BOOK REVIEW:
Baptism In The Reformed Tradition: An Historical and Practical Theology. By John W. Riggs. Columbia Series in Reformed Theology. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002. ix + 187 pp. ISBN 0664231829.

In his Introduction, John Riggs asks a critical question: can Protestants borrow liturgical forms from Roman Catholics without consulting Protestant theologies, especially those of Luther and Calvin? Riggs’ book asks not only for a reassessment of baptism within the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, but also for a reassessment of the desideratum of ecumenical dialogue. He reminds his readers that “the ecumenical movement understands that ecumenism begins with an honest appraisal of what the differing Christian traditions believe and where there is real difference. This approach avoids consensus made too easily and allows for traditions to learn about themselves as well as to learn from other traditions” (pp.124-25). Riggs begins and concludes his study with brief discussions of the liturgical movement that began at the end of the nineteenth century and culminated in Vatican II (1962-65) and its product, the Roman Catholic Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) (1972).

Riggs refers to Luther’s baptismal theology and then sketches the history and variety of traditions among the Reformed churches. He criticizes the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) and the Reformed Book of Common Worship (BCW), together with their supporting theologies, as having been too much influenced by the liturgical movement and the RCIA, itself the result of a return to the rites of initiation current in the fourth and fifth centuries. Riggs argues that in Luther’s baptismal Sintflutgebet (Flood Prayer) and in the Reformed traditions, Baptism has not been seen primarily as an initiation, but a form of the proclamation of the Word. He suggests revising the BCW to reflect that priority. “Baptism is primarily the promise, or offer, or pledge, of God’s grace. It is not primarily an initiation into the church, whether ‘church’ be considered a local congregation or the mystical body of Christ” (p.119).  Baptism’s ultimate orientation, writes Riggs, is Christocentric, “offering Christ in the sacrament and engrafting those with faith into Christ himself” (p. 122).

While Luther and Calvin emphasized the promise/sign nature of sacraments, Riggs sees no contradiction between this theological orientation and the covenant theology derived primarily from Bullinger and developed in the seventeenth century by Calvinist orthodoxy. Riggs argues for a new kind of Harmonia confessionum (1581), although he seems unaware of the existence of this Reformed answer to the Lutheran Formula of Concord. Riggs’ own preference is for a strong covenant theology dominating the promise/sign theology through an appeal to the personal address of the Word to the hearer who may or may not receive that Word with faith. The firm grounding of the sacraments is thus the “character of God as grace offered to humankind, to which we (secondarily or derivatively) make our response” (p. 121).

The test case in Rigg’s examination of all these theologies and practices is infant baptism, defended by some, for example Zwingli, Luther, and Calvin, and questioned by others, for example Schleiermacher and Barth. While infant baptism is not strictly necessary according to Calvin, its ultimate efficacy in any case is a matter of God’s election that gifts the individual with the faith necessary to respond positively. Riggs also discusses the relation of predestination to the covenant in the various Reformed traditions.

This is a book on which to base a serious discussion of sacramental theology and practice in the Reformed churches and in ecumenical dialogues. Riggs is provocative and well grounded, although his text raises a number of questions and provokes some criticisms.  For example, I question the heavy emphasis on the one-on-one relation of God to each person while relegating the community to a role less than “secondary.” This is hardly a Pauline position nor is it a credible interpretation of Christian history and doctrine, east or west, prior to the seventeenth century. Nor does Riggs pay sufficient attention to Calvin’s appreciation of the sign-nature of the sacraments. While both are Word in that both the Gospel and the sacraments offer to faith Christ himself, to reduce both to proclamation and to hearing is to deny Calvin’s argument that sacraments appeal to all the human senses and apply the Word to each individual. The book needs better editing. It contains typos and an annoying use of the preposition “to” in at least two dozen places where the preposition should be “of” or “in” or even the phrase “with regard to”.  In two places, it muddies the meaning (pp. 77, 120).

But when all is said and done, Baptism in the Reformed Tradition is a fine example of historical theology applied to liturgical practice. Because its theses and the use of some terms, e.g., “valid,” are debatable, they deserve to be debated with the same seriousness and care that Riggs has given them in this monograph.

Jill Raitt
Director, Center for Religion, the Professions, and the Public and Porfesor of Religious Studies, Emerita
The University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

PUBLISHED IN THE BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE FOR REFORMED THEOLOGY, WINTER 2004, VOL. 4, #1.