baptism

RITUAL bathing or washing. Baptism is best known as the ritual by which people become members of the Christian church. Many religious groups have practiced baptism. For example, baptism is the central ritual of the Mandaeans, who live in southern Iraq and southeastern Iran. It is so important that others who live around them call them "baptizers." The Mandaeans baptize in "living water," which they call "Jordan." A priest immerses them completely three times in this water. Afterward they are anointed with oil. Ideally, Mandaeans are baptized every Sunday. They have claimed that they are practicing the religion taught by John the Baptist. Baptism seems to have been particularly important to religions of the Near East around the time of JESUS. The people that we learn about in the DEAD SEA SCROLLS seem to have baptized every day. Jews baptize, too. According to tradition, converts to JUDAISM take a ritual bath known as a mikveh. This bath was also traditionally used by women after their menstrual periods. Today, baptism is best-known as the ritual by which people join the Christian church. For Catholic, Orthodox, and some Protestant Christians, this ritual is a SACRAMENT. That is, it is a special way or means of receiving GOD'S GRACE. To modern scholars Christian baptism is a RITE OF PASSAGE. It is a ritual for passing from one stage of life to another. In baptism people pass from being outside the Christian church to being members of it. Unlike the Mandaeans, Christians baptize a person only one time. Once baptized, a person is always baptized. That is true even for a person who renounces Christianity and then wants to be Christian again. But Christians have disagreed about when to baptize, how to baptize, and how it works. These disagreements are part of the reason why there are so many different Christian churches and denominations. The earliest Christians baptized people as they converted to CHRISTIANITY. Most of these people were adults. In ancient times, some people waited to be baptized on their deathbeds. In other words, they practiced baptism as a rite of passage connected with death. They thought that if they were baptized at death, they would enter the world beyond with all their sins forgiven. One person baptized on his deathbed was the Roman emperor Constantine (c. 280–337), famous for removing all laws against Christianity. Christians continue to baptize adult converts today. But for the most part Christian baptism is either a birth or a puberty ritual. Catholic, Orthodox, and some Protestant Christians generally practice baptism as a birth ritual. That is, they baptize infants. Other Protestants, such as Baptists, generally practice baptism as a puberty ritual. That is, they baptize people only when they have reached an age of spiritual maturity. At that age, the thinking goes, people are able to choose for themselves whether or not they want to be Christian. Some Christians baptize by sprinkling with water. This is the way those who baptize infants prefer to baptize. Others insist that baptism requires total immersion. They have argued over such details as the number of times a person has to be immersed and whether or not a person must go into the water face fi rst. Christians also disagree about how baptism works. Christians who baptize infants generally insist that in baptism God is active: His Holy Spirit stirs within the heart of the baptized person. Other Christians insist that baptism simply recognizes publicly a change that has already taken place in a person's heart. In any case, Christians generally see baptism as a rebirth. Those baptized die to an old life and rise to a new one. This symbolism is in fact common in rites of passage. The NEW TESTAMENT connects the dying and rising of baptism with the death and RESURRECTION of Jesus.