Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Rituals

Baptism

Initiatory Rituals

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Origin 30 to 100 CE

The Christian sacrament of initiation, commanded by Jesus, who told his disciples to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It descends from the immersions of John the Baptist and Jewish purification rites. Water is poured over the head or the candidate is immersed while the minister pronounces the Trinitarian formula. It signifies cleansing from sin, dying and rising with Christ, and rebirth into new life. Most traditions baptize infants, sealing them into the Church; others baptize only believers who profess faith. It marks entry into the Christian community and the start of a life of grace.

Facts
Practice
Who Performs It
Clergy or ordained officiants 1
Clergy or ordained officiants; in an emergency any person may baptise
Obligation
Obligatory 1Tradition: Christianity
Frequency
Once, or at a turning point in a life 1
Solitary or Communal
Performed by an officiant for a recipient 1
Liturgical and Scriptural RoleSourced to the subject's own account
Roman Catholic teaching names it the first of the seven sacraments, the gateway through which a person is incorporated into the church and original sin is washed away before any other sacrament can be received. 2
Origins
Origin Period
30 to 100 CE 1
Place of Origin
The Jordan River, Judea 1
Historical OriginSourced to the subject's own account
The Catechism of the Catholic Church traces the rite to Jesus's own baptism by John in the Jordan and to his command to his disciples to baptize all nations, the two gospel scenes Christian tradition points to as its founding moment. 2
Meaning
Literal Meaning
Derives from a Greek verb meaning to dip or immerse, naming the rite for its original mode of full immersion in water regardless of how any given tradition administers it today. 1
Attributions
Purpose
Baptism, using water to signify purification and incorporation into the Christian community, is regarded across most Christian traditions as the rite of initiation into the church, though traditions differ sharply over whether it should be administered to infants or reserved for professing adult believers. 1
Function
Stage of Life Marked
Entry into the community or the order 1
Form
Implements and Materials
Uses water in one of three principal modes, immersion, affusion or aspersion, the accepted form differing by tradition though water itself is universal to every Christian baptismal rite. 1
Learn More
Washing, Dying, and Being Reborn

Baptism is the rite of Christian initiation, a washing with water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It descends from the immersions of John the Baptist and, behind him, from Jewish purification bathing, but the Christian reading reframes the act: Paul in Romans presents it not merely as cleansing but as a dying and rising with Christ, the candidate going down into the water as into a grave and coming up into new life. The oldest church order to describe it in detail, the Apostolic Tradition, has candidates renounce evil, be anointed, immersed three times, and clothed in white.

Two long disagreements run through its history. The first is mode: immersion, pouring or sprinkling, all of which have been defended as valid. The second is age: whether the rite belongs to professing adults or to infants of Christian households. The Anabaptists of the sixteenth century took their name from insisting on the former and rebaptising those christened as babies; most of the older churches baptise infants and complete the initiation later at confirmation.

Immersion, Affusion, and the Centuries Between

Baptism's earliest form was full immersion in living water, following the model of John the Baptist at the Jordan and continued by the first Christian communities, who distinguished their washing from Jewish purification bathing by tying it to the death and resurrection of Jesus rather than to ritual defilement. The book of Acts shows converts baptised immediately on profession of faith, often in rivers or cisterns, with no fixed liturgy beyond invoking the divine name. By the second and third centuries a longer catechumenate had developed, weeks or years of instruction before baptism was granted, usually reserved for the Easter vigil.

As Christianity moved into colder regions and into buildings without rivers, affusion, pouring water over the head, and later aspersion, sprinkling, became accepted substitutes for full immersion, a change the early text called the Didache already permits when water is scarce. The font itself evolved from open pools to the small basins familiar today.

Eastern Orthodox and many Baptist and Pentecostal churches kept or later revived full immersion as the norm, arguing it alone pictures burial and rising, while most Western churches settled on pouring for practical and pastoral reasons rather than doctrinal ones. The rite's minister also changed over time: early baptism could be performed by any believer in an emergency, a permission Catholic canon law still preserves for danger of death.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

The dispute turned on whether baptism conferred by such a bishop was valid. The Donatists held that it was not, and rebaptised.

Belongs to Tradition

Kept in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first denomination in the United States founded by Black people. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Kept in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Aladura, Denominations

Baptism is by immersion, of those who profess faith, ordinarily in a river.

Amish, Denominations

Baptism is received on joining the church as an adult, and it is the moment at which the discipline of the community becomes binding.

