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The Baptized Body

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From the preface:

"The whole [Federal Vision] project is an effort to drag conservative Reformed churches, all kicking and screaming, into the twenty-first century, the century of ecclesiology. With this little book, unpolished and polemical, narrow and hurried, I hope to drag us all a few more inches."

It's like Douglas Wilson says. "Reading Dr. Leithart... is like reading cheesecake." Every page is rich and insightful; you can only read a few at a time before you get stuffed. That being said, Peter Leithart starts where this discussion needs to start: before the beginning. In the first chapter, he challenges the many false assumptions we bring to table when talking about the Sacraments. Many of us are Zwinglian at heart. Thus: Baptism can't change the real, lock-box, "spiritual" me. Baptism just gives us a legal relationship with Christ. Baptism is just a sign, it holds no power. Baptism is just a "means of grace," where grace is an incredibly fine substance that gets funneled through water.

No, no, no. Baptism is a ritual. Buy the book, and find out what that means.

Buy the book, and see that when Scripture uses the word "Baptism" it nearly always means water baptism. This water baptism sticks us in the visible, historical Church. Furthermore, Leithart shows that the visible, historical Church (i.e. the "Body of Christ") in Scripture is the Corpum Verum, the actual body of Christ. Hence a syllogism:
1) Baptism brings us into to the Church
2) The Church is the body of Christ
3) Therefore, Baptism unites us to Christ

What? So unbelievers can be united to Christ? Yes. The book fleshes this out. No matter who you are, "The Baptized Body" is a must read.

My Two Cents:

First, the appendix alone on paedeo-baptism is worth the price of the book. It it, Peter Leithart deals a solid blow the the credo-baptist argument insisting that consent is a vital part of baptism. Don't believe me, buy the book.

Second, 'The Baptized Body' begins to pick up where 'Against Christianity' left off and begins to explore the ramifications of a consistent Christian sociology. Those of you who have read 'Against Christianity' know how amazing and important that book is and 'The Baptized Body' is no less so. With this book, Peter Leithart provides a very detailed look at the scriptures dealing with baptism and how we must understand such rites.

If you already own and/or have read 'Against Christianity', you need to buy 'The Baptized Body'. If you haven't, then you need to buy it AND his equally important other book, 'Against Christianity'.

This is Peter Leithart's contribution to the many, many books on baptism. Lots of books on baptism have been written but there is still as much disagreement on the subject today as there ever has been. How does Leithart's book differ from the myriads of other books on Baptism? Well, this is the only one that has ever brought tears to my eyes. From reading his treatise on Baptism, I was made very aware of the grace that God has given us in Baptism and the Lord's Supper. I was reminded of what a privilege it is to be invited to the Lord's table with the rest of the Christ's body. The tale of three servants at the end of the book is truly touching as it makes you reflect on the kindness of God in giving us the sacraments. Your average book on baptism does not have this much heart, and the fact that it will make you marvel at God's grace is an indicator that the doctrine of Baptism that Leithart presents is on the right track.

If I could summarize Peter Leithart's book, he argues that "baptism" means baptism. In other words, when the New Testament speaks of baptism, it usually speaks of the water-rite. This is not too troubling except that at points the New Testament seems to attribute grace and saving action to the water-rite. Leithart takes the effort to explain what this means. He offers us a new way of thinking, challenging our assumptions, and showing how one's thoughts about baptism determine what one believes about the Church, sociology, and eschatology as well.

Leithart puts forward the following propositions (32).

1. Baptism means the water-rite of entry into the church.
2. The "body of Christ" is the body of Christ.

When the New Testament uses this language it has in mind the visible/historical church.
3. Apostasy happens.

A Communal Ontology
Leithart suggests that our problem in understanding deals with our ontology, or our understanding of what constitutes reality and how we interact with that reality. Most post-Enlightenment Christians have a "Lockean" ontology. They believe that we humans are simply, if I may use a crass illustration, billiard balls bouncing off one another. In other words, we are individualists. A communal ontology that seeks to be biblical sees human reality as inter-penetrating one another. Therefore, when one is baptized one's identity changes. In a communal ontology this is a lot more meaningful than in a Lockean ontology. One is placed into the realm of the church, the vehicle of salvation (74-75). This is how baptism saves.

