Would someone please explain to me what "speaking" in "tongues" means. If one "speaks", I expect the spoken to be open to linguistic analysis. Perhaps, one can trace the history of the pre-phase of the language spoken (e.g., Latin), the development of this phase (e.g., midieval French, Spanish, etc.) and the modern language of, say, Spanish. Because of the term "speech", I feel myself obligated to …More
Would someone please explain to me what "speaking" in "tongues" means. If one "speaks", I expect the spoken to be open to linguistic analysis. Perhaps, one can trace the history of the pre-phase of the language spoken (e.g., Latin), the development of this phase (e.g., midieval French, Spanish, etc.) and the modern language of, say, Spanish. Because of the term "speech", I feel myself obligated to interpret "tongues" as different languages, identifiable and linguistically open to analysis. Or, as I suspect, "tongues" entails the incoherent and emotionalized babblings of worked up humans in a group context. From this point of view "tongues" means the emotional overflow of sounds uttered by the charismatically possessed participants--a condition that frightens me as it represses the rational function of the mind into a dizzy whirl of corporeal agitation. The Pope's reference to such activity as "samba" is a metaphorical reference of some value, though an understatement. May I conclude that the whooping-it-up, delirious dancing of carnevalists in Rio (which I have seen) is charismatic? Or, at least, a proto-charismatic effusion needing "tongue"-exudings that somehow become a sort of liturgical expression, i.e., an "experience".
The Pope is shown appartently as praying fervently. Prayer, with clear cognitive content, is always a fine thing. Or, is the Pope, overcome by emotions, just emitting feelings and, naturally, in front of the whole-wide-world; in order words, acting out again the emotionality of a narcisstic ("Look at me, look at me!") cynosure? Maybe I am all wrong. If so, I would like to know just what languages were spoken and what was said in the fervernt heat of a charismatic seizure. I suspect it was all jibberish--which may have some religious value, but lacks liturgical dignity and threatens the partipant with loss of self-control in the heat of the group.
