Baptismal Integrity

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BI Update 44 (Summer 2002), page 11.

 

The Mystery of Baptism

"The Mystery of Baptism in the Anglican Tradition" - Kenneth Stevenson (Bishop of Portsmouth), Canterbury Press, 1998, £12.99 - reviewed by John Hartley.
 

I noticed this book in the Diocesan Resources Library while looking for something else, and was immediately struck by the the author’s real desire to make historical writings live in the present, and to use past writers to address modern concerns. The book is initially difficult to get into, but grows on you as you start to unpack it.

The core of the book is detailed attention paid to nine writers from the period 1550-1700. Each of them has a chapter devoted to his views, under a catchphrase title which summarises the issue which excited that writer. Each catchphrase is introduced by an anecdote from Bishop Kenneth’s vast experience, and the modern questions which spring to mind are then addressed by well-chosen extracts from the writer in question. Each chapter is a good-quality essay on the different aspects of the writer in question, and Kenneth is especially careful to give a proper treatment which shows when the writer seems to say different things in different settings. With detailed notes, this book is historical scholarship at its best.

Topping and tailing the central nine chapters are three chapters which attempt to paint some of the feelings and controversies around the subject of baptism today, some of the reasons why one should look at history and particularly the history of the Reformation period, and some thoughts on what lessons we might learn from these writers and what the future might hold.

I don’t want to give the impression that I agree, or warm to, everything in the book. The image of Michael Ramsay addressing the font in Horbling Church (Lincolnshire) “Oh font, font, font, this is where my Christian life began.” (p96) made me squirm, and the author’s “I have celebrated many baptisms there” (at Boston Parish Church) made me want to shout “and how many of those babies went on to profess their own faith?” (I have never celebrated “many baptisms” anywhere!) Some of what Kenneth calls a “Mystery” seems a superstition to me, but I think I need the humility to admit that I haven’t plumbed all the depths of this sacrament myself. To read this book is to be faced with the fact that we live in a broad church, and if we hope to reform it we need to do it the courtesy of trying our hardest to understand it.

So I recommend this book, and to give you a taster for it, there are some thoughts from the first of these divines on the next page...

 

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This web page was last updated on 6th July 2002.