A comprehensive survey of the doctrine and practice of baptism in the first five centuries of Christian history, arranged geographically within chronological periods.

This book demonstrates that believer's baptism did not simply disappear after the apostolic era, but continued to be the accepted practice for centuries. Infant baptism became part of ecclesiastical practice gradually, apart from apostolic injunction. For this reason it must be called into question and rejected as a suitable practice for Christian churches.

What can we learn from early Christian imagery about the theological meaning of baptism? Robin Jensen, a leading scholar of early Christian art and worship, examines multiple dimensions of the early Christian baptismal rite. She explores five models for understanding baptism--as cleansing from sin, sickness, and Satan; as incorporation into the community; as sanctifying and illuminative; as death and regeneration; and as the beginning of the new creation--showing how visual images, poetic language, architectural space, and symbolic actions signify and convey the theological meaning of this ritual practice. Considering image and action together, Jensen offers a holistic and integrated understanding of the power of baptism. The book is illustrated with photos.

Baptism In The New Testament In this thorough and well-documented study of the sacrament of Holy Baptism, G.R. Beasley-Murray presents a critical defense of the doctrine of believers' baptism on the basis of the New Testament evidences. The author--one of the leading New Testament scholars in England--is himself a Baptist; but his discussion transcends denominatioal lines. Beasley-Murray begins by discussing various rites that precede Christian baptism historically, and analyzes the relationship between these earlier rites and baptism. From these antecedents--Old Testament ritual washings, Jewish proselyte baptism, the lustrations practiced at Qumran, and the baptism of John the Baptist--the author proceeds to the foundations of Christian baptism in the career of Jesus, its emergence as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and its development in the New Testament epistolary literature. In his consideration of the doctrine of Christian baptism as ariculated in the New Testament, Beasley-Murray focuses his attention on the necessity of baptism and its relationship to grace, faith, the Spirit, the church, ethics, and hope. A careful examination of the rise and significance of infant baptism follows, and the study concludes with a selected bibliography and several indices.

A comprehensive examination of all the passages in the New Testament, together with key documents from the apostolic Fathers, which allude to baptism.

Though Joachim Jeremias' 'Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries' was originally published in 1938, an English translation did not appear until 1960 (based on the revised German edition of 1958). In 1961, Kurt Aland published his response to Jeremias' assertions. This English translation of 'Die Sauglingstaufe im Neuen Testament und in der alten Kirche' originally appeared in 1963. In this point by point refutation of Jeremias' main contentions, Aland insists that there is no direct evidence of infant baptism prior to the third century.

Joachim Jeremias here makes his greatest contribution in a study of the early tradition of infant baptism. He offers exegesis of pertinent New Testament passages, and readers will be impressed with the extra-Biblical evidence he produces to support that there was virtually universal observance of the rite in the post-Apostolic generations. He states his purpose thus: to lay before the reader the historical material relating to the history of infant baptism in the first four centuries in as concrete and sober a manner as possible.