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Title: The Baptized Body
Author: Peter J. Leithart
Narrator: Aaron Wells
Format: Unabridged
Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
Language: English
Release date: 01-05-18
Publisher: Canon Press
Genres: Religion & Spirituality, Christianity
Publisher's Summary:
What does baptism do to the baptized? Nothing? Something?
In this study, Peter Leithart examines this single question of baptismal efficacy. He challenges several common but false assumptions about God, man, the church, salvation, and more that confuse discussions about baptism. He aims to offer a careful and simple discussion of all the central biblical texts that speak to us about baptism, the nature of signs and rites, the character of the church as the body of Christ, and the possibility of apostasy.
In the end, the author urges us to face up to the wonderful conclusion that Scripture attributes an astonishing power to the initiation rite of baptism.
Members Reviews:
A Powerful and Mixed Bag
For me, this book, like Leithart's writings generally, was both a hit and a miss. Let's take it from the top.
Chapter one, "Starting before the Beginning," was intended to clear "enough ground to move ahead" to discuss the biblical texts about baptism. This chapter seemed a bit choppy, as Leithart's hitting on different philosophical, ontological, and theological topics. It was intended to be controversial with section headings such as, "Why Sacraments Are Not Signs," "Why Sacraments Are Not Means of Grace," and "Why Sacraments Are Not Symbols." That said, I found the concept of Sacraments as rituals to be compelling and helpful. Sacraments can, however, be signs, means of grace, symbols, AND rituals.
Chapter two, "'Baptism' is Baptism," was very fine. Leithart is quite conversant with many exegetes. I think he shows with some conclusiveness that the great majority of the time the NT uses the term "baptism," it means regular water baptism. This is important point. Since the NT attributes such impressive things to baptism, many folks want to make "baptism" mean "spiritual" baptism. Leithart shows that this defensive tactic is not generally exegetically justifiable.
Chapter three, "The 'Body of Christ' is the Body of Christ," argues that when the NT refers to the church (or the Body of Christ), it generally means the historical, visible church. This chapter is a polemic against those who would want to import the "invisible" concept of the church into the NT text. Just like chapter two, the visible church is not ALWAYS in view in the NT, but it is usually in view. Again, Leithart examines many texts and interacts with various interpreters of those texts.
Chapter four, "Apostasy Happens," is where Leithart muddies the waters a bit. First, he pulls together quite a handful of warning passages against apostasy to show that apostasy does indeed happen. So far, so good. The problem comes when Leithart seems basically unwilling to grant that there is any ontological or spiritual difference between the temporary believer who falls away and ends up in hell, and the believer who, by God's grace, perseveres and ends up in heaven. He seems to want to hide in the grayness of the vast varieties of Christian experience, but he will not put his finger on a *real* spiritual difference between the one of perseveres and the who apostatizes. This is a problem. The Bible says that those who apostatize "were not of us" (1 John 2:19). They went out from us, but were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us.