KEARSLEY Baptism Then and Now 237
daily so in his baptismal outlook. As we shall see, baptism for him was
the peak of that contempt for paganism. Baptism also concerned cleansing
and healing for the one baptized, and began a long journey of learning and
growing in an ethic focused steadily upon the future state. And so the full
meaning of Tertullian's exposition of baptism unfolds in a series of
concerns.Tertullian
Baptism, Discipleship and Ethic
Baptism was the point of concentration of God's power. This, indeed, was
why Tertullian wrote his tract on baptism (De baptismo) in the first place.
A Gnostic leader wished to dispense with baptism, casting doubt on its
effectiveness. She much preferred the magical power of pagan baptisms.
Her disparagement of water as a ritual medium led Tertullian to leap to the
defence of the Christian rite but also to make some exaggerated claims for
water's powers. His thoughts on God's transference of divine power to the
medium of water survive today only in the notion of 'holy water'. But a
much more profound claim underlay his argument, one that has proven
enduring. God is the God of creation, not a God detached from it. This
God glories in nature and in its vulnerabilities. Water, for Tertullian, gave
space to the creative and renewing power of God. 'Simplicity and weak-
ness belong to God as his omnipotent rejection of earthly power and
wisdom.'^2 Weakness was power. Today, he might have asked: who does
not know the phrase, 'weak as water'? But his reply would then be: so
what? God makes this weakest and most common feature of nature into an
instrument of power:For if God is so wise and powerful...quite rightly has he established the
materials he works with in foolishness and incapability, the opposites of
wisdom and power... (De bapt. 2)Weak may water be, but this very weakness makes it the perfect medium
for God's power. Tertullian is consistent. Possibly he has in mind the
'possession' of the baptismal candidate by God.^3 He tells Marcion too that
the gifts conferred in baptism require a creator's power (Adv. Marc. 1.28).- E. Osborn, Tertullian: First Theologian of the West (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1997), p. 10. - See E. Evans, Tertullian's Homily on Baptism. The Text edited with an Intro-
duction, Translation and Commentary (London: SPCK, 1964), p. xxx.