Baptism is given on confession of faith, and the Schleitheim articles put it first among the seven.

Source The Schleitheim ConfessionMichael Sattler (attributed)

Kept across the provinces of the Anglican Communion. Baptism is ordinarily by pouring, and the Articles call it a sign of regeneration by which the promises of forgiveness are visibly signed and sealed.

Baptism is ordinarily by pouring, and the Articles call it a sign of regeneration by which the promises of forgiveness are visibly signed and sealed.

Source The Thirty-Nine Articles of ReligionChurch of Englandthe holders' own account

Kept in the Armenian Apostolic Church. Baptism is by threefold immersion and is followed at once by chrismation and communion.

Baptism is followed by the signing with oil.

Baptist, Denominations

Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water, and it is an ordinance rather than a sacrament: an act of obedience and a public testimony, not a means by which grace is conveyed.

Source The Baptist Faith and MessageSouthern Baptist Convention

Baptism is by pouring or sprinkling, and the Confession states plainly that dipping is not necessary.

Source The Westminster Confession of FaithWestminster Assemblythe holders' own account

Kept in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Kept in the Church of Cyprus, autocephalous since the Council of Ephesus in 431. Baptism is by threefold immersion, and is followed immediately by chrismation and communion in the same service.

Kept in the Church of England, the province from which the Prayer Book tradition comes. Baptism is ordinarily by pouring, and the Articles call it a sign of regeneration by which the promises of forgiveness are visibly signed and sealed.

Baptism is by immersion, following profession of faith.

Kept in the Church of Greece. Baptism is by threefold immersion, and is followed immediately by chrismation and communion in the same service.

Kept in the Church of Ireland. Baptism is ordinarily by pouring, and the Articles call it a sign of regeneration by which the promises of forgiveness are visibly signed and sealed.

Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. Baptism is by pouring or sprinkling, and the Confession states plainly that dipping is not necessary.

Kept in the Church of Sweden, which retained the historic episcopate through the Reformation as few Lutheran churches did. Baptism is necessary to salvation and by it the grace of God is offered, and the Augsburg Confession condemns those who teach that children are saved without it.

Kept in the Church of the Nazarene, which stands in the Wesleyan holiness line. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Baptism is by immersion and is held to be for the remission of sins rather than a testimony to a forgiveness already received, which sets this body apart from most of the immersionist tradition.

Kept in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Baptism is by threefold immersion and is followed at once by chrismation and communion.

Baptism is by immersion, of those who have confessed faith, and this body was founded on the argument that the New Testament pattern requires it.

Kept in the Dutch Reformed tradition, which holds the Heidelberg Catechism among its confessional standards. Baptism is by pouring or sprinkling, and the Confession states plainly that dipping is not necessary.

Baptism is by threefold immersion, and is followed immediately by chrismation and communion in the same service.

Source Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic ChurchIsabel Florence Hapgood (compiler and translator)

Kept in the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the see of first honour among the Orthodox churches. Baptism is by threefold immersion, and is followed immediately by chrismation and communion in the same service.

Kept in the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Baptism is by threefold immersion and is followed at once by chrismation and communion.

Kept in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Baptism is by threefold immersion and is followed at once by chrismation and communion.

Kept in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Baptism is necessary to salvation and by it the grace of God is offered, and the Augsburg Confession condemns those who teach that children are saved without it.

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Kept in the Georgian Orthodox Church, which has used its own language and script in worship since the fifth century. Baptism is by threefold immersion, and is followed immediately by chrismation and communion in the same service.

Kept in the Global Methodist Church, formed in 2022. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Kept in the Greek Orthodox churches. Baptism is by threefold immersion, and is followed immediately by chrismation and communion in the same service.

Baptism is administered by this church in its own form. Its founder's original baptism of converts, and the colonial authorities' reaction to it, are part of the church's founding history.

Baptism is necessary to salvation and by it the grace of God is offered, and the Augsburg Confession condemns those who teach that children are saved without it.

Source The Augsburg ConfessionPhilipp Melanchthon

Baptism is followed at once by chrismation with the holy myron.

Baptism follows instruction and profession and is ordinarily by pouring rather than immersion, which distinguishes Mennonite practice from Baptist.

Source The Dordrecht Confession of FaithDutch Mennonite ministers assembled at Dordrecht

Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Source The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist Churchthe holders' own account

Baptism is administered to infants and to adults, and this church has held from the beginning that the mode is not worth dividing over.

