Kerk en Theologie - Volume 76, Issue 1, 2024

This article analyses Jesus’ discussion with the Sadducees about the resurrection. It is argued that the Sadducees stand in the tradition of Ecclesiastes. However, the Sadduccees (as portrayed in the Gospels) regard the question of life after death as a purely hypothetical matter, not as an existential problem, which it was for Ecclesiastes, Job and Asaph. When it comes to speaking responsibly Biblically about life after death, it is important to be humble and not to speculate beyond the basic faith that we will be together with God.

This article describes the increasing focus on relationships with the deceased, after the traditional Christian master narrative of heaven and an afterlife evaporated for many. Scholars analysing our coping with death and dying point to continuing bonds in practices and experiences. These continuing bonds involve a real, reciprocal relationship. This fits well with the ancestor cult from other cultures. Both the ancestor cult and the practices to maintain and experience continuing bonds with the dead, exist by the grace of the ‘being there’ of the dead after death. This article lists some of the signs of this presence and emphasizes how these signals have both a long, often ritualistic, tradition in time, as well as being broadly rooted in cultures.

The central question guiding my research is: How is Reformed theology and the practice of infant baptism appropriated by Reformed believers in different contexts? This article begins with an introduction to this topic and shortly describes the qualitative research conducted among Reformed professional theologians and ordinary believers in North India, Malawi, and the Netherlands. The article then narrows its focus to a specific question: Does God act in infant baptism? In other words, is infant baptism primarily a divine promise—a sign and seal given by God to parents and their children—or is it more akin to a ‘wet child dedication’, where the faith and decision of the parents play a constitutive role? Subsequently, I examine how ordinary believers in the research contexts reported experiencing an intensified sense of God’s presence in relation to infant baptism. Finally, I compare these empirical findings with John Calvin’s theology of baptism and insights from some key Reformed confessions. The article concludes with a summary of findings and proposes questions for further research.