The distinctive Pentecostal experience is glossolalia. Since the advent of the Pentecostal revival in 1906, research into glossolalia has erupted into a flood of literature. This thesis does three things. First, it provides a bibliographical review of the most important literature on tongues from 1888 to 2019. The ‘must read’ books and journal articles for today’s scholars are surveyed. It is discovered that very few academics examined the early Pentecostal periodicals, which were the primary sources for theological developments and communications of the day.
First, using reception history as a method, this thesis explores fourteen different periodicals across the Pentecostal spectrum in the United States: Wesleyan-holiness Pentecostalism, Finished-work Pentecostalism and Oneness Pentecostalism. The voices of these pioneers’ testimonies and articles are contained in over 15,000 pages from 1906 to roughly 1920. It is a broad spectrum reading of the early Pentecostals on their theology of glossolalia.
Second, these voices are appraised and blended into theological categories that arise naturally from the readings rather than from imposing a theological structure upon the texts. During this period, early Pentecostalism weathers three different crises surrounding tongues: 1) the distinction between Spirit Baptism as sanctification and Spirit Baptism for power with the sign of tongues, 2) the ‘New Issue’ (Oneness) and 3) evidentiary tongues. The summaries of this thesis are the best understanding of these Pentecostal pioneer’s theology of glossolalia to date. This thesis reveals that while there is no significant difference between the Wesleyan-holiness and finished work positions on glossolalia, there is a significant difference between these two streams and Oneness Pentecostalism. Oneness appears to take Evangelical’s conversion-initiation theory of Spirit Baptism to its logical conclusion.
Finally, the experience of speaking in tongues is waning in post-modern North American Pentecostalism, and yet Pentecostalism is growing rapidly in other parts of the world, proving itself to be adaptable globally. Weak Modernistic explanations of glossolalia are likely the cause of this disconnect in North America. Pentecostalism arose at the height of Modernism and its theology of evidentiary tongues naturally took root in that soil. However, this thesis reveals that, from the beginning, Pentecostalism is an uncomfortable fit with Modernism. For example, though the pioneers used evidentiary terms to describe their experience, the preferred term was ‘bible evdence’ or ‘bible sign’. In fact, the term ‘initial evidence’, is a later classification of the experience. Pragmatically, the pioneers use Modernism as a tool, but their experience and doctrine of glossolalia exceeds its boundaries. This thesis discovers that these trailblazers use theological and biblical metaphors to delineate their theology beyond the limits of the theological categories and terminology of their day. Therefore, this thesis provides a suggested restatement of Pentecostal glossolalia through metaphors and their correspondence with the Pentecostal experience and understanding.