Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries (review)

This very large book with 860 pages of text and more than ninety pages of indices, by Everett Ferguson, who has been writing on the subject since the 1950s, gives a remarkably comprehensive account of early references to Christian baptism. There is much agreement in the sources, so that there is abundant overlapping of subject matter, with only slight differences of nuance and emphasis. The book begins with a survey of secondary literature, and then part 1 assesses antecedents and parallels of various kinds, from Greco-Roman paganism and the Jewish world, ending with the baptism practiced by John the Baptist. Part 2 continues with John’s baptism of Jesus and goes on to other references to baptism in the Gospels, Epistles, and Acts. Part 3 deals with the second century, not only the Apostolic and Apologetic Fathers but also the witness of sectarian writings (Marcionites, Valentinians, and others as well as pseudepigraphous and apocryphal works) and ends with Ss. Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria. Part 4 continues with the third century and extends to the Council of Nicaea in 325, covering Hippolytan writings, Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, and others and including thematic chapters on the subjects of infant baptism and the question of rebaptizing schismatics and heretics. Part 5, dealing with the fourth century, is the longest section (pp. 455–683) of the book; it starts with Egypt and goes east through Jerusalem (Cyril) and into Syria (notably the Antioch of Theodore of Mopsuestia and St. John Chrysostom) and on to the Cappadocian Fathers, with another thematic chapter on infant baptism and the questions of delaying baptism and sickbed baptism, before turning west to Ambrose, Jerome, and other Latin writers. Part 6 starts in Egypt again, this time with St. Cyril of Alexandria; goes through Syria; and touches lightly on Constantinople before turning to Ravenna, Rome, and elsewhere (Nicetas of Remesiana is a notable omission) before tackling St. Augustine, ending with his teaching of baptism as a means of countering the guilt of original sin (a new idea at the time). Part 7 deals with baptisteries, attending mainly to Ferguson’s interest in questions of immersion and nonimmersion. The book ends with an eight-page chapter of conclusions.

Surprisingly, the author does not mention the murals of Adam and Eve (and the Good Shepherd) in the earliest surviving baptistery at Dura Europos (pp. 820, 824; fig. 13). Adam is mentioned throughout the book, but does not appear in the subject index. This index is a skimpy seven and a half pages (pp. 946–53), and it very much belies the rich contents of the book; entries that do appear—such as “circumcision,” “infant baptism,” “naked,” and “original sin”—are incomplete, and there is nothing on such subjects as breathing ceremonies, the Exodus, and Noah and the Flood. Dozens of pages are given over to citations of individual passages of authors’ works, but there is no index of primary authors and their ideas. It is lacking a bibliography and a list or index of the illustrations. There is frequent cross-referencing to various of the fifty-five chapters, but it is cumbersome to find them.

Although exorcisms of demons are frequently treated in the book (much more than is indicated in the index’s list of seven places), they are not mentioned in the concluding summary, where it is stated that a frequent baptismal theme is “deliverance from Satan’s bondage,” said to be based in the New Testament in Col. 1:13 (deliverance from darkness)—a passage not otherwise treated in the book. It is rare, however, for baptism itself to effect any such deliverance (as is clear from Ferguson’s account); normally, candidates voluntarily separate themselves from Satan after demons have been chased away, literally or figuratively, through exorcism.

Any objections to Ferguson’s presentation and conclusions, however, are insignificant in...