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
Morehouse Publishing, 445 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Morehouse Publishing is an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
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
