Baptism

Baptism. The rite of admission into the Christian church, practised by all denominations. Its origin is probably to be sought in (i) the Jewish practice of baptizing proselytes; and (ii) the baptism administered by John the Baptist ‘for the forgiveness of sins’ (Mark 1. 4).

The doctrine which attended baptism in the early church was variable. Baptism might be, for example, the washing away of sins (Acts 2. 38), a dying with Christ (Romans, 6. 4), a rebirth (John 3. 5), or the occasion of the gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12. 13).

The theology of baptism gained precision in the 3rd and 4th cents., notably in the West in the writings of Augustine. The Catholic view which emerged was of a rite which works ex opere operato, which confers a ‘character’ on the recipient (who thus can never be rebaptized, even after apostasy).

The 16th-cent. Reformers modified that theology: Luther, reconciling the necessity of baptism with his doctrine of justification by faith alone, regarded baptism as a promise of divine grace after which a person's sins are no longer imputed to him or her. Zwingli, on the other hand, saw baptism only as a sign of admission to the Christian community. Calvin taught that baptism can only be of effect for the elect, who have faith (without which the rite is vacuous). The radical Anabaptists understood baptism exclusively as a response of faith on the part of the individual to the gospel, and thus rejected infant baptism.

In the most usual form of early Christian baptism, the candidate stood in water, and water was poured over the upper part of the body. This is technically called ‘immersion’, but the word is now more often used to refer to the method (used e.g. by Baptists and Orthodox) of dipping the whole body under water.