Baptismal Rite Research Articles

“He Died too Quick!” the Process of Dying in a Hutterian Colony

In contrast to the fast (and therefore supposedly ‘painless‘) “death ideal” of much of Western culture, Hutterites consider a slow and drawn out period of dying to be desirable. This extended period allows the dying person to socialize other Hutterians into a joyous acceptance of death's promise of a better heavenly life. The atypical behavior of members of a colony where a sudden death disrupted this pattern is described in this paper and 1) illuminates the relationship between family members and other colonists and 2) suggests that the symbolic use of death in the rebirth rite of baptism is much more powerful than has heretofore been thought. In addition, some general recommendations are made with regard to treating both terminally ill Hutterians and surviving members of their families.

ΕΠΟΤΙΣΘΗΜΕΝ again

The short study by G. J. Cuming in the January, 1981, issue of New Testament Studies, pp. 283–5, has raised again the question of the interpretation of the verb iiroriadrjuev in 1 Cor. 12. 13. Along with most modern commentators Cuming rejects a reference to the Lord's Supper and finds instead a reference to the rite of baptism administered by affusion

Contextualized Baptism for Muslim Converts

With modern transportation and communication facilities the world of Islam seems ever more familiar. Yet the lack of sensitive understanding between the world's two largest religions is appalling. One focus of controversy relates to the rite of Christian baptism for Muslim converts. Phil Parshall, veteran missionary to Bangladesh, explores the dimensions of the issue and makes specific suggestions which could defuse the problem.

The conversion of the Chumash Indians: An ecological interpretation

A 17-year period during which interaction occurred between the Chumash and Spanish colonizers is the focus of the study. Significant variation in subsistence and interactive patterns during this period is identified. The baptismal rite that marked the transition from native villager to mission Indian is interpreted in relation to the environmental and subsistence realities faced by both the Chumash and Spanish.

Russian Piety among Contemporary Russian Orthodox

Soviet sociologists have studied the Russian Orthodox Church from a relatively objective scientific perspective. Reviewing their work indicates that contemporary Orthodox believers do not adhere to any complex and coherent belief system. However, funeral and baptismal rites have persisted as well as Church attendance on religious holidays provided churches are available, although it is not clear if this is primarily due to the older generation. Personal practices such as praying at icons have decreased in recent years. The Orthodox faith seems to have little interaction with secular conduct. Of the several elements of religiosity, practice appears central to the Russian Orthodox.

Baptismal Exorcism in the Catholic Baptismal Rites after Vatican II

Baptismal Exorcism in the Catholic Baptismal Rites after Vatican II

Baptismal Rites in an Early Christian Basilica at Stobi, Macedonia

Baptismal Rites in an Early Christian Basilica at Stobi, Macedonia

The Eucharistic Institution Narrative of Justin Martyr's First Apology

Justin Martyr closes his First Apology by quoting at length the rescript which the emperor Hadrian addressed to Minucius Fundanus, proconsul of Asia, concerning the treatment of Christians and their accusers. The rescript is properly an appendix to the Apology, attached as a pièce justificative in support of Justin's final plea for toleration, which rounds off his description of the rites of Baptism and the Eucharist. The description itself is the true ending of the treatise; it is the logical termination and dramatic summary of the doctrinal exposition of which the bulk of the Apology consists.

