To Baptize or Not to Baptize: A Practical Guide for Clergy by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson

Abstract

Reviewed by: To Baptize or Not to Baptize: A Practical Guide for Clergy by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Mark Nygard To Baptize or Not to Baptize: A Practical Guide for Clergy. By Sarah Hinlicky Wilson. Thornbush Press, 2021. 185 pp. Most seasoned pastors can tell wild and wooly baptismal stories where the context was, to put it mildly, daunting. I remember my first call in North Dakota when grandparents asked me to baptize a new granddaughter but the father was dead set against it. In my second call in Cameroon a woman of traditional tribal religion could not articulate Christian faith in any way but earnestly wanted to join her friends in baptism the next morning. During my third call in Senegal a catechumen advised me that if he were to receive baptism, his father-in-law would simply take his wife away from him. Baptism is certainly a flashpoint in ministry, as any pastor on the planet can testify. Consequently, it would seem that this book should receive wide interest. Based on a dozen years of teaching seminars on Luther and Lutheranism in Wittenberg, Germany, under the auspices of the Lutheran World Federation, it reflects the actual questions and experiences of hundreds of Lutheran pastors “from places as far distant as Greenland and Senegal, El Salvador and Myanmar” (1). The book has two parts. Part I reviews the doctrine of baptism by examining the New Testament witness—“Baptism is the beginning of life in the Spirit and the first act of association with the church” (15); pondering what baptism does—“Baptism saves,” the stark [End Page 450] two-word paragraph beginning the entire section (18); debating infant baptism versus believer’s baptism—“In the New Testament, acts of prayer and vicarious faith appear again and again in the Gospels” (27); affirming pastoral authority to baptize—“Hopefully you are so intoxicated by the gospel that the very prospect of withholding baptism fills you with repugnance. And yet . . .” (32); and making a distinction between the validity of baptism and its effectiveness— “No amount of doubt, denial, or even outright rejection can undo a baptism” (40). Most Lutherans and their ecumenical partners would not only recognize themselves in this discussion, but rise to its vigorous expression. Part II brings the discussion rudely down to earth by presenting 49 case studies of problematic baptismal situations using three considerations: questions of validity, questions of integrity of witness, and questions of safety or permission. For example, does one baptize someone who was not baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but in the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, or maybe in the name of Jesus (the question of validity)? How about those who are using it to help them get a job, or tourists who would find it so meaningful to do it again in the Jordan River (risk of integrity of witness)? What about a teen in the youth group whose parents forbid it, a Jew seeking political protection through it, or a hospitalized person whose perilous medical condition makes human proximity problematic (the safety/permission issue)? In each case Wilson’s presentation follows the same pattern: “The Situation,” “Considerations,” and an answer, “To Baptize or Not to Baptize.” That very pattern will be off-putting to some. Wilson herself warns, “Chances are pretty good that at least one, and probably more than one, case in this book will make you uncomfortable because you landed on the other side of the judgment offered here” (7). But she makes her cases with humility, “as a pastor among pastors” (8), and the theological reflection she elicits is renewing. Frankly I enjoyed the book immensely, and I heartily recommend it as lighter minis-terial reading for pastors and accessible theology for lay discussion. [End Page 451] Mark Nygard St. Paul, Minnesota Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc