SAINT ANDREW'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
UNDERSTANDING CHRISTIANITY
Beginning in January: a monthly forum on
the third Saturday of each month from
Forums with Dr.
Retired Honorary Canon of
Editor of www.philosophy-religion.org
Is There Any Practical Use For Baptism?
Is Baptism useful or should be it be replaced with more effective rituals?
1. A fundamental
question: Who am I?
2.
Identity is learned and nurtured in community(ies).
3.
Masks as Identities (and their consequences)
a. the mask of negativity
b. masculinity and femininity
c. ethnic origin
d. sexual orientation
e. performances and roles: “I am what I do.”
i.
occupation
ii. child
iii. parent
iv. spouse
v. athlete
vi. possessor
vii. zip code
viii. leisure activities
ix. one’s appearance (clothes and
physique; age)
x. one’s religious denomination
4.
Needed: An Identity that will
a. eliminate negativity and promote self-worth
b. provide stability and permanence
c. hold in perspective and
resolve addictions to: masculinity/femininity, ethnic origin, sexual
orientation, and all performances and roles
5.
Secular: “I am a unique person whose vocation is to love and be loved.”
Unbiblical Mystical: “I am God” (“I am the Divinity within me.”)
Abrahamic: “I am a unique child of God whose vocation
is to love and be loved.”
a. Jewish: by heredity
b. Islamic: by nature
c. Christian: by Baptism
6.
Baptismal Identity
a. learned and nurtured in community (how well
is this being done?)
7.
Practical use and effectiveness of the sacramental ritual depends on whether
one’s Baptism is
internalized in both heart and mind.
a. consequences include needs mentioned in #4
met. Other consequences?
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What does “grace” mean? During the 1958-9 academic year at the
Berkeley Divinity School in New Haven, Visiting Lecturer Dr. Leonard Hodgson
(Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and Regius
Professor of Divinity, Oxford), commented: “We begin by repudiating all
notions of grace which think of it as a something given by God to work
mechanically, after the manner of a medicine given by a doctor to be taken
three times a day after meals. We think of God’s grace after the analogy
of that help which one can give to another in personal relationships, help
which does not set aside or supersede a man’s own freedom but enables him to be
more truly himself and more fully free: the sort of help which leads him to say
with gratitude, ‘I could never have been what I am but for X.’”
In the Bible, grace is synonymous with “favor,” “mercy,” “compassion,”
“kindness” and “love.” Because of our human limitations, individuals are
unable to establish truly personal, faithful relationships with God solely by
their own efforts. God’s grace is extended to us that we might become
more aligned with God’s purposes and to mature toward a fuller communion with
the Creator and each other. Neither controlling nor coercing, God’s freely
given grace enables, strengthens, and empowers. Recipients of grace
remain free to respond or not; otherwise, God-given human freedom would be
shackled.
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See www.philosophy-religion.org
Textbooks subsite
Click Living Issues in Ethics (in the left margin)
Read
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Holy Baptism
Q. What is
Holy Baptism?
A. Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as
his children and makes us members of Christ's Body, the Church, and inheritors
of the
Q. What is
the outward and visible sign in Baptism?
A. The outward and visible sign in Baptism is water, in which the person is
baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Q. What is
the inward and spiritual grace in Baptism?
A. The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death
and resurrection, birth into God's family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and
new life in the Holy Spirit.
Q. What is
required of us at Baptism?
A. It is required that we renounce Satan, repent of our sins, and accept Jesus
as our Lord and Savior.
Q. Why then
are infants baptized?
A. Infants are baptized so that they can share citizenship in
the Covenant, membership in Christ, and redemption by God.
Q. How are
the promises for infants made and carried out?
A. Promises are made for them by their parents and sponsors, who guarantee that
the infants will be brought up within the Church, to know Christ and be able to
follow him.