Infant Baptism in Historical Perspective: Collected Studies

by David F Wright

Overview

These important and incisive essays, spanning more than two decades of research and engagement, probe facets and episodes of infant baptisms fortunes over twenty centuries. The story of paedo baptism is traced from its shadowy beginnings as a variant of faithbaptism, through inflated Reformation defenses as it monopolized baptismal thought and practice, to biblical and ecumenical reevaluations and hopeful contemporary rapprochements across divisive waters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781842274644
Publisher:	Paternoster (Print on Demand)
Publication date:	02/01/2007
Series:	Studies in Christian History and Thought
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

David F. Wright is Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Reformed Christianity, New College, University of Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements     xv
Preface     xix
Abbreviations     xxi
Introduction: The Strange History of Infant Baptism, Not Least in Scotland     xxiii
The Early Centuries: Slow Development     1
The Origins of Infant Baptism - Child Believers' Baptism?     3
How Controversial Was the Development of Infant Baptism in the Early Church?     22
The Apostolic Fathers and Infant Baptism: Any Advance on the Obscurity of the New Testament?     44
The Meaning and Reference of 'One Baptism for the Remission of Sins' in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed     55
At What Ages Were People Baptized in the Early Centuries?     61
Augustine and the Transformation of Baptism     68
Monnica's Baptism, Augustine's Deferred Baptism, and Patricius     89
Donatist Theologoumena in Augustine? Baptism, Reviviscence of Sins, and Unworthy Ministers     105
Infant Dedication in the Early Church     116
The Baptism(s) of Julian the Apostate Revisited     139
The Reformation Era: Scripture and the Appeal to the Fathers     147
Out, In, Out: Jesus' Blessing of the Children and Infant Baptism     149
Infant Baptism and the Christian Community in Bucer     166
George Cassander and the Appeal to the Fathers in Sixteenth-CenturyDebates about Infant Baptism     179
1 Corinthians 7:14 in Fathers and Reformers     192
The Donatists in the Sixteenth Century     212
Development and Coherence in Calvin's Institutes: The Case of Baptism (Institutes 4:15-4:16)     226
Baptism at the Westminster Assembly     238
Towards a Modern Consensus     257
The Baptismal Community     259
One Baptism or Two? Reflections on the History of Christian Baptism     268
Scripture and Evangelical Diversity with Special Reference to the Baptismal Divide     285
Baptism in Scotland     301
Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (the 'Lima Report'): An Evangelical Assessment     308
The Lima Report: Baptism and Eucharist Compared     327
Habitats of Infant Baptism     334
Children, Covenant and the Church     344
Recovering Baptism for a New Age of Mission     362
Christian Baptism: Where Do We Go From Here?     377
Scripture Index     385
Name Index     387
Subject Index     397