Compadrazgo on a Henequen Hacienda in Yucatan: A Structural Re‐evaluation

T HE variations and New World elaborations of the institution of compadrazgo have received a number of descriptions and interpretations.1 Mintz and Wolf have predicted that on plantations (haciendas) where direct owner-worker contacts prevail, compadrazgo ties between the owner and his workers will be encouraged (Mintz and Wolf 1950:363). However, rural Mayaspeaking communities in the Yucatan Peninsula provide a contrasting pattern of close kin, baptismal sponsorship, preferably the selection of grandparents. This selection reinforces and intensifies pre-existing relationships in both kinship and compadrazgo systems (Redfield 1941:123-124; Redfield and Villa Rojas 1934:98, Villa Rojas 1945:89-91). A third pattern proposed by Mintz and Wolf concerns multiple and extending relationships under conditions of increased culture change. Our evidence, taken from a henequen hacienda in Yucatan in 1957, does not conform with the first and last of these expected patterns. This paper is intended to account for the discrepancies between expectations and findings. Compadrazgo is differentiated from other institutionalized forms of ritual kinship essentially because of the pre-eminence that Catholic baptismal sponsorship retains as its core component. The relationships created among the participants in the rite of baptism are generally of greatest social and cultural importance compared with those arising out of other ritual acts in the same society. Compadrazgo is or has been confined to less industrialized parts of southern Europe and to those regions of the world to which the southern European version of Catholicism was introduced (Mintz and Wolf 1950:352). The salient characteristic of New World compadrazgo is the prominence of the relationships established between sponsors and parents (compadres), to which the term compadrazgo is applied in its narrower sense. Compadre relationships hold this strategic position by their long-enduring, mutual, socioeconomic commitments which are accompanied by special terminology, imbued with respect and trust, and sustained by compelling sacred sanctions (Paul 1942:58-60 et passim; Rojas Gonzalez 1943:202ff; Foster 1953:7-9). Such ties are not unknown in rural Southern Europe, but they either share their importance with sponsor-godchild relationships or assume a subsidiary position (Anderson 1956:18; Foster 1953:5; Pitt-Rivers 1958:428). Conversely, the latter relationships are not everywhere overshadowed by compadre ties in the New World, and often show some of the socioeconomic characteristics of these ties (Beals 1946:102-104; de la Fuente 1949:170; Lewis 1951:350-351; Gillin 1951:60-61; Guiteras Holmes 1952:145; Spicer 1940:91, 93, 102-103; Wisdom 1940: 292).

The Gospel Lection in the Rite of Infant Baptism

The Gospel Lection in the Rite of Infant Baptism

CREEDS AND BAPTISMAL RITES IN THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES

CREEDS AND BAPTISMAL RITES IN THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES Get access H. J. CARPENTER H. J. CARPENTER Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume os-XLIV, Issue 173-174, April 1943, Pages 1–11, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/os-XLIV.173-174.1 Published: 01 January 1943

Oriental Influence in the Gallican Liturgy

The most important source for our knowledge of the Gallican liturgy is the so-calledExpositio Brevis Antiquae Liturgiae Gallicanae.It is preserved in a Codex of the Abbey of St. Martin at Autun, at present in the library of the Seminary of Autun, the only manuscript of this valuable document which we possess. TheExpositioconsists of two letters, the first of which describes the rite of the Gallican Mass, while the second deals withdiversa ecclesiae carismata, that is, with the Baptismal rite, liturgical vestments, antiphons, responses, etc. The question naturally arises as to the authorship of these valuable letters and also as to when they were written.

Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Exorcism of the Cilicium

The mystagogical catecheses of Theodore of Mopsuestia which were published for the first time in the year 1933 by Mingana have enriched our knowledge of the Eastern Liturgy in an unexpected way. Investigations have been made concerning the Eucharistic service which he describes. The rite of Baptism which he presents is of no less importance, as we find the more we study its details.

