Customer Reviews

Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries

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Jeremias' work has been long overdue for a reprinting and here it is! He approaches the topic from the period following the New Testament through patristics, archeology and scripture. It is a thin read and very well done. His followup to this book is the "Origins of Infant Baptism" in which he replies to criticisms of his original thesis. Buy them both for under $30! He may not be the endall on the topic, but he certainly gives strong evidence for the antiquity of the practice of the universal early church, showing that not only is an absence of evidence evidence of absence (which is the Bible Only/sola scriptura premise for many Christians), but that there is no biblical, patristic or theological reason NOT to baptize infants into the covenant of Christ.

I would also recommend the following books for the defense of infant baptism upon biblical/theological and historical grounds (however, the Reformed authors do not believe in regenerative baptism at any age): The Origins of Infant Baptism: A Further Study in Reply to Kurt Aland,Infant Baptism and the Silence of the New Testament, To a Thousand Generations: Infant Baptism ~ Covenant Mercy to the Children of God, Common Ground: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity for the American Christian, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy, Swear to God: The Promise and Power of the Sacraments, Christian Baptism

Enjoy!

Extremely well documented. The reading is not for someone that is not interested in the subject. The translation, although accurate, does not flow naturally and appears to be almost a word for word and at times takes a bit of study to get the meaning. It's an excellent book but do not expect it to be casual or bedtime reading.

"Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries" explores from biblical and extrabiblical sources whether Christians in the first four centuries of the Church baptized their infant children. Jeremias starts with the bible and works forward from there examining the writings of influential church fathers in each century after the death of the apostles. His presentation is not so much concerned with the theological reasons for baptising children, although he does briefly explain them, but is more concerned with proving that Christians from apostolic times through the end of the three-hundreds actually practiced infant baptism. Jeremias also persuasively contends that infant baptism was a universal practice that was not questioned, with a few exceptions that he doesn't ignore, until the fourth century.

Read this book as one step in determing your stance on infant baptism, because it will leave you dissappointed if you are looking for a thorough explanation of why and if infants should be baptised. For good theological arguements for and against infant baptism I recommend: "Baptism: What saith the Scriptures?" by Ironside, and "Christian Baptism" by Murray.

A very interesting historical study of Infant Baptism. There are areas covered that I never considered before. We can learn from the ancient church.