Roman Catholicism Section 1215 of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "This sacrament [baptism] is also called '
the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit,' for it signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit without which no one 'can enter the
kingdom of God.' () Quoting the ''Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity
, Christopher J. Walsh comments that the Second Vatican Council reaffirms the traditional understanding of Christian initiation as a unity and a process: "It is not something achieved with a trickle of water one Sunday afternoon, but a progressive entry into a commitment and a relationship [...] Becoming a Christian is a conversion a growing adherence to Christ in faith and sacrament over an extended period of time" (see also Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 1229–31). Against this background the more detailed doctrine of the
Roman Catholic Church can be summed up in the following statements from that catechism: • While in Jesus himself affirms that baptism is necessary for salvation, and no one should refuse to be baptized, the effects of sacramental baptism are brought about also by "
baptism of blood" (dying for the sake of the faith) and "
baptism of desire", whether explicit, as in the case of
catechumens, or implicit, as in the case of anyone who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, • As regards children who die without baptism, the Church entrusts them to the mercy of God. • In Roman Catholic teaching, baptism, like all the sacraments, presupposes faith and by words and objects also nourishes, strengthens, and expresses it. • Baptism is the sacrament of faith (cf. Mark 16:16). But faith needs the community of believers. It is only within the faith of the Church that each of the faithful can believe. The faith required for Baptism is not a perfect and mature faith, but a beginning that is called to develop. The early church fathers offered differing explanations for the salvation of the thief who was crucified with Jesus, and who was not reported to have undergone water baptism.
Cyprian of Carthage theorized that the thief was baptized in his own blood as a martyr, an opinion shared by
Jerome, while Augustine said that "the thief received the baptism of substitution ... through the faith and conversion of the heart, taking into account that circumstances made it impossible for him to celebrate the sacrament". Augustine's explanation of this episode corresponds to the Roman Catholic Church teaching of the existence of
baptism by desire for those who would partake of the Sacrament if they could and experience a perfect desire to do all that pertains to salvation, but are prevented from receiving baptism by circumstances beyond their control, while Cyprian's corresponds to the same Church's teaching on
baptism of blood for martyrs.
Eastern Orthodoxy The following claims are made on websites associated with Orthodox Churches: • Orthodoxy (and it is only fair to add, also the Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics) has always held to baptismal regeneration. In other words, that spiritual life begins with baptism. • The Bible's "sacramental theology" states that there is [a need for the taint of sin to be removed] since "...through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men." (Romans 5:12) For this reason, "...there are none righteous, not even one" (i.e. not infants). (Romans 3:10) How are these young ones saved from the sin they have received from Adam's race? They are saved through the regenerative power of baptism and the faith of the Church (i.e. the Christian faithful) [here Titus 3:5; Acts 2:38; John 3:5 & 1 Peter 3:20, 21 are quoted] Baptism is not just a symbolic testimony of what God has done in the heart of an adult believer, but is in itself a dynamic means of actually effecting the power of the Gospel (the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ) in a life (Romans 6:4). Christian baptism is the means whereby we encounter and identify with Jesus Christ Himself Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Oriental Orthodoxy If infants can receive the blessings of laying of hands by the Lord, they can also receive baptismal grace of regeneration. The theology behind this is that grace precedes faith (Eph. 2: 8) and prevenial grace is a reality. The initiative is from God always. If God takes the first step in dying for us, He also takes the first step in saving through the free gift of regeneration without the precondition of faith. The Syrian Orthodox Church in North America
Lutheranism Martin Luther elaborated the regeneration and the saving power in Baptism:
Lutheranism affirms baptismal regeneration, believing that baptism is a
means of grace, instead of human works, through which God creates and strengthens faith. Lutherans believe that the
Bible shows how Christians are connected through baptism with Christ and the new life Christ's work gives us. The Bible's author uses the picture of cleansing to show how baptism applies Jesus Christ's saving work to receivers. Lutherans believe that the Bible depicts the connection between faith, baptism and being clothed with Christ. The result of the connection is that Christians are children of God with all the rights, privileges and blessings that go with that status. Lutherans state that in his letter to Titus, Paul introduces the work of the Holy Spirit, again linking baptism, new life, and the blessings Jesus has won. Lutheran scholars concluded that in the Scripture: The Lutheran
Small Catechism states that baptism "works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare." Luther, in his
Large Catechism (XIII), also wrote the following: "Moreover, that it is most solemnly and strictly commanded that we must be baptized or we cannot be saved". According to a Lutheran writer, "[i]t is in the context of writing against people who believed that 'Baptism is an external thing, and that external things are no benefit'...Luther's point was that since the Lord instituted baptism (
Matthew 28:19) and spoke of its importance (Mark 16:16), then we are to do as he says and baptize, knowing that the Holy Spirit works through baptism to change people's hearts. So, baptism is necessary in the sense that the Lord commands us to administer baptism: it is not for us to decide whether or not we are going to do what the Lord says." Twentieth-century Lutheran theologian
Edmund Schlink, citing Titus 3:5, comments: "In this act of salvation all human activity is expressly excluded. It is done entirely by God's deed, by the one act of the washing and the activity of the Spirit through which regeneration and renewal take place." The Lutheran Churches teach that "we are cleansed of our sins and born again and renewed in Holy Baptism by the Holy Ghost. But she also teaches that whoever is baptized must, through daily contrition and repentance, drown The Old Adam so that daily a new man come forth and arise who walks before God in righteousness and purity forever. She teaches that whoever lives in sins after his baptism has again lost the grace of baptism." Article 251 of Luther's
Small Catechism and other Lutheran teachings, however, also recognize that baptism is not
absolutely necessary: Lutherans agree that one can be saved without baptism, and a baptized Christian can lose salvation if he later falls from faith.
