FlDDES Baptism and the Process of Christian Initiation 299
Spirit' there is a 'personal coming of the Holy Spirit' as a 'gift' to the one
baptized.^46 It was perhaps this rite of anointing that the western Church
extended into the later rite of confirmation; but whatever the historic
development, it was certainly in support of the practice of confirmation
that older scholars in the Tractarian tradition wanted to read a post-baptis-
mal rite of 'sealing' into the New Testament accounts.^47 We should also
observe that Pentecostalism has placed 'baptism in the Spirit' after water-
baptism as a 'second blessing', and that this has been followed in a more
flexible way by the modern charismatic movement. We might wonder
whether this is a parallel development, or an after-echo, of the tradition of
a post-baptismal anointing.
From this tradition of interpretation we might draw two conclusions.
First, on the basis of New Testament exegesis, it is certainly proper to
reserve the metaphors of 'sealing' and 'baptism' to express the activity of
God's Spirit within water-baptism. But secondly, the diversity of experi-
ence of the Church through the years shows that the activity of the Spirit
cannot be confined within the moment of baptism. The Pauline writings
witness to many operations, promptings and fillings of the Spirit in Chris-
tian experience;^48 Aquinas speaks of many 'sendings' of the Spirit;^49 Karl
Barth remarks that the Spirit makes 'many new beginnings'.^50 This should
make us cautious about appealing to 'the seal of the Spirit' to support a
notion of 'completed initiation' in baptism. We may say that there are
different comings of the Spirit appropriate to various stages of the process
of initiation, as well as to the whole life-long journey of Christian growth.
Just as baptism provides a focus for grace and faith, so it also offers aDix), in Max Thurian and Geoffrey Wainwright (eds.), Baptism and Eucharist: Ecu-
menical Convergence in Celebration (Geneva: WCC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983),
p. 8; cf. 'The Service of Holy Baptism in the Greek Orthodox Church', in Thurian and
Wainwright (eds.), Baptism and Eucharist, p. 15.- Alexander Schmemann, Of Water and the Spirit: A Liturgical Study of Baptism
(Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1974), pp. 78-79, 103-104. - E.g. Dom Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy (London: Dacre Press/ A. & C.
Black, repr. 1964), p. 260. However, Aidan Kavanagh, Confirmation: Origins and
Reform (New York: Pueblo, 1988), believes the origin of confirmation to be in the laying
on of hands for blessing in dismissal. - See James D.G. Dunn, Jesus and the Spirit (London: SCM Press, 1975), pp.
201-202. - Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, la.43.5-7. Cf. Francis A. Sullivan,
Charisms and Charismatic Renewal (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1982), pp. 69-75. - Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/4, pp. 39-40.