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

ounden duty...to consecrate our children to God by baptism, as the
Jewish Church were commanded to do by circumcision." 3
Yet,
should Methodism continue to make infant baptism the norm in its
initiatory practice? Or should there be an adjustment which makes
adult baptism the norm while still allowing for the baptism of infants
in certain situations? I would argue for the latter. Clearly there is no
scriptural warrant for or against infant baptism. The tradition has,
however, legitimized the baptism of infants since an early date, for
even the apostolic tradition of Hippolytus (ca. 215) allows for the
practice. Thus, I am not proposing the abolishment of infant
baptism. Rather, I am suggesting that the days of infant baptism as
the norm should be numbered. While it is clear that baptism is a gift
of God not earned by any person no matter what their age, it is also
true that "the use of baptism in theological apologetics as a sign of
God's complete gratuity in the giving of [Godself] cannot serve as
basis for a policy of indiscriminate baptism." 4
Such baptismal practices in the UMC have led to a significant
number of persons who are baptized as infants and confirmed after a
brief doctrinal catechesis. Many of these confirmands are in the life
of the faith community only briefly before falling away from
participation. Clearly, infant baptism as the norm has not been most
successful in making and keeping disciples (a good Wesleyan test, I
believe). Thus, I propose making adult baptism the norm in the
UMC. As the liturgical scholar Aidan Kavanagh has written:
Tradition's witness to the baptism of adults as the norm throws
infant baptism into perspective as a benign abnormality so long
as it is practiced with prudence as unavoidable pastoral
necessity—in situations such as the frail health of the infant, or
in response to the earnest desire of Christian parents whose
faith is rigorous and whose way of life gives clear promise that
their child will develop in the faith ofthe Church... The data of
neither scripture or tradition can be made to support infant
baptism as the pastoral norm.
It is clear that adult baptism was not the norm in Wesley's
understanding of Christian initiation. Given the recent developments
in liturgical and historical scholarship, however, I believe that
having adult baptism as the norm is, indeed, Wesleyan. To
demonstrate how this is so, it will be helpful to examine how the
62 QUARTERLY REVIEW/SPRING 1993