The Study of Liturgy and Worship

Ben Gordon-Taylor

• Publisher: SPCK Publishing
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780281069095
• eBook ISBN: 9780281069101
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

This is a textbook with an international slant, blending established and young experts, and covering a much wider, and less historical, focus than The Study of Liturgy. This reflects the way the subject has changed, from one based upon a historical narrative to one drawing additionally on the social sciences. This new Guide draws upon the valuable approach contained in the old book - short accessible chapters by leading liturgical scholars, which provide sufficient introduction to a topic and advice on further research.

Event

Chapter 13

Initiation

Maxwell E. Johnson

‘Holy Baptism’, according to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (hereafter, BCP) of the Episcopal Church in the USA, is ‘full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church’ (BCP, 1979, p. 298). The study of the rites of Christian initiation constitutes a major field within the discipline known as liturgical studies (see Johnson, 1995, 2001, 2007; Whitaker and Johnson, 2003; Spinks 2006a, 2006b). This chapter seeks to introduce students to the contemporary practice of Christian initiation within the Anglican Communion primarily, with particular attention to its ritual process, biblical themes and images, its relation to the liturgical year, and to modern questions about confirmation and first Communion as well as whether adult or infant initiation should be viewed as the norm for practice, theologically and pastorally.

CHRISTIAN INITIATION AS A RITUAL PROCESS

Rites of initiation in general have often been interpreted according to what many in the anthropological and ritual studies disciplines have identified, since the seminal work of Arnold van Gennep, as ‘rites of passage’ (van Gennep, 1960). That is, initiation rites, like those of birth, marriage, entrance into adulthood, specific vocations, and even the funeral and other rites surrounding death, are those rites which various communities the world over, since the beginning of time, have celebrated as marking important ‘passages’ from one level of identity and status in a given community or group to another. Such rites, generally, have an overall three-part structure and take place as a process over a predetermined period of time.

Rites of separation, in which those to be eventually initiated are separated from the community for a time, take place first. This is usually followed by a period of what is called ‘liminality’ or transition, that is, a period ‘betwixt and between’ the initiands’ former identity and status and their yet-to-be new identity and status. Several different rites, including, for example, instruction in the customs and traditions of the community, may take place during this ‘liminal period’ of isolation and transition. The final stage is that of the initiation or incorporation itself, in which the initiands now enter completely into the life of the community with a new status and identity as full members of that community. Most often, we are told, this final rite of incorporation includes a sharing in some kind of ritual meal (cf. even gradu-ation receptions, wedding banquets and funeral lunches). Such a process, often quite dramatic and life-threatening in certain aboriginal societies, is commonly viewed in several different cultural contexts as a ritual process of ‘rebirth’ and/or one of ‘death and resurrection’. Those initiated have ‘died’ to their former way of life and been ‘resurrected’ or ‘reborn’ in another. Even the newly married couple has gone through a process of ‘dying’ to being single so that they might be ‘reborn’ or ‘resurrected’ as husband and wife and thus take a new place in society.

While there is nothing specifically Christian about such a ritual process, the Church has made use of something similar to celebrate the initiation of those who, in response to the proclamation of the gospel, the ‘good news’ of God’s salvation in Christ, have been converted, have repented of their sins and sought incorporation into Christ and the Church. The insights of anthropology into what appears to be a rather common human and social process of initiation, then, can be of great help to us in understanding the particular shape of the rites of Christian initiation specifically. Like all human rites of passage, the Christian rites of initiation themselves, especially as the adult catechumenate has been recovered and restored in our own day, came to follow a general pattern consisting of:

1. Entrance to the Catechumenate, a rite of separation;
2. The Catechumenate and eventual ‘Election’ for initiation, a ‘liminal’ time of transition and preparation, during which those to be initiated are instructed (catechized) and formed in the teaching and life of the community;
3. The Rites of Initiation (baptism, ‘confirmation’, and first Communion), rites by which the former catechumens and ‘elect’ are now incorporated fully into the life of the Christian community;
4. The Period of Mystagogy (‘explanation of the mysteries’), a continued process of further incorporation or reintegration into the community by explaining what the ‘mysteries’ received signify and what their implications are for ongoing life in the community.

And, significantly, these Christian initiation rites are also often interpreted as rites of ‘rebirth’ (see John 3.5) and ‘death, burial, and resurrection’ (see Romans 6).

