Author tackles speaking in tongues through scripture-based discussion

PETERHEAD, Scotland (MMD Newswire) July 29, 2011 - - In his book, "This Happy Gift of Tongues" (ISBN 1461170117), James C. Davidson shares his personal psycholinguistic research of tongues, discussing and disputing both the psychological and critical conventions which argue that the language is a form of schizophrenia. Davidson realizes that even Christians have misconceptions about speaking in tongues, and the purpose of his book is to provide a simple explanation for the phenomenon.

Davidson's scripture-based analysis in a historical church setting presents tongues as a spiritual gift that is not simply a transformation of everyday language. Rather, his research shows the possibility that it could be a supernatural occurrence which alters speaking habits to forms never used before by the speaker.

The author encourages adult Christians to read this book, but believes that those of any belief will find the spiritual content intriguing.

"Speaking in tongues is a gift from God," Davidson says. "It's not to be feared, but to be welcomed and used to the glory of God and the building up of Christianity."

Davidson believes readers will gain a different perspective of what it means for the Christian to speak in tongues through this book and he hopes it will help to promote understanding and unity among Christians.

"This Happy Gift of Tongues" is available for sale online at Amazon.com and other channels.

About the Author:

James C. Davidson (known as Jim) and his wife Jean became Christians in 1955 and served as Salvation Army officers for 22 years in the UK and Hong Kong. Davidson now serves as a lay reader at the Presbyterian Church of Scotland with a ministry in the UK. He received his degrees in psychology from the universities of Hong Kong and Aberdeen while he researched linguistics and education. Davidson was elected local government councilor in Scotland for 19 years. He and Jean have four children and seven grandchildren. He has also authored "Hearing God," "Revelation--Simply," "The Christian and the Spirit Dimension," "A Bairn's War--1939-45" as well as a number of published articles. A review of "This Happy Gift of Tongues" was originally published in the Christian Literature Crusade magazine Floodtide in 1986 which concluded that "this is the clearest and most readable explanation [of speaking in tongues] I have read.

Slouching Past 40: Speaking in Tongues

At eight o'clock on a temperate July evening, a band was playing outside: twenty-somethings were dancing, thirty-somethings were holding their babies up to the sky, and forty-somethings were watching their (older) children's physical antics with a lethargic sort of envy that served only to make them sit the tiniest bit straighter in their oversized lawn chairs. A toddler let go of her balloon, and everyone watched the balloon bob and weave indecisively for a moment before it moved up and away with renewed purpose. One of the mothers bent close to her friend, also a mother, and confided that she'd always been heartbroken as a child when she'd let a balloon slip away from her. No one, she added, had ever been able to console her, at least not for a few hours. "Really?," mused her friend, but did not say more. The two fell back to listening to the band cover eighties songs, and thought of college, of alcohol-fueled trysts with boys barely older than the children who stood before them, now clamoring to go home, always needing this, wanting that, always, forever. But now I'm closer to forty-five years old than not, and I know better. If that therapist were alive, I'd ask her why it was ever on me to break a chain that seemed then, and now, largely random, involving as it did so many different people with so many different life stories. As it happens, I am still married. As it happens, I am not planning to obtain a divorce. But if I were, my God, I could think of a thousand reasons more relevant to my decision than perpetuating that particular family legacy. For a short period of time over a decade ago, I went to a therapist. I was depressed, drinking too much, and obsessed with a married man I worked with. She excused all of my behavior by saying that my husband (who she never met) was oppressive and abusive. As much as the unhappy side of me might have wanted to latch onto an excuse, I knew she was way off base. On the other hand, I don't mind when well-meaning friends offer suggestions because I understand that their ideas come from their own experiences and I feel free to ignore them. What gets me is when my mother tries to tell me what to do AND then gets miffed when I don't listen. It shows that she really does not understand how different we are and I have to pay the price.

Looking at what your therapist said, in my life there would be a good deal of truth to it.

Speaking in Tongues

Speaking in tongues, the New Testament evidence in context

Why Speak in Tongues?, The Christian's Three-Fold Ministry Through Prayer in the Spirit

Speaking in tongues

Speak in tongues, five reasons