Baptism

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For the evangelical denomination, see Baptist

Baptism is based on the mystical belief that there is a deep spiritual significance to the act of dipping, dunking, pouring, or sprinkling a person with water.

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[edit] Religious purpose

Usually this belief involves baptism as a religious rite of passage implying entry into church membership, or claiming the act is effective in "washing away" defects in the "soul", such as sins.

[edit] Like affects like

Baptism is an example of an assumption of like effects based on symbolic similarity. Because water is an effective solvent for cleansing dirt from the outside of the body, the assumption goes that water also therefore holds some mystical effectiveness in cleansing the spirit, soul, or mind from internal "dirt" of the sinful kind. This belief is a prime example of an area best explained by the hermeneutic method, rather than by the scientific method.

[edit] Who baptises

Baptism is practiced in Christianity and some other religions. The method of baptism varies between Christians sects, ranging from a gentle splash of water on the head up to full immersion in water. Roman Catholics and Anglicans would typically use water blessed prior to the baptism, while other sects, such as Methodists, believe the water becomes holy during the rite of baptism.

In the moral theology of Roman Catholicism, any Christian is able to perform the ritual of baptism, and allowed to do so in an emergency. All that is required is a baptized Christian, water, and that they say it in the name of the Trinity: "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."[1] Claims that Catholics had baptized Jews, believing that an emergency was present and that the ritual would gain them Heaven, have resulted in the kidnapping of Jewish infants from their families, as happened in the case of Edgardo Mortara.wp

[edit] Just add water

Thomas Aquinas discusses at some length the various fluids that may or may not be used to conduct the rite of baptism. "Pure plain water" is needed for baptism; but "water may cease to be pure or plain water in two ways: first, by being mixed with another body; secondly, by alteration. And each of these may happen in a twofold manner; artificially and naturally.... Whatever artificial change, then, takes place in the water, whether by mixture or by alteration, the water's nature is not changed. Consequently such water can be used for Baptism: unless perhaps such a small quantity of water be mixed artificially with a body that the compound is something other than water; thus mud is earth rather than water, and diluted wine is wine rather than water." Therefore, perfumes, liquors, broth, and wine are not useful to wash away the stain of original sin, nor do spittle nor phlegm work; but sea-water works, as do lye solutions and sulphur waters.[2]

[edit] Sacramentality

In most Protestant sects, baptism is performed as an ordinance, done merely because Jesus told his followers to do it. The Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox churches hold to the principle of sacramentality, which maintains that an infinite God interfaces with finite human beings through things like water, oil, and the laying on of hands, things which exist in fact rather than purely in the mindscape. Those Christians believe the water of baptism functions as a real channel of God's grace during the ritual, which is the sacrament of belonging, replacing the circumcision rite practiced by the Hebrews.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. How a Lay Person Should Administer Baptism, calefactory.org
  2. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, p. 3, q. 66, art. 4.
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