Leithart urges us to interpret the New Testament's references to baptism as the water-rite of entry into the church. Of course, some passages will not fit this description (references to "baptism by fire," for example). Many Americans like to interpret baptism in a "spiritual" sense. Leithart points out that such moves are utterly arbitrary and eventually, if applied consistently, eliminate any New Testament teaching on baptism.

Evaluation
This book is not a defense of infant baptism. It is an attempt to clarify what many in the Federal Vision mean when they refer to baptism. The book has some golden moments. But it does raise problems on apostasy.

Further, I don't know if people picked up on this, but Leithart's book, if not refuting the "P" in TULIP, seriously strains it. Yes, yes, I know: that acronym is not in the original Calvin, but still--try to deny P at your Presbytery ordination and let me know how it goes. Okay, back:

Leithart addresses this problem somewhat in his next book, the commentary on 1 John. I don't see Leithart (ironically) engaging his previous exegesis.

This book provides a great insight into the current discussion of Baptism. Easy to read and is written from a "new" perspective.

I find Leithart's points at the very least well worth considering, though I hope to give it another run through. Those looking to have a consistent doctrine of infant baptism might well read this, as it addresses well many of the thoughts on the subject I have had. Centrally for me, was the question of how we treat our children? As Christians or heathen? And how do we reconcile our doctrine of security and perseverance with the plain fact that many professing Christians that we were sure of do fall away? For such a brief book, it handles these questions well.

Theologically astute and pastoral at the same time! What else can I say? I will say more anyway. I find Leithart's books challenging and edifying and this book is no different. He has helped me see, again, that baptism into the Body has consequences for the baptized and that, as a rite, it actually accomplishes and does things such as "changing status, altering personal identity, and expressing God's favor." It is God's act and not man's. That cannot be repeated enough. It is pastoral through and through...did I say that already???

How one can say that it does not emphasize the Trinitarian view enough has missed the point.Baptism means that one has entered into fellowship with the Father , Son and Holy Spirit AND the Son's Body and Dr. Leithart has emphasized that in the book.

Buy it, read it. Don't just take my word (more than two-cents yet?) for it or others' and see for yourself. You will be blessed and glad you did.

I love Peter Leithart. Don't tell my session. This book is a tremendous work for those who are left wondering, "So, what just didn't happen?"

Leithart's book on II Peter is fairly easy to understand. I found this one hard, but see if this analogy helps.

Maybe baptism is like a wedding ceremony. Those who deny marriage is a sacrament agree that the ceremony itself does something. If the bride and groom have sex in the dressing room before the ceremony, they're fornicating; if they make love there after the ceremony, fine. The ceremony does something; it unites the couple in some sense; makes them members one of another? Maybe baptism unites us to Christ, and/or to the Church, in a similar way. What follows a wedding can do well or poorly, and usually has ups and downs; so can what follows a baptism. (I just re-watched "Fiddler on the Roof" in which a couple whose marriage had been arranged finally asks, and affirms after 25 years, that they do love each other and it's nice to know they do.)

So water-baptism at least outwardly and officially unites us to Christ, brings us to His table as part of his family (if he died for our children, how can we leave them out when we celebrate his death?--I agree with Dr Leithart on this; see his book Daddy, why was I excommunicated?); when outward problems get too big, as sometimes happens, deal with that; as in a marriage, aim for growth: teach and live by the truth, trust in the truth, do what the truth calls for, and thus grow in the truth and encourage the inward growth and due feelings.

Maybe Dr Leithart here is saying something like this.

I write from a different Christian tradition than the author, but I found his work simple and helpful and the appendix at the end related to infant baptism was extremely well put and a wonderful description of the worldview of the practice, full of its prophetic content.