Glossolalia and the Problem of Language
Nicholas Harkness
Published by the University of Chicago Press
Glossolalia and the Problem of Language, by Professor Nicholas Harkness, Modern Korean Economy and Society Professor of Anthropology, was awarded Honorable Mention for the Francis Hsu Book Prize from the Society for East Asian Anthropology (SEAA).
In Glossolalia and the Problem of Language, Harkness provides an innovative, richly ethnographic, and theoretically sophisticated account of the Christian religious practice of glossolalia (speaking in tongues) in South Korea. Harkness argues persuasively that close examination of glossolalia in context teaches us about the limits of language, as this perplexing linguistic practice is language while remaining non-denotational. To make this argument the analysis is embedded in a detailed, multi-sited, and multi-media ethnography, including ethnography of church communities, individual and collective practices and pressures, linguistic analysis from the pulpit, as well as a rich analysis of Billy Graham’s 1973 speech and Billy Jang Hwan Kim’s live interpretation. By examining the linguistic, spiritual, and social aspects of glossolalia in Korea Harkness provides rich insight into Christian communities in Korea, in dialogue with linguistic anthropology and historical understandings of the linguistic practice. In all, Harkness provides us with an insightful ethnography of a puzzling linguistic practice which is growing globally, demonstrating what we learn about Korean Christianity in situ, glossolalia as a practice, and the limits of language itself.
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