Finding meaning in the meaningless : the language of faith surrounding pentecostal glossolalia in Singapore

Christians do not always agree on what “speaking in tongues” is. Pentecostals believe that it is a heavenly language that humans do not understand. Presbyterians, on the other hand, believe that it must be a natural language foreign to the speaker. In order to find out how these differences in faith...

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Main Author: Mah, Benjamin Ye-Zhong
Other Authors: Ivan Panović
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2018
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Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73479
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-734792019-12-10T11:33:00Z Finding meaning in the meaningless : the language of faith surrounding pentecostal glossolalia in Singapore Mah, Benjamin Ye-Zhong Ivan Panović School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Discourse analysis DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics::Semiotics DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics Christians do not always agree on what “speaking in tongues” is. Pentecostals believe that it is a heavenly language that humans do not understand. Presbyterians, on the other hand, believe that it must be a natural language foreign to the speaker. In order to find out how these differences in faith and opinion are expressed through religious language, participants from two Singaporean churches, City Harvest Church and Bukit Batok Presbyterian Church, are interviewed. City Harvest is a Pentecostal church and the other Presbyterian, thus, their members differ in their experiences with, and opinions of, glossolalia. Through the ensuing analysis, the discursive strategies, and lexical choices that speakers use become clear. Presbyterians and Pentecostals frame their arguments and experiences by engaging differently with biblical text, agency, and story-telling narratives to convey their points. This paper critically compares these two religious experiences and how speakers express their different versions of faith and reality. Bachelor of Arts 2018-03-20T04:07:53Z 2018-03-20T04:07:53Z 2018 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73479 en Nanyang Technological University 29 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Discourse analysis
DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics::Semiotics
DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics
spellingShingle DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Discourse analysis
DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics::Semiotics
DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics
Mah, Benjamin Ye-Zhong
Finding meaning in the meaningless : the language of faith surrounding pentecostal glossolalia in Singapore
description Christians do not always agree on what “speaking in tongues” is. Pentecostals believe that it is a heavenly language that humans do not understand. Presbyterians, on the other hand, believe that it must be a natural language foreign to the speaker. In order to find out how these differences in faith and opinion are expressed through religious language, participants from two Singaporean churches, City Harvest Church and Bukit Batok Presbyterian Church, are interviewed. City Harvest is a Pentecostal church and the other Presbyterian, thus, their members differ in their experiences with, and opinions of, glossolalia. Through the ensuing analysis, the discursive strategies, and lexical choices that speakers use become clear. Presbyterians and Pentecostals frame their arguments and experiences by engaging differently with biblical text, agency, and story-telling narratives to convey their points. This paper critically compares these two religious experiences and how speakers express their different versions of faith and reality.
author2 Ivan Panović
author_facet Ivan Panović
Mah, Benjamin Ye-Zhong
format Final Year Project
author Mah, Benjamin Ye-Zhong
author_sort Mah, Benjamin Ye-Zhong
title Finding meaning in the meaningless : the language of faith surrounding pentecostal glossolalia in Singapore
title_short Finding meaning in the meaningless : the language of faith surrounding pentecostal glossolalia in Singapore
title_full Finding meaning in the meaningless : the language of faith surrounding pentecostal glossolalia in Singapore
title_fullStr Finding meaning in the meaningless : the language of faith surrounding pentecostal glossolalia in Singapore
title_full_unstemmed Finding meaning in the meaningless : the language of faith surrounding pentecostal glossolalia in Singapore
title_sort finding meaning in the meaningless : the language of faith surrounding pentecostal glossolalia in singapore
publishDate 2018
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73479
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