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Baptism is valid if the proper trinitarian formula is used (as Matt. 28:19), but it is efficacious because of faith. Thence, infants are baptized “in hope,” i.e., that they will believe. During the reformations of the sixteenth century, some radical reformers refused to permit baptism of their children. They insisted that scriptures would not support baptism of infants or small children because they require faith before baptism. Although labeled “Anabaptist,” or “Rebaptizers,” they contended that they really baptized rather then re-baptized since baptism depends on faith.

      Catholic and other Protestant reformers reacted to “believers” baptism with much alarm to what they perceived as a grave threat to cherished tradition. Catholic theologians at the Council of Trent viewed baptism as a key item in the system of seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony) by which the Church assured the faithful of salvation. It imprints on the soul “a certain spiritual and indelible sign” and may thus not be repeated. Luther contended that infants have faith. “The Formula of Concord” of 1580 (Art. XII.4) ascribed Anabaptist rejection of infant baptism to rejection of the doctrine of original sin. Calvin, by contrast, underscored the covenant derived from Abraham that placed responsibility for faith on parents and on the Church. The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England justified baptism of young children not on theological grounds but “as most agreeable with the institution of Christ” (Art. 27). Subsequently, the Church of England proceeded with some severity against nonconformists and dissenters (including Baptists) who did not worship according to the Book of Common Prayer. Orthodox churches continued the early Christian practice of baptizing infants by threefold immersion in the trinitarian formula.

      Baptism remained a sharp point of contention and division among Christians up to very recent times when radical changes in the ecumenical climate, especially with the inauguration of Pope John XXIII (1958–63) and the convening of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), began to permit more dispassionate discussion. Protestant ecumenism had included consideration of baptism, but the Council opened the way for reexamination of baptism as one of many central issues in Christian unity. Before Vatican II, most Roman Catholic publications on baptism sought to defend their views, but following the Council they sought ways to agree. Free and far-ranging dialogue led to the remarkable ecumenical document on Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (BEM) finalized at Lima, Peru in 1982 by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and celebrated at Vancouver in 1983 by the Assembly of the World Council. Between 1985 and 1987 the World Council solicited and received hundreds of “Official Responses” to BEM, including one by the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox churches.

      This widely accepted document describes baptism as being rooted in Jesus’ ministry and a rite signifying the New Covenant between God and God’s people. It emphasized the theological themes of participation in Christ’s death and resurrection; conversion, pardoning, and cleansing; the gift of the Spirit; incorporation into the Body of Christ; and the sign of the Kingdom. Acknowledging a concern of believer-baptists, it asserts that “Personal commitment is necessary for responsible membership in the body of Christ” (III.8) and admits that “While the possibility that infant baptism was also practiced in the apostolic age cannot be excluded, baptism upon personal profession of faith is the most clearly attested pattern in the New Testament documents” (IV.11). Attentive at the same time to pedobaptist concerns, nevertheless, it emphasizes that “Baptism is an unrepeatable act” and that churches should avoid any suggestion of “re-baptism” (IV.13). The document goes on to applaud increasing mutual recognition of baptism. It underlines the symbolic importance of immersion, but also tilts toward the baptismal liturgy used in the third or fourth centuries.

      Paralleling the ecumenical progress visible here are steps toward reunion taken by believer-baptist and pedobaptist bodies. The most far reaching are the discussions about unification of nine denominations through the Consultation on Church Union launched in 1962.

       E. GLENN HINSON

      Bibliography

      Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry.

      Churches Respond to BEM, ed. Max Thurian, 6 vols.

      Dale Moody, Baptism: Foundation for Christian Unity.

      Cross-Reference: Ecumenism, Eucharist, Sacraments, Vatican II.

      BEING/BECOMING

      Alfred North Whitehead contended that the hymn lines “Abide with me; fast falls the eventide” set forth “the complete problem of metaphysics.” “Abide” speaks for constancy and “falls” for change. The question of the relative weight to be given these testimonies is the problem of Being and Becoming: whether being is more basic than becoming, or becoming more basic than being. The answer hinges on how God, history, human nature, and nonhuman nature are characterized.

      People who argue that being is more basic affirm that constancy gets at the heart of things more than change, while people who argue that becoming is more basic affirm just the opposite. If being is more basic, then what is truly divine, historical, human, or natural must be unchanging and, it is usually added, universally the same; but if becoming is more basic, then what is truly divine, historical, human, or natural must be changing and, it is usually added, different in different situations.

      The issue is historic. The pre-Socratic Parmenides of Elea argued that what is “simply is—now altogether, one, continuous,” while the pre-Socratic Heraclitus of Ephesus argued that “everything flows and nothing abides.” It is safe to say that Parmenides’ bias toward being prevailed in Western philosophy and theology until the twentieth century, when modern physics (particularly quantum physics) argued that events are most basic and that these events in some respects are indeterminate, perhaps even innovative. Nevertheless, determinisms in natural science (e.g., the chance-free world of relativity physics) and in social science (e.g., the predictable world of sociobiology) remain strong, and they place greatest emphasis on being-like continuities.

      All general thinkers, whatever their tendency, must have some way of accounting for the side they de-emphasize. Accordingly, Plato, a philosopher of being, will account for becoming, locating it in the “less real” world of ordinary events. Equally, Hegel, a philosopher of becoming, will account for being, locating it in the Absolute to the extent that it provides the rational impetus for all that happens. While some—for example, Charles Hartshorne—aspire to give equal weight to being and becoming, it can be argued that coherence requires, finally, that an implicit if not an explicit preference be given to one side or the other.

      As one type of general thinker, theologians may favor either being or becoming, and they too must account for the side they de-emphasize. Those who emphasize being are heavily affected by ancient Greek philosophies of being; those who emphasize becoming are heavily affected by ancient Hebrew interpretations of history. In the former tradition God is closely associated with ahistorical being, human souls participate in that being, and both are everlasting; but this tradition usually allows, even if unwittingly, that God changes enough to absorb effects of the world and that souls change enough to be subject to corruption. In the latter tradition God is closely associated with historical becoming and people are formed largely by historical circumstance; yet even amid historical flux these theologies find in God a consistent influence and in people a personal identity through time.

      Today’s theologians of being find the deepest threat to life’s worth in the moral, spiritual, or intellectual incompleteness that comes from falling away from being, so that fulfillment lies in the communion with being that gives eternal life, forgiveness, or meaning. Today’s theologians of becoming find the deepest threat to life’s worth in the loss of an aesthetic sense of becoming, so that fulfillment lies in the communion that overcomes what William James called tedium vitae.

      In recent theology of being, reality is found beyond history; followers of Karl Barth, narrative theologians, and fundamentalists look to continuous traditions while followers of Paul Tillich look to ontological absolutes. These theologians must explain how a theology based on what is eternal and,

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