Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Baptism by non-Catholic Christians is valid if the formula and water are present, and so converts from other Christian denominations are not given a Catholic baptism. The church recognizes two equivalents of baptism with water: "baptism of blood" and "baptism of desire".
As members of the visible church, baptized Christians are believed to have obligations to live in love and service to Christ and his people. The fulfillment of these obligations is referred to as the "improvement" of one's baptism. [45] Reformed Christians see baptism as a replacement of circumcision in the Old Testament. [46]
One of the earliest of the Church Fathers to enunciate clearly and unambiguously the doctrine of baptismal regeneration ("the idea that salvation happens at and by water baptism duly administered") was Cyprian (c. 200 – 258): "While he attributed all the saving energy to the grace of God, he considered the 'laver of saving water' the instrument of God that makes a person 'born again ...
The Apostolic Constitutions, whose texts date to c. 400 AD, attribute the precept of using holy water to the Apostle Matthew.It is plausible that the earliest Christians may have used water for expiatory and purificatory purposes in a way analogous to its employment in Jewish Law ("And he shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and he shall cast a little earth of the pavement of the ...
Baptismal vows are the renunciations required of an adult candidate for baptism just before the sacrament is conferred. [1] In the case of an infant baptism they are given by the godparents (sponsors) or parents themselves. In many Christian denominations, the taking of baptismal vows incorporates a person into church membership. [2]
Although the term "baptism" is not today used to describe the Jewish rituals (in contrast to New Testament times, when the Greek word baptismos did indicate Jewish ablutions or rites of purification), [1] [2] the purification rites (or mikvah—ritual immersion) in Jewish law and tradition are similar to baptism, and the two have been linked.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Catholic Church: . Catholicism – largest denomination of Christianity.Catholicism encompasses the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole.