THE BAPTISM OF DISCIPLES AND THE NATURE OF THE CHURCHChristopher J. Ellis
The experience of living in a post-Christian Europe is often reflected in
ecumenical discussions by the assertion of many paedobaptist traditions
that they, as well as Baptists, also practice adult baptism. This assertion is
incontrovertible, but what is often less clear is that there is a distinction to
be made between 'the baptism of believers only' and 'adult baptism'. On
the one hand, the former phrase does not carry a lower age limit, so debate
can range over the definition of 'believer'. On the other hand, the latter
phrase is descriptive rather than definitional. More particularly, the theol-
ogy of the baptism of adults is affected by whether or not such baptism is
restricted to those with a conscious faith, or is simply a sector within a
large span of recipients, most of whom will be of tender years. While this
essay will not primarily focus on the distinction between adult and
believer's baptism, that distinction does lead us to our present concern—the
ecclesiological dimension of a theology of the baptism of believers only.
Baptism should not be viewed in isolation. As an initiatory rite, it should
be understood in the context of the whole process of Christian initiation, as
Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry and other reports and writers insist.^1 As a
liturgical action, any attempt to understand it which is abstracted from the
worship of the Christian community is likely to be artificial. Indeed, a
number of contemporary liturgical theologians increasingly insist on the
sacraments being their proper concern rather than the concern of dogmatic
theologians.^2- See Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (F&O Paper, 111; Geneva: WCC, 1982),
p. 4; Believing and Being Baptized: Baptism, So-Called Re-Baptism, and Children in
the Church (Didcot: Baptist Union of Great Britain, 1996), pp. 9-12, and Thomas F.
Best, and Dagmar Heller (eds.), So We Believe, So We Pray: Towards Koinonia in
Worship (F&O Paper, 171; Geneva: WCC, 1995), pp. 6 and 8. - See Keith W. Irwin, Liturgical Theology: A Primer (ed. E. Foley; American
Essays in Liturgy; Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1990), pp. 13-14.