As helpful as the insights of anthropology and ritual studies are for understanding the particular structure or shape of the rites of Christian initiation, however, they tell us very little about the actual content and theological interpretation of those rites. Similarly, Mark Searle liked to say that initiation rites, as they are generally understood, are about initiating people who already belong in some way, by birth, to the community into a new level of membership or status within that same community. Hence, religious rites of ‘initiation’ are not so much about advancing to a new level of community membership as they are about ‘conversion’ and ‘faith’. They are about entering a new community to which one did not belong before, even by birth, for Christians, in the words of Tertullian in the early third century, are ‘made, not born’. The anthropological analogy with the ‘rites of passage’, therefore, is only partially true in the case of our Christian rites. The ritual process may be similar but the contents, goal and interpretation of that process, as we shall see, are not necessarily the same.

A DIVERSITY OF IMAGES AND INTERPRETATIONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Based on Jesus’ baptism by John at the Jordan (Matthew 3.13–17; Mark 1.9–11; Luke 3.21–22; John 1.31–34), possibly on Jesus’ own baptismal practice (John 3.22, 26; 4.1), and in general continuity with the overall context of ritual washings and bathing customs within first-century Judaism, new converts to Christianity, at least from the first Christian Pentecost on (Acts 2.38–42), were initiated into Christ and the Church by a ritual process which included some form of ‘baptism’ with water, a process that eventually would be based in the command of the risen Jesus (Matthew 28.19). The New Testament itself, however, records little detail about this baptismal practice or what additional ceremonies may have been included. While we might assume that some kind of profession of faith in Jesus as Lord was present, we do not know, for example, if any particular ‘formula’ – e.g. ‘I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ from the dominical command for baptism in Matthew 28.19, or ‘in the name of Jesus’ (Acts 3.6) – was employed. Nor do we do know precisely how baptisms were regularly conferred (by immersion, complete submersion or pouring), whether infants were ever candidates for baptism during the earliest period, what kind of preparation may have preceded adult baptism, whether anointings were already part of the process, or if occasional references to the apostolic conferral of the post-baptismal gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8; 19) were regular features of baptismal practice in some early communities or exceptional cases in particular situations.

Whatever the particular rites employed in the Christian initiation of new converts in the primitive communities may have been, it is clear from the New Testament that the meaning of initiation itself was understood in a variety of ways. These include: forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.38); new birth through water and the Holy Spirit (John 3.5; Titus 3.5–7); putting off the ‘old nature’ and ‘putting on the new’, that is, ‘being clothed in the righteousness of Christ’ (Galatians 3.27; Colossians 3.9–10); initiation into the ‘one body’ of the Christian community (1 Corinthians 12.13; see also Acts 2.42); washing, sanctification and justification in Christ and the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6.11); enlightenment (Hebrews 6.4; 10.32; 1 Peter 2.9); being ‘anointed’ and/or ‘sealed’ by the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1.21–22; 1 John 2.20, 27); being ‘sealed’ or ‘marked’ as belonging to God and God’s people (2 Corinthians 1.21–22; Ephesians 1.13–14; 4.30; Revelation 7.3); and being joined to Christ through participation in his death, burial and resurrection (Romans 6.3–11; Colossians 2.12–15).

Paul Bradshaw has noted that ‘this variation in baptismal theology encourages the supposition that the ritual itself may also have varied considerably from place to place’ (2002b, p. 61). And, if not already present in some places already, these theological interpretations will certainly give rise to specific ritual practices later on. Literal anointings with oil, for example, will develop in all early Christian liturgical traditions to express ritually the gift, anointing and seal of the Holy Spirit in initiation. Putting off the old nature and being clothed with the new nature of Christ (Galatians 3.27) will eventually be expressed by pre-baptismal strippings of clothes and post-baptismal clothings in new white garments. Whether connected to an anointing or not, the mark of God’s ownership of the newly initiated will come to be signified by various signings or consignations with the cross. Enlightenment will be expressed by the use of baptismal candles or tapers. And the baptismal font and waters will come to be interpreted as either or both womb (John 3.5) and tomb (Romans 6), grave and mother – or both. Such a theology will give rise architecturally to how fonts themselves will come be shaped: tomb-like appearance; eight-sided reflecting the entrance into the eighth day or first day of the new creation; quatrolobe to suggest the shape of the cross; six-sided to suggest the Passion; and circular to suggest a womb. Given the rich variety of New Testament interpretations of Christian initiation, it was only inevitable that the rites themselves would evolve in this way. That is, a rich biblical theology such as this would seem to call for an equally rich liturgical expression and practice.

