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The purpose of this relatively small volume is, as stated in the preface, to provide a work covering the subject of glossolalia, both religious and non-religious, that might be available to English-speaking readers. The author chose to write the book with the general reader rather than with the trained expert in mind. He asserts that, while he 'used the latest results of scholarly research' in the preparation of the book, he confined his efforts to an attempt 'to interpret these results to those unfamiliar with technical subtleties, and to evaluate them for the general reader' (p. xi.). The selection of a popular audience necessarily imposed certain limitations upon Dr. Cutten's treatise. The last chapter of the book, entitled 'Psychological Explanation, ' has suffered especially, it seems to us, in the attempt to steer a true course between the Scylla of the layman's psychiatric grasp and the Charybdis of inadequate exposition.
The first seven chapters of 'Speaking with Tongues' are devoted to an historical survey of religious glossolalia. They are replete with interesting data. The phenomenon doubtless appeared long before the advent of Christianity and has recurred with varying frequency and in differing extent up to the present. Chapter I is of an introductory nature. An exegesis of the various New Testament accounts of the phenomenon is given in Chapter II. The author feels that there is no reason to believe that the modern examples of speaking with tongues are fundamentally different from New Testament instances. Chapter III describes manifestations