Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death (Christian Essentials)

"You've been baptized. But do you understand what it means? Baptism is the doorway into membership in the church. It's a public declaration of the washing away of our sin and the beginning of our new life in Christ. But the sacrament that is meant to unite us is often a spring of division instead. All Christians use water to baptize. All invoke the triune name. Beyond that, there's little consensus. Talk about baptism and you're immediately plunged into arguments. Whom should we baptize? What does baptism do? Why even do it at all? Peter Leithart reunifies a church divided by baptism. He recovers the baptismal imagination of the Bible, explaining how baptism works according to Scripture. Then, in conversation with Christian tradition, he shows why baptism is something worth recovering and worth agreeing on"--

Peter J. Leithart (PhD, University of Cambridge) is president of the Theopolis Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, and a teacher at Trinity Presbyterian Church. He is the author of numerous books, including Traces of the Trinity, 1 & 2 Kings in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible, and Rites of the New Humanity. He is also a weekly columnist at First Things.