Evangelical Anglicanism

Discussion in 'Church Strands (Anglo-catholics & Evangelicals)' started by Archie, Dec 15, 2022.

  1. Tiffy

    Tiffy Well-Known Member

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    I was rather hoping some of the texts mentioned here would be quoted as justifications for the fact that Anglicans continued baptising their infants, as the Church in England and indeed in the worldwide church, seemingly always HAD done, as far as can be historically ascertained, until the newfangled Anabaptist denomonation came into being and began objecting to the practice.

    This one is an example of Anglican justification for the practice:

    "Nowell’s 1571 “Middle Catechism” (distinguishing it from a previous and much longer one) received official sanction in the 1571 Canons, which required it be used in schools.
    In Nowell’s Middle Catechism, after establishing that repentance and faith are necessary for baptism, the master then asks the scholar: “Why then are Infants baptised, which by age cannot perform these things?” The scholar answers,
    Because they be of God’s Church; and God’s blessing and promise made to the Church by Christ  (in whose Faith they are baptised) pertaineth unto them. Which, when they come of age, they must themselves learn, believe, and acknowledge, and endeavour in their lives to express the duty at their Baptism promised and professed.
    This answer matches the rationale provided within the Prayer Book liturgy. In the margins alongside this answer hints towards further explanations are provided in the form of scriptural citations. The passages given indicate supplemental reasons that match up with the proofs summarized by Thomas Rogers. Among these are Genesis 17 and Colossians 2, which points to the covenantal explanation that had already been emphasized in the earlier catechisms of Geneva (1560) and Heidelberg (1563) and which Rogers (1585) gave as his second proof."

    Even this though does not fully explain the Theologically Biblical reasoning behind the continuing practice in the Church of Christ, it being only taken from a catechism for children, not a theological treatise by doctors of divinity in the Church of England.
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