Of all these New Testament interpretations, however, two will stand out with particular emphasis in the evolving life of the Church: Christian initiation as new birth through water and the Holy Spirit (John 3.5ff. and Titus 3.5); and Christian initiation as being united with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection (Romans 6.3–11). The first of these finds its foundation in Jesus’ own baptism by John in the Jordan – if not in Pentecost itself – and the second in the ultimate completion of that baptism in his death on the cross. Liturgical scholars have sometimes asserted that the contrast between these images is Johannine (‘birth’) and Pauline (‘death and burial’). But this is more apparent than real. Baptismal regeneration, new birth and adoption images are also Pauline. That is, in addition to Titus 3.5, the baptismal theology of Galatians, for example, is especially that of adoption in Christ, becoming in the Son a child of God, brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit who cries out ‘Abba! Father!’ in the baptized (Galatians 4.1–7). Further, while these two interpretations need not be mutually exclusive, each one by itself will serve as the dominant interpretation of Christian initiation within specific liturgical traditions. Not surprisingly, then, it is around these two primary interpretations that all the other New Testament images and metaphors as particular ceremonies will eventually tend to cluster as either pre- or post-baptismal rites.

FEASTS AND SEASONS AND THE CELEBRATION OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION

In our own day, the churches of the Anglican Communion, like the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches and others, have reclaimed the theological priority of Romans 6 as their theology of Christian initiation as well as the centrality of Easter as the baptismal feast par excellence, with the result that what is called the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s dying and rising is commonly viewed as the foundational paradigm for ongoing life in Christ. However, if for good theological reasons we may have centred our attention here, the biblical and liturgical baptismal tradition of the Church is much richer than this and invites us to consider other times and occasions for its celebration. My graduate students know that I like to say, ‘We have tended to place all of our baptismal eggs in the Easter basket today.’ But surely, without minimizing the importance or significance of Easter baptism in the least, other occasions like the Epiphany (or, more regularly, the Sunday after the Epiphany), where the baptism of Jesus is celebrated, Pentecost or All Saints’, suggest themselves as most fitting and suitable occasions for the celebration of baptism itself, just as other feasts of Mary and the saints might also be quite appropriate (see Johnson, 2001). In fact, it is a mark of the contemporary Anglican and Lutheran traditions to emphasize this diversity of options. As, for example, the 1979 BCP of the Episcopal Church states:

Holy Baptism is especially appropriate at the Easter Vigil, on the Day of Pentecost, on All Saints’ Day or the Sunday after All Saints’ Day, and on the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord (the First Sunday after the Epiphany).

(BCP, 1979, p. 312)

With these four feasts as the four primary occasions for both baptismal vigils and the corporate and public celebration of baptism throughout the liturgical year, parish catechetical programmes (especially for the pre-baptismal preparation of parents, godparents and sponsors) might also be easily structured in the autumn, winter and spring in close proximity to these festal occasions. In those places where the sheer number of infant baptismal candidates makes waiting for one of these major feasts problematic, certainly other feasts on the calendar suggest themselves as suitable baptismal occasions as well, with the result that, in addition to these four central feasts, other regular occasions in relationship to the liturgical year might be highlighted. The words of Tertullian are still true in this context:

The Passover [i.e. Easter] provides the day of most solemnity for baptism, for then was accomplished our Lord’s passion, and into it we are baptized … After that, Pentecost is a most auspicious period for arranging baptisms, for during it our Lord’s resurrection was several times made known among the disciples, and the grace of the Holy Spirit first given … For all that, every day is a Lord’s day: any hour, any season, is suitable for baptism. If there is any difference of solemnity, it makes no difference to the grace.

(De Baptismo 19, Whitaker and Johnson, 2003, p. 10, emphasis mine)

But if Tertullian was correct that ‘every day is a Lord’s day: any hour, any season, is suitable for baptism’, and that ‘if there is any difference of solemnity, it makes no difference to the grace’, the fact remains that it is precisely this ‘difference of solemnity’ associated with various feasts on the calendar that provides us with the very models of ‘grace’ that baptism sacramentally signifies and effects. Christian initiation is always participation in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and baptism is our common grave and tomb. But how better to underscore and highlight that than actual baptism at the Easter Vigil, after a Lent oriented towards baptismal–catechumenal preparat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author information
• Title page
• Imprint
• Table of contents
• List of contributors
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• Foundations
• Elements
• Event
• Dimensions
• Bibliography
• Search items