Baptism

Is Baptism a Male Birthing Ritual? By Michele Stopera Freyhauf

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

Quite a number of years ago I had a conversation with one of my professors, a feminist theologian, who posed the... more Quite a number of years ago I had a conversation with one of my professors, a feminist theologian, who posed the question “Why do I need a man to purify my baby with the waters of baptism?  Is there something wrong or impure about the blood and water from a mother’s womb – my womb?”  Before you jump and shout the words Sacrament or removal of original sin, this question bears merit in exploring, especially in today’s world where women are taking a serious beating religiously, politically, and socially.  In today’s world, violations and rants are causing women to stand up and say STOP!  This is MY Body.  This outcry was provoked by chants of ethical slurs against women– Slut! Prostitute! Whore!  The cry got even louder when the issue of religion and government was raised in the fight of healthcare coverage of contraception. The cry got even louder with the enactment of the laws in Virginia and Texas (and many other states to follow suit) that forces women to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds in early stage abortions.  The mandatory insertion of a wand into a woman’s vagina (mandated by the government, mind you), is a violation and has women crying RAPE!

Is Baptism a Male Birthing Ritual? By Michele Stopera Freyhauf

by Michele Stopera Freyhauf

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion Project.

Quite a number of years ago I had a conversation with one of my professors, a feminist theologian, who posed the... more Quite a number of years ago I had a conversation with one of my professors, a feminist theologian, who posed the question “Why do I need a man to purify my baby with the waters of baptism?  Is there something wrong or impure about the blood and water from a mother’s womb – my womb?”  Before you jump and shout the words Sacrament or removal of original sin, this question bears merit in exploring, especially in today’s world where women are taking a serious beating religiously, politically, and socially.  In today’s world, violations and rants are causing women to stand up and say STOP!  This is MY Body.  This outcry was provoked by chants of ethical slurs against women– Slut! Prostitute! Whore!  The cry got even louder when the issue of religion and government was raised in the fight of healthcare coverage of contraception. The cry got even louder with the enactment of the laws in Virginia and Texas (and many other states to follow suit) that forces women to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds in early stage abortions.  The mandatory insertion of a wand into a woman’s vagina (mandated by the government, mind you), is a violation and has women crying RAPE!

Ritual Water, Ritual Geist: An Application of Narratological Analysis to Luke's Development of Christian Initiation from John the Baptist to Pentecost

by David McCollough

This paper employs narratological analysis, especially focalization, the sequential development of entity... more This paper employs narratological analysis, especially focalization, the sequential development of entity representations and intertextuality, to demonstrate that through Luke 3, 11 and Acts 2, Luke prescribes a liminal ritual complex of initiation composed of four elements: repentance, water baptism, prayer and xenolalic experience understood as Spirit reception. The paper briefly explains focalization (the lens through which a narrator looks at something) and entity representations (ERs, the mental construct of a character, motif, procedure, network of relationships, etc., built up lineally through a narrative). It addresses the intertextual role of Isaiah and Malachi in the formation of the initiation ER, and implications of lukan Sinai imagery.
The paper traces the cumulative development of the initiation ER from John the Baptist’s prophecy of Spirit and fire baptism, to Jesus’ baptism, to Jesus’ teaching on prayer for the Spirit, to Pentecost. Luke’s use of priestly imagery is found to color his portrayal of believers. The Pentecost narrative is shown to redundantly focalize the xenolalia experience, and to identify it for the reader as the Spirit experience prophesied by Joel and promised by Jesus, and to prescribe that same xenolalic experience as a boundary marker obtainable through repentance, water baptism and prayer.
The paper will demonstrate that notwithstanding a strong, undeniable vocational role, narratological analysis indicates Luke subordinates Spirit experience under a broader soteriological heading which can be further refined as initiatory with a liminal aspect, thus ecclesiological.

“Il battesimo nel Book of Common Prayer,” in Salvezza delle anime disciplina dei corpi. Un seminario sulla storia del Battesimo, edited by Adriano Prosperi, Scuola Normale Superiore, 2006, 551-571.

by Stefano Villani

[The Baptism in the Book of Common Prayer]. The essay examines how the sacrament of baptism is described in the... more [The Baptism in the Book of Common Prayer]. The essay examines how the sacrament of baptism is described in the various editions of the Book of Common Prayer (1549, 1552, 1559, 1604, 1662). This examination of the changes to the sacrament in the different Books of Common Prayers shows how central was this issue and how the debate around the liturgy embodied divergent theological settings.

