Baptists, who have traditionally emphasised the authority of
Scripture, agree strongly that New Testament teaching and
practice allows them to baptize only believers upon
profession of ~aith. There are, however, many remaining
questions concerning the relation of children to God and the
place of children in the church which are not as
straightforwardly answered in Scripture; here Baptists often
display little consensus.
Although the principles of corporate solidarity and of
individual responsibility operate in both Testaments, the
development of individual responsibility, already apparent
within later Old Testament history, is carried further in the
New Testament where there is evidence of some breakdown in
family solidarity and of division on the basis of individual
allegiance to Jesus. Discussion of the place of the child in
the early church to the fourth century centres around
questions of original sin, the 'innocence' of children, the
rise of infant baptism and the catachumenate. The historical
survey also investigates the development of Anabaptist, early
Baptist and modern Baptist views of childhood from the
sixteenth to the twentieth centuries.
Baptist perspectives in relation to four current issues in
the theology of the child are considered: original sin and
the 'age of accountability', infant salvation, 'faith
development' and child evangelism. The South African
situation is analysed by identifying amd interpreting areas
of agreement and areas of uncertainty indicated by the
results of a detailed questionnaire distributed amongst
Baptists during 1990-1991.
Baptists need to recognize that children of believers,
although not necessarily saved, are in a creative
relationship with the church, somewhat similar to that of the
catechumenate in the early church. Two particularly
problematic areas are the question of the appropriate age for
baptism, church membership and communion of children. This
is partly because although linked with faith rather than with
~ pastoral wisdom is needed to assess the evidence for
true faith in particular cases. In spite of the difficulties
to be faced, Baptist congregations and all Christians and
churches have much to gain from a careful consideration of
the theological issues related to the place of the child in
the church. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/17460 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Miller, Gordon Goldsbury |
| Contributors | König, Adrio |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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