THE MYSTERY OF BAPTISM
in the Anglican Tradition
THE MYSTERY OF BAPTISM
in the Anglican Tradition
KENNETH STEVENSON
Copyright © 1998 by Kenneth Stevenson
Originally published in English under the title The Mystery of Baptism by the Canterbury Press Norwich, St. Mary’s Works, St. Mary’s Plain, Norwich, Norfolk NR3 3BH UK
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Morehouse Publishing, 4775 Linglestown Road, Harrisburg, PA 17112
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Cover art: Art Resources/Eric Lessing: The Baptism of Christ by Joachim Patinir Cover design by Corey Kent
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stevenson, Kenneth W.
The mystery of baptism in the Anglican tradition / Kenneth Stevenson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references
ISBN 0-8192-1774-3
1. Baptism—Anglican Commuinon—History of doctrines—16th century. 2. Anglican Commuinion—Doctrines—History—16th century. 3. Baptism—Anglican Commuinon—History of doctrines—17th century. 4. Anglican Commuinion—Doctrines—History—17th century. I. Title.
BX5149.B2S74 1998
234’.161’08823—dc21 98-033529
Contents
11 ‘Covenant Begun and Continued’:
Preface
In the autumn of 1976, Trevor Collins, then Vicar of Boston, asked me to write an historical drama about baptism for a confirmation class. I have used that drama in various forms over the years in several places as an increasingly important teaching aid. Then in the spring of 1988, Colin James, Bishop of Winchester and Chairman of the Church of England Liturgical Commission, and Alec Graham, Bishop of Newcastle and Chairman of the Doctrine Commission, invited me to prepare a paper for the House of Bishops on the various theological issues connected with baptism, including confirmation, personal renewal, and reconciliation. As I went on at the same time to study the eucharistic theology of the seventeenth-century Anglican divines, I suppose it was inevitable that I should turn my hand to writing about the mystery of baptism as well.
This book is a result of these strands coming together. It has been written in the conviction that the Anglican tradition is a living reality that can be fed abundantly by the writers placed under scrutiny here. I have sought to do so through the dual perspectives of twentieth-century experience and historical theology. A few of these writers have been studied for their baptismal theology before, but most of them have not.
Many people deserve my thanks in the production of this book. H. R. McAdoo and Christopher Cocksworth read the draft and made many useful comments. My Chaplain, Andrew Davis, was a frequent foil to many ideas as they occurred and were tested. Bryan Spinks, Colin Bradley, Stephen Sykes, Geoffrey Rowell, Rowan Williams, Donald Allchin and David Stancliffe gave valuable encouragement and assistance. Peter Robinson’s anthropological perspectives proved to be of great value. My senior colleagues, Michael Yorke, Graeme Knowles, Mervyn Banting and Michael Jordan assured me of more support than perhaps they realized. I am also grateful to the former Sion College Library (a tragic loss for many a scholar-pastor); the Dr Williams’s Library, and the Thorold and Lyttleton Library, Winchester, for access to many necessary books; and to the Muniment Room, Westminster Abbey, for access to the Thorndike manuscripts and for generously photocopying some of his unpublished sermons. Jean Maslin and Julie Hale patiently produced the completed script. But by far the biggest thanks must go to my family, to my wife Sarah, and to Elisabeth, Kitty, James and Alexandra, and our two border terrier puppies, who all put up with a distracted companion – and kept laughing.
It has been a joy to put these thoughts together as Bishop of a diocese