Scot McKnight - It Takes a Church to Baptize: What the Bible Says about Infant Baptism

As someone who grew up Baptist and has wrestled deeply with questions about infant baptism, I wish I could have read this book years ago. McKnight has given the church an enduring gifta book that is theologically rich, serious, and steeped in tradition yet accessible and readable. As a mother of young children and as a priest, I will put this book in the hands of many a friend and parishioner. If you are a parent deciding whether to baptize infant children, this book is essential reading.

Tish Harrison Warren , priest in the ACNA, co-associate rector (Church of the Ascension Pittsburgh), and author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Able, strong, wise, and biblically and theologically richthats pretty much the case with anything Scot McKnight writes. And here he goes again, this time on the subject of infant baptism. There are a great number of confusions and misunderstandings about infant baptism that Scot thoughtfully clarifies. So even if you dont end up being convinced, you will know why people like Scot (and me) think it is a practice essential for proper Christian discipleship.

Mark Galli , editor in chief, Christianity Today

Scot McKnight provides a controversial though ultimately compelling case for infant baptism. He narrates his own journey from previously holding to believers baptism as an Anabaptist to now settling on infant baptism as an Anglican. McKnight offers here a robust biblical defense of infant baptism. But it is not just the who and how of baptism that he tackles; the genius of this book is that McKnight elegantly explains what baptism is even about, what it means, what it does for the recipient, and why it really does take a church to baptize a child. Read it with caution: this book could change your whole view of conversion, faith, family, childrens ministry, and the church!

Michael F. Bird , Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia

In It Takes a Church to Baptize , Scot McKnight offers the most compelling case for infant baptism available today. Not content to sprinkle with prooftexts, McKnight immerses his reader in the biblical, historical, and sacramental theology of this ancient Christian practice, and seals it with a testimony of how his mind was changed. Read this bookand remember your baptism!

Joel Scandrett , Robert E. Webber Center, Trinity School for Ministry

Somebody has needed to write this book for some time, but maybe we were waiting for Scot McKnight. It Takes a Church to Baptize is just the right prescription for many Christians drawn to more deeply rooted expressions of the Christian faith but facing an obstacle of conscience: Yes, eventually the church came to baptize infants, but can such a practice possibly be biblical? What, if anything, does that action actually accomplishor does it merely signify? Having been on this journey himself, McKnight offers a more-than-biblical account of these and other questions, not merely with a scorecard of exegetical skirmishes but with a holistic biblical theology rendering the people of God and rehearsing the actions of a saving God. This finally will be the book I recommend to Christians asking these questions.

Garwood P. Anderson , Nashotah House Theological Seminary