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Update 50 pages 9-11.

Who counts as a Christian?

Clifford Owen (condensed by the editor from part of Clifford’s draft thesis: “Is charismatic renewal and ecumenical catalyst? - a study with special reference to Roman Catholic charismatic renewal”).
 

I heard Michael Saward give a talk about ‘covenant theology’ at a BI conference some years ago at Launde Abbey. He ended his talk with a firm 'but': 'But the theology of covenant can only apply where at least one parent is a Christian.'

So who counts as a Christian? If the answer is 'someone who has been baptised', as sacramental thought down the centuries of Catholic thought has supposed, then general infant baptism becomes self-perpetuating. If the answer is the experiential 'someone in whom I can see genuine faith' of Pentecostalism, then a nettle of discipline has to be grasped at some point; usually by the vicar, with all the consequences we have been discussing in this movement for many years. Is there any way to unhook us from having to choose between these extremes?

Maybe there is. Roman Catholics recognise the baptism performed by Pentecostals in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They believe that by virtue of baptism Pentecostals and Roman Catholics already enjoy a certain, though imperfect, koinonia (fellowship). The Pentecostals also believed that they have a certain, though imperfect, koinonia with Catholics, but not on the basis of a common water baptism. Rather the basis is a common faith and experience of Jesus and his Spirit. This experiential faith is what makes Catholics authentic Christians, not baptism.

Most Pentecostals view baptism as an ordinance , not a sacrament. Pentecostals reject infant baptism because babies cannot have a conscious response to faith. Catholics wondered at the Pentecostal insistence on believer's baptism when, as Catholics understand Pentecostal teaching, nothing much seems to happen.

Both denominations believe that pastors should delay or refuse baptism in cases where Christian nurture is not likely to occur. Both believe that faith precedes and is a precondition of authentic baptism, but they disagree as to how this faith operates.

It may not be too much to describe the differences over baptism as the 'great divide' which underspans the Catholic-Protestant divide in a large measure. If this division could be bridged theologically the way would open up towards the re-union of the visible church. What seems needed is a newly constructed theology which does justice to a sacramental view of initiation on the one hand and the personal faith/evangelisation elements as essential on the other.

There is some evidence that such a theology can already be glimpsed through the mists, and may even have been there in the Patristic centuries. For example: Hilary of Poitiers (4th Century) describes adult baptism thus: “We who have been reborn through the sacrament of baptism experience intense joy when we feel within us the first stirrings of the Holy Spirit. We begin to have insight into the mysteries of faith, we are able to prophesy and to speak with wisdom. We become steadfast in hope and receive the gifts of healing.”

On the face of it there is a clear statement here in which the sacramental gift of regeneration, in water baptism, results in the personal experience of the Holy Spirit, evidenced by the spiritual gifts of prophesy and healing. There is no hint of staged initiation. It seems a complete package, preceded as it would have been by the period of training and instruction of the cathechumenate.

Likewise, Tertullian clearly expected that 'after the water bath and the imposition of hands, prayer inviting and welcoming the Holy Spirit' would follow. So ‘baptism in the Spirit belongs not to private piety but to the public official liturgy, and is integral to those sacraments (baptism, confirmation, and the eucharist) which are constitutive of the deepest nature of the church.

This thesis seems promising for reconciling denominations, and not just Catholics and Pentecostalists. Are we listening?

One obvious reason for the decline of charismata in the Patristic centuries is growing indiscriminate infant baptism, by which whole populations were automatically baptised in infancy. This required later instruction, compulsory church attendance, the rite of confirmation admitting to communion, and then a priestly enforcement to keep the flock (or at least most of them) faithful throughout their lives. Christian discipleship, at a popular level, developed into being a rather formal adherence to a creed through ritual and law-keeping. Along the line the firsthand experience of charismata became obscured and generally not expected. The population became sacramentalised but not evangelised.

Often a decision for or against the practice of adult (believers') baptism is to a large extent a decision for or against a particular social form of the church. Those baptised in infancy take a form of 'non-committal religious society' both in relation to Christ and to one another. By contrast, the practice of believers' baptism leads to a social form of the church as a fellowship consisting of persons who freely respond to the call of God.

The Reformation bequeathed a great division to the western church which polarised approaches to Christian initiation. The issue of justification was foundational. Christians became such through repentance and faith upon hearing and responding to the Word of God, preached from Holy Scripture. Protestants rejected instrumental notions of water baptismal grace - grace came through faith alone. Conversion was the looked for effect in the individual’s life and conversion also was the door of the Holy Spirit. Baptism was seen as merely a symbol of new birth at best, and in many cases not essential at all. It is easy to understand why Catholics perceive that nothing much seems to happen when Pentecostal (adults) are baptised.

The challenge to Pentecostals (and probably Baptists and other credobaptist denominations) is to ask whether there is something objective conveyed in the rite of baptism? Regardless of whether it is an adult, child or infant; and regardless of the mode, is there something which is conveyed through the rite in itself? After all, the principal action of Pentecostals, the laying-on-of-hands for the Holy Spirit, is quasi-sacramental and generally viewed as transmitting something. Much is written in popular books and pamphlets on 'receiving the spirit-baptism' about believing in the gift given even if feelings are not yet present to validate the reception of the gift. Could not this same objectivity be applied to baptism? The difference is the propensity for faith on the individual's part. But can children receive the Spirit? Scripture suggests they can.

The challenge to Catholics (and probably Anglicans and other paedo-baptist churches) is to ask how faith works in Christian initiation? Salvation in Eph 2:8,9 is the priority of grace accessed through faith. The gift element is stressed in contrast to works. Complementing this in Rom 6 , Paul sees baptism as entering into the death and resurrection of Christ. In 1 Cor 12:13 Paul describes the church as those 'baptised by one Spirit into one body'. So Paul saw sacramental baptism as conveying grace accessed by faith, with the Spirit 'doing the initiating', as it were. Unfortunately there isn't, in Paul, a neat cluster of sentences which package his baptismal theology. It probably wasn't needed at that point in time in quite the same way as we need it now. Nevertheless accessing objective grace through faith, whether in the water rite of baptism or otherwise, (emphasis mine) is the key to finding a baptismal theology which holds these emphases together.

In our day, millions of baptised people are abandoning Christian beliefs and practices. The evidence is pretty obvious. Only a small minority attend church on a regular basis; Christian ethics, especially where human sexuality and business are concerned, are largely ignored. Seminaries are emptying and religious orders are dying. The challenge to the churches is to look again at the conditions under which people are baptised.

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This web page was last updated on 22nd January 2006.