that was accompanied by the experience of tongues}}</ref> as well as in other religions.<ref name="Shifting Paradigms and Mediating Me">{{cite journal |last1=Whelan |first1=Christal |year=2007 |title=Shifting Paradigms and Mediating Media: Redefining a New Religion as "Rational" in Contemporary Society |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/nr/article-abstract/10/3/54/95393/Shifting-Paradigms-and-Mediating-Media-Redefining?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live |journal=[[Nova Religio]] |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=54–72 |doi=10.1525/nr.2007.10.3.54 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250319151611/https://online.ucpress.edu/nr/article-abstract/10/3/54/95393/Shifting-Paradigms-and-Mediating-Media-Redefining?redirectedFrom=fulltext |archive-date=2025-03-19|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Sometimes a distinction is made between "glossolalia" and "xenolalia", or "[[xenoglossy]]", which specifically relates to the belief that the language being spoken is a [[natural language]] previously unknown to the speaker.<ref>Cheryl Bridges Johns and Frank Macchia, "Glossolalia", ''The Encyclopedia of Christianity'' (Grand Rapids, MI; Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999–2003), 413.</ref>{{Failed verification|date=March 2025}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Esler |first=Philip Francis |author-link=Philip Esler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FuHfF3kSVd0C&pg=PA49 |title=The First Christians in Their Social Worlds: Social-scientific Approaches to New Testament Interpretation |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2002 |isbn=9781134833818 |page=49 |language=en}}</ref>