THE NEOPENTECOSTAL LANGUAGE

AS A PERSUASION TOOL.
MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE
ANALYSIS
Ewelina Nyske
Center for Religious and Comparative Studies
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

ewelina.nyske@amu.edu.pl
 Charismatic Christianity: Neopentecostals and the Pentecostal Catholics

Bethel Bible Church, 1900, Charles Parham, 1950s

Topeka, USA „The Latter Rain”
THE FIRST WAVE THE SECOND WAVE
Birth of the Pentecostal Movement

1967 1980s
Catholic Charismatic Renewal NEOPENTECOSTALS
(Pentecostals inspire Catholics) THE THIRD WAVE
1994
Toronto Blessing, Toronto Airport Vineyard
Church charismatic religious practices
Randy Clark
religious ecstasy spread into other nations
divine healing
slain in the Spirit
 Ptr. Paolo Nappa, „Paolone”, Naples, Italy

Research subject:
the Neopentecostal
language

Research problem:
What are the main features of the Fr. Antonello Cadeddu, visiting Poland
Neopentecostal language that serve
religious persuasion and how do
they influence the non-linguistic
phenomena within the Polish and
Italian Neopentecostal and the
Pentecostal Catholic communities?
Artur Ceroński, „Church of Power”, Warsaw

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2F7bX_Aa10&t=394s
 • H1: The Neopentecostal language is used on a
regular basis by the Neopentecostal and the
Pentecostal Catholic spiritual leaders in order to
gain power among the community members and to
influence their behavior;

Research
• H2: the features of the Neopentecostal language
serve religious persuasion;

hypotheses: • H3: the implementation of the Neopentecostal

language influences the non-linguistic phenomena
within the Neopentecostal and the Pentecostal
Catholic communities;
• H4: the Neopentecostal conversational strategies
employ a speech pattern which is common to the
Neopentecostals and the Pentecostal Catholics;
• H5: the intracommunity interaction between the
individuals consists in creating symbolic worlds
which help these individuals to understand their
social context and their religious identity;
 • H6: the Neopentecostal language is a form of a
ritual speech, implemented in relation to the
intragroup supernatural phenomena (spiritual and
physical healings, divine signs, miracles, demonic
manifestations and exorcisms etc.);
Research • H7: Catholic charismatics embraced the
Neopentecostal religiosity and hence, they reject
hypotheses: the idea of scientific explanation and rational
cognition in favor of the sola experientia
approach;
• H8: the Neopentecostal and the Pentecostal
Catholic leaders employ various social influence
strategies within the groups they govern;
• H9: the need for affiliation determines the
interpersonal relations among the Neopentecostals
and the Pentecostal Catholics.
 • The results will enrich the already existing source
literature with the definition of the Neopentecostal
language and its usage as a persuasion tool within
two different cultures (Italian and Polish).
• The outcomes will also shed light upon Christian

Significance of
charismatic interaction ritual taking place within
the Neopentecostal and the Pentecostal Catholic
religious communities as well as upon the triggers
the project: of the Neopentecostal healing.
• Moreover, the results will discuss the problem of
which particular Neopentecostal features have
been embraced by Catholic charismatics and how
the social influence strategies employed by
spiritual leaders may shape the behavior of the
members.
 1. Selecting and joining (participant observation) the
appropriate communities (Neopentecostal and
Pentecostal Catholic);
2. gathering data on-site (books, documents, leaflets,
tutorials, notes taken during observation etc.);
Outline of the 3. gathering data off-site (books, videos, recordings,

work plan:
leaflets, tutorials etc. which are available to the
public);
4. conducting the individual in-depth interviews
(IDI) with the former members;
5. analyzing and interpreting data;
6. identifying the qualities of the Neopentecostal
language that serve religious persuasion on the
basis of the intracommunity interaction ritual.
 1. Clarifying what the Neopentecostal language and
the pentecostalization of Christianity exactly are;
2. conducting multimodal discourse analysis with
reference to the Polish and Italian Neopentecostal
and the Pentecostal Catholic communities;

Specific 3. specifying the features of the Neopentecostal

language that serve persuasion;

research goals: 4. exploring the role of the leader within the

Neopentecostal and the Pentecostal Catholic
communities taking their authority and leadership
style into account;
5. identifying and investigating the social influence
strategies used by the Neopentecostal and
Pentecostal Catholic spiritual leaders and
exploring how the Neopentecostal verbal
persuasion shapes human behavior;
 6. investigating the intracommunity interaction ritual;
7. exploring the similarities between
Neopentecostalism and shamanism in terms of
religious practices;

Specific 8. specifying the qualities of the Neopentecostal

language which indicate that it has the

research goals: characteristics typical of the ritual speech;

9. exploring the triggers of the Neopentecostal
healing;
10. identifying the Neopentecostal features that have
been embraced by Catholic charismatics.
 The project combines the following research
areas:

1. Linguistics (the study of language);

2. Neurobiology (the functioning of the limbic
system in case of the divine healing and the
Interdisciplinarity: 3.
practice of the liberation of demons);
Social sciences (close-knit religious
communities governed by a charismatic
leader).
 „In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you
the torturing demon of fear and manipulation
to leave this body. I am tying you up!”

neurobiology linguistics social sciences

multimodality interaction ritual

amygdala hippocampus

verbal and non-verbal shaping individual’s

emotional spatial behavior
stimulation
responses awareness

submission to the leader religious identity

enkephalins – endogenous analgesics
 Qualitative data collection

on-site data collection off-site data collection

Methods:
Multimodal ethnography public documents and
Discourse Analysis the audiovisual
material
IDI
participant (individual in-depth
observation interviews)

Poland and Italy

 Completed tasks

on-site data collection off-site

Research progress Italy

• literature on the research subject

academic year: •
•
audiovisual materials
IDI with one of the former members
Naples Rome belonging to The Archdiocese of
2019/2020 Gdańsk

Pentecostal worship
service – participant
observation
 Thank you!

Ewelina Nyske
Doctoral School of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań