312 Dimensions of Baptism
Narrative is a crucial dimension of memory, necessary for understand-
ing the relation of individual to community in memory. Much recent con-
sideration has been given to this dimension.^29 Narrative requires a degree
of priority. Even that memory which consists of bodily experience entails
narrativity. That which is remembered is structured on a framework of
narrative.^30 Barbara DeConcini notes that in the telling of stories, remem-
bering takes place communally, and with it the definition of the identity of
communities and individuals. Memory tells not just what happened, but
who the rememberers are by relating both to certain narratives.^31 We see in
our eighteenth-century Baptist prayer, for example, besides allusion to the
Church catholic's creedal identity noted above, evocation of the Johan-
nine narrative of Jesus' baptism.^32 To these narratives are conjoined the
narratives of the common life of the Church community and the candi-
date's life. These narratives are themselves conjoined as the candidate
avails him/herself of the work of Christ within the community.^33by way of mutual service and self-giving covenantal love. This dynamic, set in relation
to the kenosis of Christ, is found in Phil. 2.1-11. This mutuality within Christian
community is more explicit in Edwards's treatment of the Lord's Supper and Love
Feast (pp. 83-88,91-93). Cf. B. Haymes, 'Baptism as a Political Act', in Fiddes (ed.),
Reflections, pp. 69-83 (78).- Cf. DeConcini, Narrative', E.S. Casey, Remembering: A Phenomenological
Study (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), passim; Connerton, Societies,
passim; and J. Metz, 'A Short Apology of Narrative', in S. Hauerwas and L.G. Jones
(eds.), Why Narrative? Readings in Narrative Theology (trans. D. Smith; Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1989), pp. 251 -62. - K. Gergen argued this point in 'Remembrance, Reconstruction, and Relation-
ship', Lecture at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 25 January 1991. He termed as a
false path to interpretation of memory 'psychological essentialism', in which individu-
als store and retrieve pieces of information. This lacks acknowledgment of the social
element. Memory remains embedded in relationships within which it is granted intelli-
gibility through narrative patterns. Cf. Connerton, Societies, p. 26, who defines
memory as a skill, since in remembering persons become capable of forming meaning-
ful narrative sequences. - DeConcini, Narrative, pp. 61, 111-12. Cf. Fentress and Wickham, Social
Memory, pp. 50-51, who observe that narratives are the 'containers' of social memory,
not by representing events but by setting them in an interpretive framework. - Creeds and creedal formulae are the most basic expressions of identity in the
Christian faith, and take narrative form.
3 3. McClendon, Doctrine, pp. 3 86-87, speaks of a' convergence of narratives' that
takes place in baptism. While McClendon here mentions the narratives of Christ and
the believer, the community's narrative is implicit. I would emphasize the importance