TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

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purpose of a rite of maturity is to take on the baptismal vows for oneself, many young adolescents are confirmed as a social rite of passage without exhibiting any religious conviction. In addition, when churches refuse to provide young people with full rights and responsibilities in the local church, they are already acknowledging that "maturity" is something far more than meeting the "age of confirmation." When confirmation takes on the character of a rite of passage, the implications may suggest more than most would be willing to consciously state: that infant baptism is thus relegated to either a "dedication" of a baby waiting for Christian maturity or a modern-day exorcism of sin. Many scholars believe that "Confirmation as it has been traditionally practiced by the Western churches has inherent and insoluble problems." 40 Conservative evangelicals attack the modern theology of confirmation from an Anabaptist perspective. Progressive Christian educators challenge the developmental soundness of an arbitrary youthful age for a mature profession of faith. 41 Treating confirmation in any of the ways described can only result in a heightened sacramental view of confirmation at the expense of the sacrament of baptism. As Western culture has become increasingly secular, the church baptizes fewer infants from Christian families. Membership trends indicate that the evangelization and baptism of unchurched youth and adults will continue to gain center stage. Denominations whose memberships are growing have a fully developed rite of adult initiation. In the future, Protestants may be faced with a membership situation closer to that of the early church than to the "Christian" civilization, in which baptism is a kind of civic or state expectation. Even those marginal adults who were baptized as infants may yearn for a special rite in which they can make a mature profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The educational rite under which many congregations presently confirm their young does not seem adequate for this need. A liturgy of reaffirmation of baptismal vows has come into recent use in order to meet the need for the professions of faith of formally baptized youth and adults. 34 QUARTERLY REVIEW/SPRING 1993
Conclusions and Questions This paper has documented four distinct conceptions of the relationship between baptism and confirmation: 1) Adult and youth initiation into the visible church through the sign-actions of one rite which included water-washing and Spirit-anointing, understood as the laying on of hands and chrismation; 2) Universal infant baptism with a prolonged period before a Spirit-centered confirmation of the baptized, leading to first communion in late childhood or early adolescence; 3) Infant baptism with personal confession in early adolescence which is held "to confirm" the vows taken for the confirmand at baptism by adult Christians; 4) An anticipated youth/adult conversion experience followed by a confession of faith leading to baptism (with or without a rite of confirmation). Each of these four differing modes of baptism/confirmation developed as a response to the specific historical situation of the church at that time. Each model is very different both in theological substance and liturgical style. Even though one has to blink hard to believe they are the same Christian rite, modern Christians must be careful in engaging in judgmental polemics about the belief system of their spiritual ancestors. There may be elements of value in each of the historical stances. Denominations must also face squarely the question of the authority of their own heritage. How much weight should twentieth-century United Methodists, for example, place on John Wesley's understanding of the sacraments? Given the extensive developments in theological studies over the past two centuries, it would be unfortunate if contemporary ecumenical understanding, to which United Methodists have contributed considerably, were given a secondary place to the writings of a man who was, after all, of his own times. The Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches unequivocally supports the sacramental tenet of the early CONFIRMATION: IT S HISTORY AND MEANING 35
Page 1 and 2: Quarterly Review/Spring 1993 55.00
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Page 5: VOL. 13, NO. 1 SPRING 1993 Contents
Page 8 and 9: I have always rather liked the gruf
Page 10 and 11: of discipleship in the New Testamen
Page 12 and 13: imagine a week without visiting the
Page 14 and 15: transform all of life, and all that
Page 16 and 17: Contemporary North American Christi
Page 18 and 19: We must now see what it is that cha
Page 20 and 21: saying "call no one your father in
Page 22 and 23: 13:12). There is no following of Je
Page 24 and 25: Both New Testament discipleship and
Page 26 and 27: 17. "The Duty of Constant Communion
Page 28 and 29: earliest Christian congregations be
Page 30 and 31: his baptism to the experience of Ch
Page 32 and 33: Holy Spirit comes down willingly fr
Page 34 and 35: The Sacramental Nature of the Bapti
Page 36 and 37: to save them from "the wrath to com
Page 38 and 39: aptism—for mature youth and adult
Page 42 and 43: church, namely, thatbaptism-chrisma
Page 44 and 45: 31. John Wesley, Works, X: 151. 32.
Page 46 and 47: In Baptismal Covenant I, in the "In
Page 48 and 49: of God without being born of water
Page 50 and 51: they urged a stronger claim for a p
Page 52 and 53: After analyzing how American Method
Page 54 and 55: eferred to as "a symbol of an inner
Page 56 and 57: of baptism is "the washing away the
Page 58 and 59: Although there is only scant likeli
Page 60 and 61: ut the inner man, where we have put
Page 62 and 63: Notes 1. Lawrence Hull Stookey, "Th
Page 64 and 65: 44. Borgen, 159f.; Stein, 319, f, 1
Page 66 and 67: I am not a liturgical scholar or pr
Page 68 and 69: ounden duty...to consecrate our chi
Page 70 and 71: formed in the gospel not only by le
Page 72 and 73: life, for one could always lose gra
Page 74 and 75: However, I have focused on human ac
Page 76 and 77: Osborne, Kenan B. The Christian Sac
Page 78 and 79: It was raining pretty hard one Satu
Page 80 and 81: the same time a young man came to s
Page 82 and 83: theologically unpacked. A pastoral
Page 84 and 85: Elizabeth Achtemeier's Preaching fr
Page 86 and 87: prophets by the traditions of ancie
Page 88 and 89: eading; it seems as if one is heari
Page 90 and 91:
Brueggemann's discussion of royal v
Page 92 and 93:
limitations, even in quite valuable
Page 95 and 96:
M. Eugene Boring Interpreting 1 Pet
Page 97 and 98:
particular way. The particularity o
Page 99 and 100:
in the capital of the empire felt m
Page 101 and 102:
location but about the way we relat
Page 103 and 104:
answer: Read. Interpret. Examine. B
Page 105 and 106:
in liturgical settings. Yet all of
Page 107 and 108:
word accomplished by Jesus, who cal
Page 109 and 110:
community that does what priests do
Page 111 and 112:
kings, slavery as a divinely author
Page 113 and 114:
wives and husbands. To each it migh
Page 115 and 116:
etained some of the oral style appr
Page 117 and 118:
Brox, Norbert. Der erste Petrusbrie
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TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

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