From: Kenneth Litwak (kenneth@sybase.com)
Date: Wed Oct 11 1995 - 01:55:28 EDT
Carlton Winbery wrote:
> The word ecstasy does not mean that a person who has had this experience
> cannot turn it on or off at will, but that the sounds being made are not
> consciously controlled by the normal speech mechanisms so that human speech
> is created. Kildahl is a psychologists and has done much research in the
> modern phenomena and also ancient documents.
>
> If the word "ecstasy" is unacceptable, psychologists often use the word
> "dissociative." Either way the sounds made are not consciously controlled by
> the speech mechanism in the brain. there are many kinds of dissociative
> experiences, such as a laugh or hypnotism. In religion, these experiences
> occur because of strong emotional involvement and are good or bad in accord
> with what they produce in the believer and his/her relationships with others
> and God.
This fairly narrow definition of "ecstasy" suggests
sometihng of a very different character than the Sybilline
oracle making pronouncements while inhaling seemingly mind-
altering vapors influencing state of mind. Using this
understanding of ecstasy, I fail to understand what
the ecstatic nature of glossalalia has to do with the
argument that was being made. It seems to have shifted
from what the text means to the significance of it being
ecstatic. Your understanding of ecstasy makes the nature
of toungues as ecstatic become virtually irrelevant to
the argument Paul is making, which is exactly my point.
It doesn't matter whether it is ecstatic or not. It only
matters within the house church whether it is
understood by hearers. I was responding to what I perceived
as an emphasis on its "ecstatic" quality, which however it's
defined, makes little difference for Paul's meaning.
Either way, the speech is from God, whether prophecy or
tongues. Either way, it is God's Spirit speaking though the
individual, without the individual coming up with the words
themselves. So that is not the contrast that Paul is
making, is it?
Ken Litwak
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