Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes; Life and Language in the Amazonian jungle by Daniel Everett

Fascinating, but what about speaking in tongues?

Learning about the life of an obscure tribe of about three hundred souls in the middle of the Amazonian jungle was a fascinating read; as was the section on the Piraha language and linguistics. Daniel Everett’s thesis is that it’s wrong to think of language being innate to humans but instead it is moulded by culture. This makes some sense. No doubt though the supporters of the time plus chance theory of the universe feel they have another nail to bang into the creator God’s coffin. And the nail is sharp because the author used to be an evangelical Christian missionary, but is now an atheist.

But I have a question for this evolutionary linguistics scheme of things: what about speaking in tongues, the prayer language spoken by millions of Christians? These prayer languages are adapting to no cultural need. There is absolutely no way they are a part of a time plus chance evolutionary process. They are a gift. And their purpose surely points to the purpose of all language: to worship God, the chief end of man.

Speaking in tongues and other dramatic, immediate signs of God’s presence also has something to say about Christian mission. Daniel Everett stresses that the Christian message makes no sense to the Piraha because they only believe in what they could see and only live in the now. So though Daniel Everett clearly did a Herculean job translating the Gospel of Mark into the Piraha language, and he and his family did all they could to show Christ’s love to the tribe– at the end of the day this wasn’t enough. From the Christian mission point of view there needed to be a demonstration of God’s power and show down with the spirits as there was with Don Richardson and the head hunting Sawi tribe in Indonesia in the 1960’s. And as there has been in countless confrontations between Christian missionaries and pagans.

Speaking in tongues also has an immediate relevance to Daniel Everett’s own spiritual journey. He says towards the end of the book that as a scientist he does not believe in ‘anything supernatural’. What though is ‘speaking in tongues’? The prayer language is not natural, for not everyone speaks in tongues. So surely there is a case for saying they are ‘supernatural’. If he does not believe in speaking in tongues, then what are millions of Christians doing every day?

You cannot help but feel sympathy for Daniel Everett as he faces the seeming reality of the complete lack of relevance of the Christian message to the Piraha culture. But it’s important to remember that all missionaries who have faced totally alien cultures grapple with this. Not all are successful, but surely the children of the head hunting Sawi who are now worshipping Christians are grateful that Don Richardson persevered. And surely we Europeans should be grateful to Augustine, Patrick, Boniface and countless others who preached Christ to our pagan ancestors, so that we have enjoyed living in a culture still moulded by Christian values.