An Exegetical Paper on 1 Peter 3:18-22

by Casey Hough

An exegetical paper on 1 Peter 3:18-22, which includes a translation, a syntactical, grammatical and semantic... more An exegetical paper on 1 Peter 3:18-22, which includes a translation, a syntactical, grammatical and semantic analysis, a grammatical diagram and a semantic diagram.

Baptism & identity: Pauline directives for Christian ethics

by Jana De Lange

Abstract of "Baptist Sacramental Theology: A Covenantal Framework for Believer Baptism"

by Brandon Jones

Moïse, Pierre et Mithra, dispensateurs d'eau: figures et contre-figures du baptême dans l'art et la littérature des quatre premiers siècles.

by Luc Renaut

Fons Vitae. Baptême, baptistères et rites d’initiation (IIe - VIe siècles). Actes de la journée d’études, Université de Lausanne, 1er décembre 2006 (Études lausannoises d’histoire de l’art, 8), dir. Ivan Foletti et Serena Romano, Rome : Viella, 2009, pp. 39-64.

Abstract : please follow the HAL link below. Abstract : please follow the HAL link below.

Bible Translation and Ancient Visual Culture: Divine Nakedness and the "Circumcision of Christ" in Colossians 2:11

by Yancy Smith

See the article in Niang and Osiek _Text, Image and Christians in a Graeco-Roman World: A Festschrift in Honor of David Lee Balch, PICKWICK BOOKS—Wipf and Stock.

Many scholars have gained insight looking beyong the textual world created by beholding texts alone as the resource... more Many scholars have gained insight looking beyong the textual world created by beholding texts alone as the resource for reconstructing the context (thus the "meanings") of Biblical phrases with a visual registry of reference. I apply insights gained from viewing ancient Christian depictions of Christ crucified in the nude to illuminate a difficult metaphorical passage of this deutero-Pauline text.

Following the way of peace: Our participation in Christ’s offices of prophet, priest and king.

by Marc Tumeinski

Published in Social Justice Review. 100(11-12), 146-150 (2009).

Baptême et communion des jeunes enfants: la Lettre de Jean d’Antioche à Théodore d’Éphèse (998/999), Revue des études byzantines 69, 2011, p. 185-204.

by Vassa Kontouma

Première édition et traduction française de la Lettre de Jean d’Antioche à Théodore d’Éphèse sur le baptême et la... more Première édition et traduction française de la Lettre de Jean d’Antioche à Théodore d’Éphèse sur le baptême et la communion des jeunes enfants, conservée dans le Parisinus gr. 1304 (vers 1280). Cette Lettre appartient au genre des responsa canoniques. Elle a été composée à Constantinople, en 998/999, par Jean III Politès et elle est adressée à Théodore II d’Éphèse. Elle porte sur la question de savoir si les jeunes enfants peuvent accéder aux sacrements et elle révèle un conflit qui avait surgi à la fin du 10e siècle au sein de la métropole d’Éphèse. Conservée à Constantinople jusqu’au début du 13e siècle, la Lettre est réapparue dans la région d’Otrante en 1235/1236, grâce à l’action conjointe de Nicolas-Nectaire de Casole et Georges Bardanès. ------
First edition and French translation of the Letter of John of Antioch to Theodore of Ephesus on the Baptism and Communion of Young Children, preserved in Paris. gr. 1304 (ca. 1280). This Letter belongs to the genre of canonical responsa. It was composed in Constantinople in 998/999 by JohnIII Polites and was addressed to Theodore II of Ephesus. It concerns the question of whether young children can have the sacraments, and it reveals a conflict which arose at the end of the tenth century within the metropolis of Ephesus. Preserved in Constantinople until the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Letter re-appears in the region of Otranto in 1235/1236 through the joint efforts of Nicholas-Nektarios of Casole and George Bardanes.

The Reception of the Truth at Baptism and the Church as Epistemological Principle in the Work of Irenaeus of Lyons

by Peter-Ben Smit

This article explores the meaning of the statement made by Irenaeus of Lyons that the truth (i.e. the faith) is... more This article explores the meaning of the statement made by Irenaeus of Lyons that the truth (i.e. the faith) is received at baptism. It is argued that what is meant here is the reception of true 'first principles' that allow the newly baptized to see the world fully as it is; the shape of these first principles is understood as integration into the church and its tradition. In this way, the integration of the newly baptized into a community of interpretation is the way in which s/he learns to see the world anew, namely from the perspective of the community of faith.