Kept in the National Baptist Convention of America International. Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water, and it is an ordinance rather than a sacrament: an act of obedience and a public testimony, not a means by which grace is conveyed.

Baptism is by full threefold immersion, insisted on strictly, and a baptism by pouring is not accepted.

Baptism is by threefold immersion and is followed at once by chrismation and communion.

Baptism is administered in the presence of the congregation and not privately, since it admits a person to the visible church.

Source The Westminster Confession of FaithWestminster Assemblythe holders' own account

Kept in the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water, and it is an ordinance rather than a sacrament: an act of obedience and a public testimony, not a means by which grace is conveyed.

Baptism is the gateway sacrament, ordinarily by pouring rather than immersion, and in an emergency it may be conferred validly by any person, including one who is not baptised.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Kept in the Romanian Orthodox Church, the one Orthodox church of the Byzantine tradition whose language is Romance. Baptism is by threefold immersion, and is followed immediately by chrismation and communion in the same service.

Kept in the Russian Orthodox Church, in the Slavonic recension of the Byzantine books. Baptism is by threefold immersion, and is followed immediately by chrismation and communion in the same service.

Baptism is followed at once by chrismation.

Kept in the Serbian Orthodox Church. Baptism is by threefold immersion, and is followed immediately by chrismation and communion in the same service.

Baptism is by immersion, following instruction, and admits a person to membership.

Kept in the Episcopal Church, whose own Prayer Book descends from the Scottish rather than the English line. Baptism is ordinarily by pouring, and the Articles call it a sign of regeneration by which the promises of forgiveness are visibly signed and sealed.

Kept in the United Methodist Church. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Baptism is by threefold immersion, followed at once by chrismation and communion.

Kept in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Baptism is by threefold immersion, and is followed immediately by chrismation and communion in the same service.

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Baptism is by immersion in running water.

Conducted By

A deacon is also an ordinary minister of baptism in the Latin church.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

A minister administers baptism in the Reformed and free-church traditions.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

A pastor administers baptism in the Protestant churches.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

A priest is an ordinary minister of baptism in the Latin church.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Critiqued By

Christian Science, Denominations

Baptism is understood as purification of thought and is not performed with water.

Friends practise no outward baptism with water, holding that the baptism Christ gives is inward and that a sign of it adds nothing. This is not the neglect of a rite but the considered refusal of one.

Held Differently

Baptism in these churches is commonly by immersion in running water, in a river or the sea, and it is understood to cleanse and to heal as well as to admit, which the mission churches' font did not claim to do.

Element Of

Rejected Here

The Salvation Army, Denominations

Salvationists have not observed corporate water baptism or the Lord's Supper since 1883, holding that grace is received directly by faith rather than through outward rites.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Related To

Masbuta, Rituals

Christian baptism descends historically from Mikveh Immersion.

Source Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd editionMichael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik (eds.)

Ritual Implements

Sources
1. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005s.v. BaptismView the Source
2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition
Holy See, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997Part Two, Article 1, The Sacrament of Baptism, para. 1213
Quote, Part Two, Article 1, The Sacrament of Baptism, para. 1213
Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission.
the holders' own accountView the Source
Quaker Faith and Practice: The Book of Christian Discipline of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain
Britain Yearly Meeting, Britain Yearly Meetingthe holders' own accountView the Source
The Baptist Faith and Message
Southern Baptist Convention, 2000Article VII, Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Quote, Article VII, Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
View the Source
The Schleitheim Confession
Michael Sattler (attributed), 1527
The Egyptian or Coptic Church: A Detailed Description of Her Liturgical Services
O. H. E. KHS-Burmester, Societe d'Archeologie Copte, Cairo, 1967View the Source
Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church
Isabel Florence Hapgood (compiler and translator), Houghton Mifflin, 1906View the Source
The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church, The United Methodist Publishing Housethe holders' own accountView the Source
The Augsburg Confession
Philipp Melanchthon, 1530Article IX, Of Baptism
Quote, Article IX, Of Baptism
They condemn the Anabaptists, who disallow the baptism of children, and affirm that children are saved without baptism.
View the Source
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion
Church of England, 1571the holders' own accountView the Source
The Dordrecht Confession of Faith
Dutch Mennonite ministers assembled at Dordrecht, 1632View the Source
The Westminster Confession of Faith
Westminster Assembly, 1646the holders' own accountView the Source
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