Baptism: Three Views

David F. Wright

Nov 2009 · InterVarsity Press

About this ebook

The Christian church confesses "one baptism." But the church's answers to how, whom and when to baptize, and even what it means or does, are famously varied. This book provides a forum for thoughtful proponents of three principal evangelical views to state their case, respond to the others, and then provide a summary response and statement. Sinclair Ferguson sets out the case for infant baptism, Bruce Ware presents the case for believers' baptism, and Anthony Lane argues for a mixed practice. As with any good conversation on a controversial topic, this book raises critical issues, challenges preconceptions and discloses the soft points in each view. Evangelicals who wish to understand better their own church's practice or that of their neighbor, or who perhaps are uncertain of their own views, will value this incisive book.

About the author

David F. Wright (1937-2008) was professor of patristic and Reformation Christianity at New College, University of Edinburgh. He wrote a number of books on both historical and theological topics.

Sinclair B. Ferguson is senior minister at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, and serves as professor of systematic theology at Westminster Seminary in Dallas, Texas.

Tony Lane (DD, University of Oxford) is professor of historical theology at the London School of Theology. He is the author of A Concise History of Christian Thought and Justification by Faith in Catholic-Protestant Dialogue. A world-class Calvin scholar, he abridged the Institutes into a popular student edition and also edited the translation of Calvin's Bondage and Liberation of the Will.