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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Anglican Confirmation: an Unfinished Reform
Contributor:
Buchanan, Colin
Published:
Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2024
Published in:
Journal of Anglican Studies, 22 (2024) 1, Seite 270-289
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1017/s1740355323000396
ISSN:
1745-5278;
1740-3553
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
AbstractConfirmation, one of the seven sacraments in Lombard’s schedule, was retained by the English Reformers, but not as a sacrament and without any distinctive quasi-sacramental grace attributed to it. It became a ceremony to complete the catechizing process for children who, having been baptized as infants, were at the age of discretion now to come to holy communion. The reformers thought that a post-baptismal laying on of hands had been practised from apostolic times, and so commended the ceremony for their church practice. This requirement enabled later generations, such as Gregory Dix, to bid up its significance, teaching that confirmation completes baptism, and thus that water-baptism is of itself incomplete. The underlying premise has been that from the apostles onwards a requisite second initiatory ceremony invariably followed baptism. Both Bible and early church history contradict this thesis, not least the eight post-apostolic authors of the first two centuries who mention baptism. All eight testify to the use of water without any further ceremony. Thus, any insistence upon a two-stage sacramental initiation today lacks historical foundations; Anglicans ought to review residual texts and practices which reflect such a pattern.