Meaning of Baptism in the 1928 BCP Catechism

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Meaning of Baptism in the 1928 BCP Catechism explains the account of Baptism taught in A Catechism of the American 1928 Book of Common Prayer. The Catechism is not an abstract definition added to the rite: it teaches those baptized in infancy to own the grace, promises, and manner of life to which their baptism points as they prepare to be confirmed.

Baptismal identity and the Catechism

The Catechism begins with the baptized person's name and sponsors before it turns to the Creed, the Commandments, prayer, and the sacraments. It therefore puts Christian identity before a bare account of religious duties.

My Sponsors in Baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

[1]

The three phrases are held together: Baptism concerns incorporation into Christ, adoption by God, and hope of the kingdom. They are not a permission to neglect the baptismal promises. The answer that follows requires the candidate personally to believe and do what the sponsors promised; the Catechism thus moves from gift to responsible discipleship.

Baptism as a sacrament

The Prayer Book places Baptism among the two sacraments “generally necessary to salvation” and explains the word sacrament before it asks about Baptism's particular sign and grace.

I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us; ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof.

[2]

The definition prevents two opposite reductions. Water is not a merely private symbol, because Christ ordained the sacrament as a means and pledge; neither is the outward action detachable from the grace named by the Catechism. Sadler's nineteenth-century commentary usefully articulates that reading of the Catechism:

All merely outward rites would be; but the Sacraments are not merely outward rites, but outward visible means whereby we receive spiritual grace.

[3]

Sadler is offering theological interpretation, not a substitute Prayer Book text: his point is that the Catechism's “means whereby” belongs to its account of Christ's appointed sacrament.

Sign, Name, and grace

The Catechism identifies both the visible form and the inward grace of Baptism in immediately consecutive answers.

Water; wherein the person is baptized, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

[4]

The form directly follows Christ's command to baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). It is therefore a Trinitarian act of the Church, rather than a statement of the candidate's personal religious sentiment.

A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness: for being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace.

[5]

This language should be read with Romans 6:3–4, where baptism into Christ's death issues in walking “in newness of life,” and with John 3:5, which joins water and Spirit in the new birth. The Prayer Book does not describe grace as an impersonal mechanism; it names deliverance from sin and new life ordered to righteousness.

Sadler's fuller exposition makes explicit why the Catechism does not treat the sign and the grace as rival alternatives:

To distinguish the two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself from all other rites, such as Confirmation, or Ordination, which have the nature of Sacraments.

[6]

The distinction echoes the Prayer Book's own limited count of the sacraments generally necessary to salvation, while preserving the Church's reverent use of other appointed rites.

Faith, repentance, and sponsors

The Catechism states the proper response required of a person brought for Baptism:

Repentance, whereby they forsake sin; and Faith, whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that Sacrament.

[7]

Repentance and faith do not earn the gift named above; they are the fitting conversion and trust to which the sacrament calls. Acts 2:38 similarly joins repentance and baptism in Peter's preaching. The Catechism's wording also explains why its opening account of Baptism goes on to speak of sponsors.

Because they promise them both by their Sureties; which promise, when they come to age, themselves are bound to perform.

[8]

Infant Baptism, on this account, neither erases the necessity of faith and repentance nor postpones the Church's duty of formation. Sponsors speak in the child's name; when the child comes to age, the baptized person must make the promised response personally. That is why the Catechism describes itself as instruction to be learned before Confirmation.

Use in teaching and worship

In parish teaching, this sequence is important: begin with the Prayer Book's concrete words about incorporation, sign, grace, faith, and sponsors; then read the cited Scriptures; then ask how the baptized person is to continue in that state of salvation. The Catechism thereby keeps doctrine, baptismal worship, and a life of repentance and faith together.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 577, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
  2. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 581, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
  3. ↑ M. F. Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction: Being the Church Catechism Expanded and Explained in Question and Answer, 3rd ed. (London: Bell & Daldy, 1872), p. 279, section LII, question 12, Internet Archive scan.
  4. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 582, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
  5. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 582, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
  6. ↑ M. F. Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction: Being the Church Catechism Expanded and Explained in Question and Answer, 3rd ed. (London: Bell & Daldy, 1872), p. 278, section LII, question 3, Internet Archive scan.
  7. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 582, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
  8. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 582, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
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