STRANGE LANGUAGES IN THE BRAZILIAN CONTEMPORARY PENTECOSTAL MIDDLE A REALITY OR ILLUSION?

Abstract

 The present work has as its theme the strange languages ​​in the Brazilian contemporary Pentecostal environment a reality or illusion? The problem to be answered is to verify if the supposed strange words spoken by Pentecostal believers are part of a language or constitute a language and how they originate. One of the great features of the Pentecostal movement is the famous strange tongues, also called glossolalia in the academic world. For decades, the foreign languages ​​of believers have stimulated the interest of researchers, becoming the subject of several master's dissertations and doctoral theses. It is important to note that the use of strange languages ​​is not exclusive to Pentecostal evangelicals, they are found in rituals of other religions and there are records from over a thousand years before Christ. This article aims to analyze the strange languages ​​of Brazilian Pentecostalism. To find the answer: this work presents a scientific investigation. Field research and the bibliographic method were used, having in the theoretical framework renowned authors such as Sueli Aparecida Carvalhaes, Silva Freire, Mauricio Ricci, Silvana Matias, William J. Samarin and Selma Baptista. The work is not intended to carry out an attack on Pentecostals' belief in foreign languages. We deal with a scientific approach from the sociological, theological, historical, and linguistic point of view of the practice of foreign languages ​​in the religious scenario.