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

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I have always rather liked the gruff robustness of the first rubric for baptism found in a late fourth-century church order that directs that the bishop enter the vestibule of the baptistry and say to the catechumens without commentary or apology only four words: "Take off your clothes. " There is no evidence that the assistants fainted or the catechumens asked what he meant. Catechesis and much prayer and fasting had led them to understand that the language of their passage this night in Christ from death to life would be the language of the bathhouse and the tomb—not that of the forum and the drawing room. Diedra Kriewald, Jim Stein, and Keith Ray give us some fine reflection on the sacrament as it was practiced historically, understood theologically, and how it is enacted today in our churches. Kriewald reaches back to the New Testament and gives us an overview of the practice of baptism and confirmation; that is a good place to start. Stein looks at Wesley and seventeenth-century German pietist Philipp Jakob Spener on baptism in order to focus on the question of baptismal regeneration, a bone of contention among United Methodists even today. And finally Ray applies his understanding of the theology of baptism to contemporary practice to try to overcome the problem of indiscriminate baptism. This is the second time QR has addressed the topic of baptism in some depth. The first occasion was the advance issue of the journal in fall, 1980, which carried the Lutheran-United Methodist Statement on Baptism, plus responses by Art Landwehr at First United Methodist Church in Evanston, Illinois, and David Tiede, at that time associate professor of New Testament at Luther-Northwestern Theological Seminaries in St. Paul, Minnesota. It may not surprise you to hear that the theological issues concerning baptism haven't changed much. The insights expressed by the committee and individual writers are as fresh and significant as they were thirteen years ago. So happy reading, and may all the blessings of the Easter season fall richly on your households of faith this spring! *"A Rite of Passage," in 77k; Three Days: Parish Prayer in the Paschal Triduum, Revised Edition, ed, by Gabe Huck (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1992), 171-175. 2 QUARTERLY REVIEW / SPRING 1993
Theodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of Discipleship in Wesley and the New Testament 7 J he theme of discipleship has been on the minds of United Methodists. 1 The bishops' pastoral letter Vital Congregations/Faithful Disciples has raised this issue for many in a new way, even if it does emphasize congregations somewhat more than disciples. Church growth advocates now speak less of reaching the unchurched and more of the importance of "discipling" people. Among the most promising signs of renewal in the denomination is the development of the program of Covenant Discipleship that has been launched and led by David Watson. But if our talk of discipleship is not to degenerate into a simple re-naming of the same old institutional structures and is instead to contribute to the renewal and revitalization of the church, then it is imperative that we measure our talk of discipleship against the sources of our Wesleyan and Christian heritage. In order for this movement to make good on its promise to bring about or contribute to renewal we must keep before us the most fundamental questions about the meaning of the Christian life and the life of discipleship. In this essay I will provide two basic perspectives on discipleship that I believe may help us get our bearings and see what is really at stake in the commitment to discipleship. The first perspective is based on Wesley's understanding of the Christian life. Then I will look at the meaning Theodore W. Jennings, Jr. is Professor of Constructive Theology at the Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. THE MEANING OF DISCIPLESHIP 3
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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 40 and 41: purpose of a rite of maturity is to
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
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Although there is only scant likeli
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ut the inner man, where we have put
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Notes 1. Lawrence Hull Stookey, "Th
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44. Borgen, 159f.; Stein, 319, f, 1
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I am not a liturgical scholar or pr
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ounden duty...to consecrate our chi
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formed in the gospel not only by le
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life, for one could always lose gra
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However, I have focused on human ac
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Osborne, Kenan B. The Christian Sac
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It was raining pretty hard one Satu
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the same time a young man came to s
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theologically unpacked. A pastoral
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Elizabeth Achtemeier's Preaching fr
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prophets by the traditions of ancie
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eading; it seems as if one is heari
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Brueggemann's discussion of royal v
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limitations, even in quite valuable
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M. Eugene Boring Interpreting 1 Pet
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particular way. The particularity o
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in the capital of the empire felt m
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location but about the way we relat
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answer: Read. Interpret. Examine. B
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in liturgical settings. Yet all of
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word accomplished by Jesus, who cal
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community that does what priests do
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kings, slavery as a divinely author
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wives and husbands. To each it migh
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etained some of the oral style appr
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Brox, Norbert. Der erste Petrusbrie
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TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

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