Sword & Trowel 2018: Issue 1
children were not baptised until they had fi rst been instructed in the faith. Around the same time, Zwingli had written concerning infant baptism: ‘I leave it untouched; I call it neither right nor wrong. If we were to baptise as Christ instituted it, then we would not baptise anyone until he reached the age of discretion.’ Why then did Zwingli fi nally back
away from these early doubts and embrace infant baptism? There may have been several reasons, but per- haps the most weighty was Zwingli’s ultimate unwillingness to question the medieval model of society as a Chris- tian body. Zwingli’s ideal of Zurich was of a Christian people, a citizen body united by faith in Christ, practising Christian politics, and governed by Christian magistrates. Zwingli real- ised he could not sustain this vision if he rejected infant baptism, because such a rejection would create the sharpest distinction between belong- ing to the citizen body and belonging to the church. So in order to preserve his cher-
ished ideal of Zurich as a collectively Christian people, and to keep the city’s political authorities on board with support for his programme of reform, Zwingli (I think) set aside his doubts about infant baptism. He chose to continue the traditional prac- tice in which the baptism of a Zurich infant was tantamount to his or her ceremonial induction into citizenship. The fact remains, however: Zwingli was initially prepared, in his pursuit of biblical reformation, to raise im- portant queries over the theology and practice of infant baptism. And it is hard not to see the fi gure of Erasmus looming over Zwingli’s shoulder in this early attitude. Later Protestants who rejected infant baptism for be- lievers’ baptism may, therefore, be said to have nurtured into life a seed sown by Erasmus and Zwingli at the very dawn of the Reformation.
MODE OF BAPTISM What about the mode of baptism?
Were there any currents of thought among the Magisterial Reformers that questioned bap- tism by sprinkling or pouring, and pointed towards baptism by total immersion? Here we turn to Martin Luther, who did
City centre of Zurich, showing the twin towers of Grossmünster, from where Zwingli initiated his reforms.
Great Advances Sown by the Reformation page 17
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