2004
Volume 51, Issue 4
  • ISSN: 0165-4322
  • E-ISSN: 3050-9947

Abstract

Abstract

Recent publications show that the debate between infant baptism and adult baptism continues without abating. The Reformed theology of infant baptism establishes its position with a distinction between the covenant of works (or creation) and the covenant of grace, and in the continuity of the latter across the divide between the Old and New testaments. Adult or Credo-baptist theologies, on the other hand, emphasize the break between the old and the new covenant, and the discontinuity of circumcision and baptism. Henri Blocher is a prominent French defender of believers’ baptism who recently published an important two-volume work on the church and sacraments in French. He identifies his theology of baptism as a variety of Reformed theology. He points to the inherent difficulties in the Reformed notion of covenant, and argues that a revision is both justified by Scripture and can give a coherent account of the covenant notion itself. This article analyzes Blocher’s proposition and provides a brief evaluation.

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