The Early Church’s Inconsequential View of the Mode of Baptism

Abstract

"David Wright explains that the ancient church placed stringent expectations on the baptismal ceremony, remarking, “Primitive Christianity apparently made baptism accessible only to the most serious and committed candidates. It seems as if the early church was more concerned to weed out and deter than to attract and welcome.”1 These scrupulous beliefs about baptism are evident in some of the church’s earliest literature, which associated its salvific effects only with a mature faith in Christ. The early writings emphasized the blood of Jesus (Barn. 5), repentance (Herm. Vis. 3.7), a confession of faith (Did. 7.1, 3), and several years of biblical and spiritual instruction prior to the ceremony (Trad. ap. 17). These writers believed the baptismal waters had no salvific properties apart from God (Dial. 14), and the ceremony was considered a seal and completion of the sanctification process (Protr. 11-12; Paed. 1.6). Similarly, the early church stressed the appropriate administration of the baptismal rite while contending against the ceremonies of other schismatic groups"