Rethinking Baptism: Some Baptist Reflections

Baptism may be more important than you think. Virtually every Christian tradition practices baptism, but with diverse understandings of its form and meaning. Baptists (and similar traditions) have emphasized the restriction of baptism to confessing believers and immersion as the mode, and they have usually interpreted baptism as a post-conversion act of human obedience, rather than a sacramental means of grace. In this book, a Baptist theologian calls for a reformation of Baptist thought and practice, arguing that a biblical theology of baptism interprets baptism as a sacramental seal of conversion. The book develops the biblical case for this perspective and answers questions about its practical implications.

Stanley K. Fowler is Professor of Theological Studies at Heritage College & Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario. He is the author of More Than a Symbol: The British Baptist Recovery of Baptismal Sacramentalism (2002).