Endorsements
Sacraments are at the heart of Catholic spirituality and liturgical life. They are celebrated in the context of the proclamation of Gods Word. This excellent series will help Catholics appreciate more and more both the relationship between Word and Sacrament and how the sacraments are grounded in the riches of Scripture.
Thomas D. Stegman, SJ , Boston College School of Theology and Ministry
This series shows tremendous promise and ambition in laying out the multiple living connections between the Scriptures and the sacramental life of the Church. Taken together, these books could accomplish what Jean Danilous The Bible and the Liturgy accomplished for a previous generation of biblical and theological scholarship. And like that work, this series gives to students of the Bible a deeply enriched view of the mesh of relationships within and between biblical texts that are brought to light by the liturgy of the sacraments.
Jennifer Grillo , University of Notre Dame
In recent years, theological exegesisbiblical commentary by theologianshas made a significant contribution. This series turns the tables: explicitly theological reflection by biblical scholars. The result is a breakthrough. Theologically trained, exegetically astute biblical scholars here explore the foundations of Catholic sacramental theology, along paths that will change the theological conversation. This series points the way to the theological and exegetical future.
Matthew Levering , Mundelein Seminary
The sacraments come to us clothed in images that carry their mystery and propose it to our hearts. These images come from Scripture and are inspired by the Holy Spirit, who wills to transfigure us each into the full measure of Christ. The books in this series, by situating the sacraments within the scriptural imagery proper to each, will over time surely prove themselves to be agents in this work of the Spirit.
John C. Cavadini , McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame
Series Page
SERIES EDITORS
Timothy C. Gray
John Sehorn
Title Page
Copyright Page
2022 by Isaac Augustine Morales
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-3682-8
Nihil obstat :
Rev. Jordan Schmidt, OP
Censor Librorum
August 16, 2021
Imprimi potest :
Very Rev. Kenneth R. Letoile, OP
Prior Provincial
August 16, 2021
Approbatio :
Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, DD
Bishop of Providence
October 6, 2021
Unless indicated otherwise, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
Epigraph & Dedication
With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation. (Isa. 12:3)
For my godchildren.
May you faithfully live out your baptismal calling
and so enter into the joy of the heavenly banquet.
Contents
Endorsements
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Epigraph & Dedication
List of Illustrations
List of Sidebars
Series Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: The Fountain of Salvation
Par t Written for Our Instruction: Water in the Old Testament
1. The Waters of Life
2. The Waters of Death
3. The Waters of Freedom
4. The Waters of Purity
Part The Substance Belongs to Christ: Baptism in the New Testament
5. Christ, the Model of Baptism
6. Christ, the Source of Baptism
7. Baptism in the Name
8. Dying and Rising with Christ
9. Being Clothed with Christ
10. Baptism and New Birth
12. Baptismal Unity
Conclusion: Salvation through Worship
Appendix: Infant Baptism
Suggested Resources
Selected Bibliography
Subject Index
Scripture and Other Ancient Sources Index
Back Cover
Illustrations
Figure 1. Baptistery mosaic in a church in Henchir Sokrine, near Lamta (Leptis Minor)
Figure 2. Johannine water scenes in the Baptistery of Santa Restituta, Naples
Sidebars
The Life-Giving Power of Water
The Biblical Theology of Baptisteries
Baptismal Water Everywhere
Why Fear to Cross the Red Sea?
The Sign of Jonah
The Song of Souls to Be Purified
Entering the Promised Land through Baptism
Miqvaot in First-Century Israel
The Purifying Waters of Baptism
The Iconography of Christs Baptism
Anointed to Bring Good News to the Poor
Johannine Water Themes in Ancient Baptisteries and Homilies
Baptized into the Sent One
From the Side of Christ
The High Priesthood and the Divine Name
Baptized in the Name of the Ineffable God
A Watery Tomb
Baptism Is the Cross
Stripping Off the Passions
An Interior Clothing
The Priesthood of All Believers
Baptism as Priestly Anointing
Baptism and Overcoming Oppositions
Baptism and Racial Reconciliation
Series Preface
But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
John 19:34 (ESV)
The arresting image of Jesuss pierced side has fed the spiritual imagination of countless believers over the centuries. The evangelist tells us that it took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled (John 19:36 ESV). Extending this line of thought, St. Thomas Aquinas goes so far as to compare the opened heart of Christ to the Scriptures as a whole, for the passion reveals the secret depths of Gods trinitarian love latent in the Word, both written and incarnate. The Fathers of the ChurchLatin, Greek, and Syriac alikealso saw in the flow of blood and water a symbol of the sacraments of Christian worship. From the side of Christ, dead on the cross, divine life has been dispensed to humanity. The side of Christ is the fount of the divine life that believers receive, by Gods grace, through the humble, human signs of both Word and Sacrament.
Recognition of the life-giving symbiosis between Scripture and sacrament, so richly attested in the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, has proved difficult to maintain in the modern world. However much the Church has insisted upon the unity of Word and Sacrament, the faithful are not always conscious of this connection, so there is great need for a deeper investigation of the relationship between word and sacrament in the Churchs pastoral activity and in theological reflection (Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini 53). This series seeks to contribute to that deeper investigation by offering a biblical theology of each of the seven sacraments.