Speaking in Tongues, Dancing with Ghosts: Redescription, Translation, and the Language of Resurrection

This essay provides a constructive critique and extension of Jonathan Z. Smith's writings on Paul and I Corinthians. Beginning with a demonstration of the problems with applying Smith's locative/utopian dichotomy to Paul and the Corinthians, I argue that this theoretical scheme renders the Corinthians' acceptance of Paul's message incomprehensible. Smith's later scheme of "here, there, and anywhere'' provides a more useful heuristic. Following an analysis of the social and religious setting of 1 Corinthians, I explore the analogous case of the 1870 Ghost Dance as it developed among the Paiute of Western Nevada. After briefly discussing the implications of this analogy for our understanding of the Corinthian Christ group (and early Christianities generally), I conclude that both the Corinthians and the Paiute are displaced religions of "here'' that have experimented with features characteristic of the religions of "anywhere.'' This cross-cultural description provides our models of Paul and the Corinthians with a sounder anthropological footing than they might previously have had.