Research Items

Baptism and the Gypsies. While popular belief in a prophylactive element in religious ritual undoubtedly survived late, it is not always easy to find records of specific instances in which a semi-magical efficacy is attached to any one form of observance. It is, therefore, of interest to find a writer in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society (Third Series, 13, pt. 4) directing attention to the excessive addiction to the rite of baptism of the gypsies at various periods of their contact with Christianity. In fact, in Saxony in the seventeenth century, it was found necessary to frame regulations for the institution of inquiry before the ceremony to check this abuse. Some are said to have had their children baptised nine and ten times; but in such cases, the motive appears to have been not superstition but gain, as on each occasion rich presents were obtained from the sponsors, who thought to acquire merit by standing for a pagan child. There is, however, a number of instances quoted, some going back to the end of the fifteenth century, from which it appears that while the gypsies cared nothing for religion, they were always anxious to get their children baptised in the belief that an unbaptised child was in a dangerous state. The Siebenburg gypsies, it is said, kindle a fire before the tent as soon as a child is born to keep evil spirits away, and extinguish it when the ceremony has made it unnecessary; and the Scottish border gypsies considered it unlucky to have an unbaptised child in a house. The magical effects of baptism were not confined to the child, but extended to any ornaments it wore. The Magdeburg church ordinances of 1652 forbade that children at baptism should be bedecked with corals, beads, gold and silver buttons and the like, in order that they too might acquire special power, though this is not attributed to the gypsies specifically, but “as common people say”.

Research Items

Heathen Baptism in Early Britain. A communication from Miss Eleanor Hull in Folklore (vol. 43, pt. 4) brings together evidence from various sources bearing on the existence of baptism as a pre-Christian rite in Britain. The fact that it is found in Wales, where Scandinavian influence was small, seems to point to the fact that it had an independent origin in these islands and was not introduced by Norse or Danes. Among the Scandinavian races, pre-Christian baptism, as the sprinkling of the child with water which accompanied the bestowal of a name, was an integral part of the Asa creed. It established a bond between baptiser and baptised, sometimes constituting the latter the heir of the former. The Norse practised lay baptism without religious ceremony; but in Ireland a regular rite, at which Druids officiated, was carried out. Aillil Olum, who succeeded to the throne of Munster early in the third century, was baptised by the Druid who foretold the marriage of his father Eoghan and by his prognostication fixed the propitious day of the marriage. The ‘heathen baptism’ is also mentioned in the Irish version of “The Travels of Sir John Mandeville” in connexion with the circumcision of Isaac and Ishmael. The tales of the Mabinogion give several instances of heathen baptism, as for example in “Pwyll, Prince of Dyved” and in “Math, Son of Mathonwy”. Scottish folktales give fewer examples; but in the story of “The Knight of the Red Shield” the knight, it is prophesied, shall be unbaptised “until he shall come to an island and strike a crag of stone on a man”. In the Fenian tales baptism is taken as a matter of course by the heroes; and it is considered by Dr. J. A. MacCullock that the Scottish custom of dropping three drops of water on the forehead of a child immediately after birth is a relic of the rite of pagan baptism.

The Crypto-Christians of Trebizond

While the number of crypto-Christians among the heterodox tribes of Asia Minor has probably been considerably exaggerated, it cannot be denied that crypto-Christians exist or that cases of forced conversion affecting large sections of the population can be cited. But under the Ottoman Turks at least there is very little historical evidence for conversion on a large scale in Asia Minor.Exceptionally in the district of Trebizond we have both a credible legend of conversion and an existent population, outwardly Mahommedan, which seems in some cases to retain something from the more ancient faith and in others to practise it in secret. Of the first category may be cited certain villages in the district of Rizeh, which, though Mahommedan by profession, preserve some memories of the rite of baptism and speak, not Turkish, but Armenian.Crypto-Christians proper, belonging to the Greek rite and Greek by speech, also existed till recent years in the neighbourhood of Trebizond: they were known generally as ‘Stavriotae,’ from a village Stavra in the ecclesiastical district of Gumush-khane. They are said at one time to have numbered 20,000 in the vilayets of Sivas, Angora, and Trebizond: now all have returned to the open profession of their faith.

2.ON THE BAPTISMAL RITE IN THE CANONS OF HIPPOLYTUS

Journal Article 2.ON THE BAPTISMAL RITE IN THE CANONS OF HIPPOLYTUS Get access F. C. BURKITT F. C. BURKITT Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume os-I, Issue 2, January 1900, Page 279, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/os-I.2.279 Published: 01 January 1900