Reformed tradition The
Reformed confessions consistently teach a conjunction between baptism and regeneration. The confessions teach that baptism is an external sign of an inward reality (regeneration and cleansing from sin), and that baptism actually confers the inward reality which it signifies. This viewpoint is distinct from the traditional definition of baptismal regeneration in that the power of baptism resides in the Holy Spirit rather than the act of baptism itself. Further, the application of the grace conferred in baptism is not tied to the time at which it is administered. The promise offered in baptism is conditional on faith and repentance, which may occur at a time later than the act of baptism. The British Congregationalist New Testament scholar and theologian H. T. Andrews, after an examination of five texts (1 Cor. 6:11, 1 Cor. 15:29, Eph. 4:5 and 5:26, Titus 3:5), concluded: "In the light of these statements it is difficult to believe that the more neutral phrases, e.g. 'baptized into Christ,' 'baptized into one body,' imply a merely symbolical interpretation of baptism. With this evidence before us it seems very hard to resist the conclusion (however little we may like it) that if the Epistles do not enunciate the ecclesiastical doctrine of baptismal regeneration, they at any rate approximate very closely to it." The twentieth-century Scottish theologian
D. M. Baillie has remarked that "[I]n New Testament thought baptism was closely connected with the death and resurrection of Christ. It stood for the great spiritual event in which a man, united by faith with the death and resurrection of Christ, dies to himself and the world and rises to newness of life, puts off the old man with his deeds and puts on the new man."
Anglicanism In 1549
Thomas Cranmer wrote in the
first prayer book, after the baptism by
immersion, or by
pouring if the child was too weak for immersion; "Almighty
God the father of our lord Jesus Christ, who hath regenerate thee by water and the holy ghost, and hath given unto thee remission of all thy sins: he vouchsafe to anoint thee with the unction of his holy spirit, and bring thee to the inheritance of everlasting life. Amen." And furthermore; "Take this white vesture for a token of the innocence, which by Gods grace in this holy sacrament of Baptism, is given unto thee: and for a sign whereby thou art admonished, so long as thou livest, to give thyself to innocence of living, that, after this transitory life, thou mayest be partaker of the life everlasting. Amen." In the
1552 Book of Common Prayer, an invitation to the congregation was inserted to give thanks to God that the newly baptized are "regenerate and grafted into the body of Christ's congregation" which remains in the
1662 Book of Common Prayer. There were at least three periods in the history of English Anglicanism when the doctrine was disputed. In the seventeenth century, the
puritans objected strongly (it was mentioned specifically at the
Savoy Conference in 1660); the subject come to the fore again in 1810 and after the rise of the
Tractarian Movement it was again hotly debated and gave rise to the celebrated
Gorham Case, wherein the
Church of England decided in favor of Baptismal Regeneration, but the
secular court overruled them.
