Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 67:4 (Dec 2024)
Article: Speaking In Tongues As Sacramental
Author: Kenny Johnston

JETS 67:4 (December 2024) p. 761

Speaking In Tongues As Sacramental

Kenny Johnston*

* Kenny Johnston is a PhD student at London School of Theology and the lead pastor at First Wesleyan Church in Gastonia, North Carolina. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: In this article I argue that speaking in tongues is a sacramental act in which God displays his purposes of cosmic redemption by coopting the world’s languages. To arrive at this conclusion I assess the biblical evidence for speaking in tongues, arguing that it is irreducibly a form of prophetic prayer that is marked by real languages unknown to the utterer. Assessing the potential purpose of tongues, I examine why God would implement a form of prophetic prayer that is marked in this particular way, rejecting that it is a practical means for crossing linguistic barriers. I posit, instead, that speaking in tongues meets recognized conditions of sacramentality. As sacramental, speaking in tongues is epiphanic of God’s redemptive power and purpose. Methodologically I approach the subject as an analytic theologian.

Key words: sacrament, sacramental, speaking in tongues, tongues-speech, glossolalia, xenoglossy, xenolalia, analytical theology.

“By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” … And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

Revelation 5:9–10, 131

The biblical phenomenon of speaking in tongues (hereafter tongues-speech) has received a number of “interpretations” from theologians. Depending on one’s understanding of its purpose, its practice may be restricted to private use, missional use, or no use at all. In this article I attempt to uncover the purpose of tongues-speech in a way that better explains the differences and similarities of its occurrences in Acts and Corinthians. I argue that all explicit cases of tongues-speech in Scripture are sacramental acts in which God displays his purposes of cosmic redemption by coopting the world’s languages through the prophetic prayers of some followers.

A number of strong proposals have been made regarding the purpose of tongues-speech, yet no scholarly agreement exists on what it is or does exactly. Thomas Aquinas understood it as a grace “by which one c...