4A - Religious Identity through Diversity in Baptism

Give an example of New Testament support for infant baptism.

• Acts 2:38-9. "Repent, and be baptised...the promise is for you, for your children" (Peter)

What was the view of infant baptism in the early church?

• Uniformly practised + supported by many church fathers

What was Augustine's view of infant baptism?

• Infant baptism = a "tradition received from the apostles" as a means of removing OS
• Infants, who are not yet able to imitate Jesus, are "ingrafted" into his body
• Jesus gives the grace of his spirit, "which he secretly infuses even into infants"
• It does not matter that the infants are unable to profess personal faith; "When children are presented to be given spiritual grace...it is done by the whole of Mother Church"
• Baptism = a sacrament
• Augustine wrote that North African Christians at the time called baptism, "salvation", and the Eucharist, "life"
• "the sacrament of baptism is most assuredly the sacrament of regeneration"

Who endorsed Augustine's teaching?

• The 416 Council of Mileum II
• "because all have sinned...even infants who...have not been able to commit any sin are therefore baptised unto the remission of sins"

Who was Huldrych Zwingli?

• The leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland

What was Zwingli's view of infant baptism?

• Differed from Augustine only in that he did not regard baptism as a means of regeneration, but as its sign and seal
• Quotes Romans 4:11: Abraham "received the sign of circumcision as a seal of righteousness that he had by faith"∴ baptism seals the remission of sin by the blood of Jesus, and our incorporation in Jesus by faith, produced by Holy Spirit
• The divine promise = guaranteed to young children on the basis of their parents' pledge to bring them up in the Christian faith
• The sacrament = divinely instituted and efficacious to aid/strengthen faith
• A sign of belonging to the new covenant (circumcision = the old)
• "doctors have ascribed to the water a power it does not have and the holy apostles did not teach"

When were the first Christian objections to infant baptism?

• Reformation

How did believers' baptism originate?

• A diverse group of radical reformers began baptising adults who had made a profession of their faith
• They were hated by Catholics and Protestants, who gave them the name, Anabaptists ('rebaptisers')
• Early members did not accept the name, arguing that their baptism was no 'second baptism' ∵ infant baptism = unscriptural ∴ void

Give an example of New Testament support for believers' baptism.

• Acts 9:18: Saul = baptised after he encounters Jesus in a vision on the road to Damascus
• There is no record of infants being baptised; baptism = only administered to adult believers

Why did the 1547 Council of Trent denounce believers' baptism?

• While it invariably follows faith, it involved baptising those who had already been baptised as infants

Who is Karl Barth?

• One of the 20th Century's most influential theologians

What was the name of Barth's book relating to baptism?

• 'The Teaching of the Church regarding baptism'

What was Barth's view of believers' baptism?

• Baptism does not bring about human salvation, but bears testimony to salvation by its symbolic representation of renewal in Christ
• Not a sacrament, rather a human action that acknowledges the one true "sacrament of the history of Jesus Christ"
• It "seals" the reality of God's grace but does not generate that reality
• Infant baptism = misguided ∵ it is coercive; consent is crucial as the individual may not be willing to take the first step and ∴ "it is not done in obedience, it is not administered according to proper order."

Barth was aware that...

• My views will leave me in theological and ecclesiastical isolation"

Who supported Barth's view?

• Moltmann

What does T.P. Forsyth believe?

• That infant baptism and believers baptism = equally recognised

What does Oscar Cullman believe?

• Baptism = passive reception of God's work ∴ does not depend of faith

What does Peter Brunner believe?

• Jesus unites people into his body, regardless of age