Speaking in tongues

Speaking in tongues is the production of speech-like utterances in religious settings, understood by some Christians as a spiritual gift, prayer, or message inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Glossolalia: The production of speech-like vocalizations that lack readily identifiable meaning in a known language. This linguistic term commonly describes contemporary Christian speaking in tongues.
Pentecost: The event in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus’s disciples and they speak in other languages. Pentecostal traditions look to this account as a foundational instance of tongues.
Cessationism: The theological view that some miraculous spiritual gifts ceased after the apostolic era. Cessationists typically reject contemporary tongues as the same gift described in the New Testament.
Pentecostal worship: Christian worship practices in Pentecostal churches, often emphasizing expressive prayer and spiritual gifts. Tongues may occur in congregational worship, alongside prayer, singing, or interpretation.
Xenoglossy: The alleged spontaneous ability to speak a real language the speaker has not learned. Some accounts distinguish tongues as an unknown human language from nonlexical prayer speech.
Acts of the Apostles: A New Testament narrative recounting the early Christian movement and the apostles’ work. Its accounts of tongues at Pentecost and elsewhere shaped Christian understandings of the practice.
Continuationism: The theological view that spiritual gifts described in the New Testament remain available to Christians. Continuationists affirm that speaking in tongues can still be a spiritual gift.
Charismatic movement: A Christian movement emphasizing the continuing activity of spiritual gifts across established denominations. Its churches adopted speaking in tongues beyond Pentecostal denominations.
Interpretation of tongues: The claimed spiritual gift of conveying the meaning of an utterance spoken in tongues. In some Christian worship, interpretation makes a public utterance intelligible to the congregation.
First Great Awakening: A series of Protestant religious revivals in the British American colonies during the eighteenth century. Reports of ecstatic religious expression provide an earlier revival context for later debates about spiritual gifts.

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First Epistle to the CorinthiansRelated: Paul compares tongues with prophecy and calls for intelligibility in communal worship.