THOMPSON Memorial Dimensions of Baptism 321
Wolterstorff, drawing upon ritual theory, lists one possible theory of
how memory functions in sacramental rites as 'dramatic representation'.
He rejects this, however, as inadequate to Christian memorial acts. His
rejection notwithstanding, perhaps Wolterstorff provides us with a cate-
gory by which we may discuss contemporary Baptists' prevalent under-
standing of baptism. Southern Baptist baptism is a dramatic representation
of the experience of conversion and faith. Baptism, according to the Bap-
tist Faith and Message (1963), 'is an act of obedience symbolizing the
believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour'.^69 As such bap-
tism is, in the words of one Baptist writer on worship, 'a post-conversion
dramatization of conversion'.^70 In one of the few places in Southern Bap-
tist literature where baptism is explicitly identified as a 'memorial', the
object of memory is the individual believer: '[Baptism and the Lord's
Supper] are memorials, given to symbolize the gospel and our salvation.
The Lord's Supper symbolizes what happened to Jesus when he went to
the cross. Baptism symbolizes what happens to us when we go to the
cross.'^71
The problem for Southern Baptists lies not so much in the realm of
amnesia as it does in what Edward Casey has termed 'paramnesia'. Simply,paramnesia is not forgetting, but remembrance of the wrong thing.^72 In
much the same way, heresy is not teaching falsehood so much as overem-
phasizing only part of the truth. Just as imbalance in the dialectics of Chris-
tian truth threaten the integrity of Christian doctrine, so paramnesia threat-
- H.H. Hobbs, The Baptist Faith and Message (Nashville: Convention Press,
1971), p. 83, emphasis mine. This definition holds as well for the 1925 predecessor and
2000 successor confessions adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention. - C.W. Gaddy, The Gift of Worship (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992), pp. 141-
- Cf. J.M. Frost, The Moral Dignity of Baptism (Nashville: Sunday School Board of
the Southern Baptist Convention, 1939), p. 45, 'The very power and beauty of the
ordinance (of baptism) lies in its declarative character. It declares in the plainest way
what we believe, what we have experienced', emphasis original; W.W. Stevens, Doc-
trines of the Christian Religion (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1967), p. 325; D.M.
Roark, The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Christian Thought (Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House, 1969), pp. 288-91; and M.J. Erickson, Systematic Theology, III
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), pp. 1096-1101. - P. W. Powell, The New Ministers Manual (n.p.: Annuity Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention, 1996), p. 66. Noteworthy is the way in which this understanding
seems to require the priority of the Supper over baptism. Surely, this is due to the
assumption of the Supper into kerygmatic proclamation? - Casey, Remembering, pp. 279-80.