Garr’s Missionary Crisis on Speaking in Tongues

Alfred Garr, a pioneer missionary of the Azusa Street Revival in the early 1900s explains why his conferred supernatural gift of the Bengali language did not work upon his arrival in India.

Garr believed that the gift had switched to another language while in voyage and Bengali never reappeared.

This case is one of the earliest documented examples of the tongues crisis facing Azusa missionaries. Many traveled the world thinking they were endowed with a certain foreign language and upon arrival, did not. The resolution of this theological crisis became a foremost problem to solve.

The Pentecostal movement had a number of choices to address the issue, admit they were wrong, redefine, or ignore. Garr chose to redefine it.

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Early Pentecostal Books on Speaking in Tongues

A brief survey of books on speaking in tongues from the early 1900s on speaking in tongues from a holiness/pentecostal perspective Early Pentecostal Books These books were selected because the authors were either contributors or eyewitnesses to the Pentecostalism of the early 1900s. This fits in with the goals of the Gift of Tongues Project …

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Early Pentecostal Tongues: Notes and Quotes

Quips and quotes taken from early Pentecostal based newsletters, papers, digests, and other material found about the doctrine of tongues.

Early Pentecostal writings are essential historical pieces concerning a significant shift in this doctrine. They demonstrate the change from the traditional idea of miraculously speaking or hearing in a foreign language to a variety of expressions under the umbrella of glossolalia.

These early pentecostal citations are given to show the problem and resolution that early Pentecostals faced regarding this doctrine. Their original concept of tongues as a miraculous endowment for missionary purposes had miserably failed. A shift in emphasis and definition was eagerly sought for.

The following quotes work through this early tension. They are not homogenous, and it is often difficult to trace continuity. However, they do work towards embracing the thoughts of higher criticists such as Philip Schaff. The majority of dictionaries and commentaries were dominated by these academics who much favored tongues as glossolalia. Glossolalia is a frenzied condition that produced inarticulate sounds. Sounds that may or may not correlate with language. Pentecostals eventually redefined the higher criticism definition according to their own experience and religious symbolism.

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Delphi Prophetesses and Christian Tongues

Did the ancient Greek prophetesses, especially the Pythian priestesses in Delphi, speak in tongues and the Christians later adapted it?

The alleged connection between the two is an important one in the speaking in tongues debate. A dispute which this article seeks to look deeper into.

The approach used to find an answer is to locate the primary Hellenistic texts that make this connection and evaluate them. The article provides English translations along with the majority having Greek or Latin sources. Each reference contains a brief analysis. The reader is not required to know either one of these languages to examine the works and can easily skip over these foreign texts.

Table of Contents

  • Conclusion

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    A Catholic History of Tongues: 30 to 1748 AD

    A Catholic history of speaking in tongues from the first Pentecost until the rule of Pope Benedict the XIV, 1748 AD.

    The following are the results of a detailed study of early church, medieval and later medieval Catholic writers through seventeen-centuries of church life.

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    An Analysis of Gregory of Nyssa on Speaking in Tongues

    Gregory of Nyssa on divine speech, human languages, and Pentecost. Gregory of Nyssa, along with Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, and Gregory Nazianzus, set the framework for the christian doctrine of tongues from the fourth-century and onwards. Although there are other narratives during this period such as John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, and …

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    Gregory of Nyssa on Speaking in Tongues – English texts

    English translations of Gregory of Nyssa’s references to speaking in tongues. Oratio de Spiritu Sancto sive in Pentecosten I could not find an English translation of this text, so I took the time to provide one. The following is a passage from Gregory of Nyssa’s Oratio de Spiritu Sancto sive in Pentecosten. This portion directly …

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    Gregory of Nyssa on speaking in tongues — source texts

    Pertinent source texts on the meanings of Pentecost and Babel by the fourth-century Bishop, Gregory of Nyssa. The Greek text of Gregorii Nysseni’s, Oratio de Spiritu Sancto Sive in Pentecosten, relating to Pentecost As found in Migne Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 46. Col. 697 – 699 Σήμερον γὰρ κατὰ τὴν ἑτήσιον τοῦ ἔτους περίοδον τῆς πεντηκοστῆς …

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    Book Review: Soldiers: German POWs on Fighting, Killing, and Dying

    Soldiers: German POWs on Fighting, Killing, and Dying, by Sönke Neitzel and Harald Welzer is an eye-opening book about the amorality and monstrosities of German soldiers in the Second World War and how this mindset developed.

    Soldiers: German POWs on Fighting, Killing, and Dying, by Sönke Neitzel and Harald Welzer

    Sönke Neitzel, a German historian and “currently Professor of Military History at the University of Potsdam”1 and Harold Welzer, a German social psychologist, combine to build a definitive and unassuming portrait based on taped conversations of Germans detained in Allied war prisons. These were secretly done and transcribed by British and American intelligence agents during the Second World War. These dialogues helped the Allied forces better understand the technological and strategic initiatives within the German military during the War. However, the social and moral dynamics found in these discussions had little strategic value and were left unused for over five decades.

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    An English translation of Blessed Andrew Speaking in tongues

    An English translation of Andrew the Fool speaking in tongues. As found in the Vita S. Andreae Sali by Nicephori Presbyteri. Andrew the Fool, often cited as Andrew of Constantinople, or Andrew Salus, was a christian follower known for his odd lifestyle that would be classified under some form of a mental illness by today’s …

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