Archive for category Baptism
Baptism – ‘Real but Imperfect Communion’ – RCC and CRC sharing the rite
- Image via Wikipedia
All I can say is – wow –
A new accord between U.S. Catholic leaders and Reformed churches would be a “milestone in the ecumenical journey” and would aid interaction with Reformed Christians at the parish level, a bishops’ conference official has said.
The document, titled “Common Agreement on Mutual Recognition of Baptism,” is the result of six years of study and discussion between the U.S. bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and representatives from the Presbyterian Church-USA, the Reformed Church in America, the Christian Reformed Church, and the United Church of Christ.
Fr. Leo Walsh… explained that the accord would foster awareness of Baptism as the basis for “the real but imperfect communion that exists among Christ’s followers.” It would also prohibit the use of “innovative” liturgical formulas.
….
Mutually recognizing Baptism as “the gateway to eternal life” would advance Christian unity in obedience to Jesus’ prayer that “all may be one,” Fr. Walsh added.
Proposed Catholic-Reformed agreement on Baptism would be ‘milestone’ :: Catholic News Agency (CNA).
I want to hold my thoughts on this for a bit, for several reasons. I will say, however, that I prefer orthopraxy to a strict orthodoxy, and if communion can be shared via baptism and the Eucharist…
What do you think?
Augustine on the delay of Baptism of youth
I beseech Thee, my God, I would gladly know, if it be Thy will, to what end my baptism was then deferred? Was it for my good that the reins were slackened, as it were, upon me for me to sin? Or were they not slackened? If not, whence comes it that it is still dinned into our ears on all sides, “Let him alone, let him act as he likes, for he is not yet baptized”? But as regards bodily health, no one exclaims, “Let him be more seriously wounded, for he is not yet cured!” How much better, then, had it been for me to have been cured at once; and then, by my own and my friends’ diligence, my soul’s restored health had been kept safe in Thy keeping, who gavest it! Better, in truth. But how numerous and great waves of temptation appeared to hang over me after my childhood! These were foreseen by my mother; and she preferred that the unformed clay should be exposed to them rather than the image itself – The Confessions – 1.11
Review: Worshiping with the Church Fathers
Posted by Joel in Baptism, Book Review, Church Fathers, Communion on June 7, 2010
Christopher Hall follows his two previous books with a powerful third, topping his other two with deeply powerful insights into forgotten Christian writers – forgotten to the Evangelical world – bridging a gap that is desperately needed between modern Christianity and those greats of the past.
There are no long-winded sermons, dusty facts, or theological interpretations. Instead, Hall connects the Fathers with their own words, sometimes with his insights by experience, producing a text that gives the Christian steady reading while he or she explores what the Fathers believed. Starting with the Eucharist and Baptism, he doesn’t argue for sacramentalism, but shows how the Fathers lived the communication of Grace, a tradition handed down time and time again, by various writers, producing a strong focus in the Christian life. Moving into prayer, he shares with the reader his challenges in presenting a better understanding of prayer, something that he struggles with himself. Finally, he ends with individual discipline. This book is thoroughly engaging to the theologian, Church Historian, but most and best of all, every Christian.
In a time when we ‘fit’ God into our lives, Hall reminds us of the Fathers and their life led in Christ. He brings home not theological arguments, nor denominational, but draws the reader into Christian historical theology. He seeks to answer the tough questions on prayer with how the Father’s did so. He brings in Augustine, Chrysostom, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and numerous others, but he ties these great writers to himself, and thus to us, by sharing his personal experience, such as the sacramentalism he received from his Uncle Bob. He doesn’t expect to change anyone’s opinions, only to show that, perhaps, what Evangelicalism is missing by ignoring the Fathers and the early theology.
Read it as a Church History text book, or a theological work, or even as a devotional but this book should be read, and will be enjoyed, but those who are seeking something more in there worship of God, and the understanding of the focus placed on such sacraments by Catholics, Orthodox and others as they worship God.
You may also order it from Westminster.
Reflection: Ancient Christian Doctrines Vol 5 – One Baptism
Posted by Joel in Baptism, Book Review on April 7, 2010
Click to Order
I am continuing to highlight this book, which is just an outstanding series from IVP-Academic. For those of us who like Church History, to like to dig through the words of those who have come before, this series is a must. It takes the Creed of 381 and provides a commentary on it through the writings of early Christian writers, although many of them didn’t know the Creed.
But perhaps the hearers of the church may say, generally it was better with the ancients than with us, when pardon for sinners was obtained by offering sacrifices in a diverse ritual. Among us, there is only one pardon of sins, which is given in the beginning through the grace of baptism. After this, no mercy or any indulgence is granted to the sinner. Certainly it is fitting that Christians, “for whom Christ died,” have a more difficult discipline. Origen, Homilies on Leviticus 2.4
We who are baptized, having wiped off the sins that obscure the light of the divine Spirit, have the ye of the spirit free, unimpeded and full of light, by which alone we contemplate the Divine, the Holy Spirit flowing down to us from above. Clement of Alexandria, Christian the Educator 1.6
You, indeed, correctly state that the church is a people born again of the water and the Holy Spirit, free from denial of the name of Christ. Pacian of Barcelona, Letter 3.2
This bath does not merely cleanse the vessel but also melts the whole thing down again. Even if a vessel has been wiped off and carefully cleaned, it still has the marks of what it is and still bears the traces of the stain. But when it is thrown into the smelting furnace and is renewed by the flame, it puts aside all dross, and, when it comes from the furnace, it gives forth the same sheen as newly molded vessels. John Chrysostom, Baptismal Instructions, 9.21
There is, like in the previous sections, much more than could be represented here about the baptism in the early Church.
You may order the other books in the series from here, or here.
Isaiah 54.9, Wisdom 14: Which ἀντίτυπον of Baptism in 1st Peter 3.20-21?
Posted by Joel in Baptism, Justin Martyr, Peter, Wisdom on March 19, 2010
Zwingli’s New Revelation on Baptism – Everyone was wrong but him
Posted by Joel in Baptism, Reformation on March 16, 2010
Rob has series of posts on baptism, which is over all interesting. This point in particular, however, is one which must be drawn and then explained by those who hold to the same view point as Zwingli:
The view that baptism relates primarily to justification and essential for the forgiveness of sins was the predominate view that continued far past the early Patristics continued until the Reformers (I’ve researched many hours and I’m yet to find an opposing viewpoint before Zwingli, but I surely welcome corrective data if its out there). With the implications of the Reformation period in mind, however, it makes logical sense that such a shift of focus would occur since this period began thinking of salvation by faith alone.
via The Function of Baptism Throughout Church History: Part 3 « Tolle Lege!.
How is it that only Zwingli, 1500 or so years removed from the Apostles, suddenly understood baptism?
For more information, check out this article.