Differing Anglican attitudes In his summary of the situation from 1810 onwards, Nockles detects at least seven different strands of thought on the subject: • The extreme
high church view: This insisted that the spiritual effects of baptism were inseparable from it even to the point of an
opus operatum or purely mechanical understanding of the rite and this was the only acceptable doctrine of the
Church of England. • The moderate high church: While holding a high view of Baptismal Regeneration themselves, they recognized diversity of opinion must arise but held that the Liturgy provided a corrective. •
Calvinist evangelicals: These accepted a rigorous doctrine of predestination, and with it that of antecedent grace, and therefore denied baptismal regeneration outright as unscriptural. • The majority of
evangelicals: For them baptism was little more than initiation into the visible Church. • Some of the former: The "little more" included the recognition of baptism at least as a sign of regeneration as stated by Article 27 of the
Thirty-Nine Articles • The moderate evangelicals: These, and
John Bird Sumner,
archbishop of Canterbury (1848–62) was one, accepted what was, from the High church perspective, a modified version of the doctrine in which the spiritual effects are not inseparably tied to the rite. While holding this position, Sumner was not prepared to label Gorham's Calvinistic arguments heretical and insisted that Elizabethan divines (theologians) had allowed that the grace of spiritual regeneration could be separated from the sacrament of Baptism. • A high church Anglican position: Formulated in the first instance by
James Mozley as he moved away from
Tractarianism and investigated the opinions of early generations of high church theologians on baptismal regeneration as Sumner had done. He discovered "statements made sometimes, which, if put into easy English and placed before our [High church] friends, would be set down as heresy, but which occur in undoubtedly orthodox authorities"
Fundamental theological issue Low Church/
Evangelical Anglican,
William Griffith Thomas summed it up as follows: "
Articles XXV, XXVI, XXVII are all clearly against the
opus operatum [i.e. the invariable spiritual regeneration of every baptized infant (ed)] and yet the Baptismal Service has, "Seeing now that this child is regenerate"; and the
Catechism also speaks of, "My Baptism wherein I was made a member of Christ", etc. How are these to be reconciled? The question largely turns on the interpretation of the word "Regeneration", and differences of opinion are largely due to its ambiguity."... volumes have been written upon this subject ... We must be aware of the dangers of misinterpretation or partial exposition. The words have often been taken by themselves as if they taught... ... the Roman doctrine of the invariable spiritual regeneration of every baptized infant, which they certainly do not.¶ All the troubles in regard to our Baptismal Service have come from disintegration or misinterpretation. The teaching of the Church on Baptism must never be taken in segments, nor are fragmentary elements of the service to be excised or protruded. Articles, Catechism and Baptismal Services form one perfect whole, and it is only insofar as all and each of them are weighed, compared and mutually interpreted that the doctrinal integrity and beauty of the Church's teaching can be maintained. --> The High churchmen took their stand on the fact that "the liturgy declared the infant to be regenerate"; the Evangelical knew this "and wrote books to prove that he might use the service with a good conscience, interpreting the liturgy in a charitable sense" Bishop Moule spoke for this second group when he wrote:"In the sense of title and position, he [the newly baptized] is at once regenerate. He receives the right and pledge and entitlement to covenant blessing. But the infant who in sacramental title is regenerate needs in heart and spirit to be inwardly and really born again." The bishop then widens the scope of his argument appealing to sacramental theology in general by quoting Archbishop
Cranmer, Archbishop
Ussher and
Richard Hooker who in different ways state that the outward application a sacrament does not necessarily communicate the grace of the thing signified. Another evangelical Anglican theologian
Geoffrey W. Bromiley, has written, "Baptism as identification with Christ is the sacrament of the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit, not of my consciousness and confession of faith. It is the sign of faith only as this is itself the work of the primary and sovereign divine operation."
Old High Church/
Center Church Harold Browne wrote on the topic as follows: In the 20th century,
Anglo-Catholic theologian
E.L. Mascall expressed the view that "[T]he entry upon the supernatural realm which is bestowed by incorporation into Christ and which is fittingly described as a new birth is also a deliverance from the realm of fallen human nature - the sphere in which man lies under the curse of original sin - and an insertion into the realm of the perfect manhood of Christ. Mascall explains that "The grace of incorporation into Christ, the normal channel of which is baptism, is a supernatural fact in the ontological order which does not of itself immediately produce physical and moral effects; but it does produce such effects mediately and progressively when, and to the degree in which, the soul co-operates with this grace and surrenders itself to its influence." The work of the Holy Spirit in Baptism has been emphasized by several theologians. Richard A. Norris has said that "Forgiveness of sins and incorporation into Christ ... are only made possible for people by the action of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who ... is God working within people to connect them with Christ and thus to set them in their proper relation with the Father. Baptism, consequently, has always been understood as a sacrament which signifies the gift of the Holy Spirit. And Anglican theologian and bishop
Hugh Montefiore says that "Baptism is efficacious if it is asked for in faith, in the sense that it enacts sacramentally what has been begun spiritually, and the very fact that it is an outward and visible sign both strengthens the faith of the baptized and is a public witness to that faith."
Methodism The
Methodist understanding of Holy Baptism is a "Wesleyan blend of sacramental and evangelical aspects." The Methodist
Articles of Religion in Article XVII — Of Baptism, therefore states that "Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christians are distinguished from others that are not baptized; but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new birth. The Baptism of young children is to be retained in the Church."
John Wesley, the founder of
Methodism, taught that: While baptism imparts grace, Methodists teach that a
personal acceptance of Jesus Christ (the first work of grace) is essential to salvation. During the second work of grace,
entire sanctification, a believer is purified of
original sin and made
holy.
Baptists The
Baptist confessions of faith and theologians teaches a link between the outward sign of washing with water and the inward grace or spiritual effect, similarly to the Reformed tradition. The Baptist theologian
Thomas Helwys stated in
A Short Declaration of the Mistery of Iniquity: And furthermore: The
Orthodox Creed states that Baptism is a sign of the entrance into the
Covenant of Grace and the
visible Church, the remission of sins in the
Blood of Christ, the union with him in his
death and
resurrection, and the
newness of life. Its writer,
Thomas Monck, the
General Baptist theologian, rejected the separation of the sign and signification of the
sacraments and compared it to
Nestorianism. ==Other groups==