Ekologiese liturgieë in die Leesrooster 2001-2010: 'n Kritiese evaluering en voorstelle

by Hanno Langenhoven

Dissertation in partial fullfilment of the degree Magister Divinitatus at the University of Pretoria

The study draws two contextual circles in terms of the impending or even current ecological crisis, the Lynn White... more The study draws two contextual circles in terms of the impending or even current ecological crisis, the Lynn White thesis and the response of Christendom.

These contextual circles offer the backdrop against which the researcher develops criteria for the evaluation of ecological liturgies.

In conclusion these criteria are used to evaluate suggested ecological liturgies for use in the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa between 2001 and 2010 on Environment Sundays as well as during Seasons of Creation. The dissertation culminates in suggestions for liturgies to be used during the Season of Creation of 2012 (to be published in 2011).

Marcion's Love of Creation

by Andrew McGowan

Although Marcion is often said to have rejected matter as inherently evil, Marcionite sacramental practice and... more Although Marcion is often said to have rejected matter as inherently evil, Marcionite sacramental practice and asceticism suggest a more complex and specific set of attitudes to material things and practices. Later heresiologists analyzed Marcion’s rather negative cosmogony and saw inconsistency, but Marcionite Christianity was less concerned with the origins of things than with their significance in light of the new creative work of the loving Stranger god. What Marcion despised was arguably the order (kosmos) of creation, rather than the mere fact of it. If the higher god saves human beings, who are part of the Creator’s work and without affinity to that “Stranger,” then by analogy the use of water in baptism or bread in the eucharist may be understood as the ritual reconfiguration of matter into the new order willed by its “new master and proprietor.”

Baptism in the Monasteries of Upper Egypt: The Pachomian Corpus and the Writings of Shenoute

by Hugo Lundhaug

Published in David Hellholm et al. (eds.), Ablution, Initiation, and Baptism in Early Judaism, Graeco-Roman Religion, and Early Christianity (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 176; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2011), 2:1347-1380.

Christians are made not born

by Albert Fiedeldey

A Cure for Rabies or a Remedy for Concupiscence?: A Baptism of the Elchasaites

by Andrea Nicolotti

in «Journal of Early Christian Studies» 16/4 (2008), pp. 513-534

The author of the Elenchos attributes to Alcibiades of Apamea, an Elchasaite who had arrived in Rome around 220 c.e.,... more The author of the Elenchos attributes to Alcibiades of Apamea, an Elchasaite who had arrived in Rome around 220 c.e., the preaching of a baptism for the remission of sin, and of ablutions for those that had been bitten by a rabid dog, the sick with consumption, and the possessed by demons. Erik Peterson has interpreted the rabid dog and the diseases as allegories of concupiscence, coming to the conclusion that the Elchasaite immersion would not have been an antidote for rabies, consumption, or demonic possession but rather a remedy against concupiscence and against the proliferation of sexual passion.
In my opinion, such allegoric explanation is to be rejected. The symptoms of rabies—a disease which causes the infected to suffer from hydrophobia—could have been considered by the baptist Elchasaites as proof of a demonic presence within the person. Likewise, the mention of consumption and demonic possession should be interpreted literally, according to a cultural context in which disease, demonic possession, and sins were considered to be tightly linked. The Elenchos would therefore contain an ancient testimony of a Christian exorcistic rite performed in the water.

2006 - Chapter in Edited Volume - 'Religious Strategies of Distinction: Baptism in Visigothic Spain', in K. Cooper & J. Gregory, eds., Elite and Popular Religion [Studies in Church History 42] (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer), pp. 3-17

by Jamie Wood

Saint and Sinner Springsteen

by Grant Shellhouse

The paper examines the narratives of redemption – from the state of sin, to the search for atonement, and finally the... more The paper examines the narratives of redemption – from the state of sin, to the search for atonement, and finally the attaining of salvation – found in the albums of Bruce Springsteen, particularly in "The River" and "Nebraska". It uses various works by Flannery O’Connor as a means of reading these narratives on account of her influence on Springsteen’s works and their common theological ties. Explores the artistic and theological claims made by O'Connor and Springsteen.

Trickster, Convert, Martyr, Saint: Four Ways of Dying in Dudo of St. Quentin’s History of the Normans.

by Victoria Whitworth

I gave this paper at Kalamazoo a few years back to a very small Sunday morning audience - I'd love some feedback!