Argument For Infant Baptism

The original argument for infant baptism, and perhaps the one with the most backing is that of original sin. It came about with Augustine, whose whole basis for the practice is built from original sin (Sullivan 3). He stressed that all people are born into the world inheriting the sin of Adam (3). To be baptized is to be cleanse of the original sin that comes with life on earth (3). “Original sin is way of saying we’re born into that web of society that is marked by sin… baptism removes original sin in the sense that it draws us into a different kind of community (Knight-Ridder). Naturally the idea of baptism cleansing a person of sins did not sit well with Protestants, and even some Catholics. On the outset, it seemed like the Catholic Church …show more content…
Because Augustine believed that every child was born with an original sin, he also believed that any child who died unbaptized would be sentenced to an eternity in hell (Sullivan 3). Infant mortality was high and happened without warning, and those who fell victim, whether through illness, miscarriage, stillborn birth, or abortion, could not be baptized post-modem (Jungmann and Stasiak 67). Parents lived with this horrible reality until Thomas Aquinas and Peter Abelard began to teach a less harsh view of infant death (Sullivan 3-4). They argued that children who died unbaptized would not go to hell, but would be caught in what has been term limbo (3-4). Children in limbo were by no means suffering in the fires of hell or even unhappy, but were simply not able to partake in the “beatific vision of God” (3-4). While this view was certainly more humane, it still cared a heavy weight with it. Regardless of main intentions, it is hard for a parent to not baptize their child with everything that is at stake. The Catholic Church as tried to “[emphasize] that the Church baptizes infants in hope of What they are to become as children of God, and not, primarily, out of fear of what might happen to them not baptized (Stasiak 70), however, it is almost impossible to not see the influence this fear has over the …show more content…
One must take the faith as their own, and not their family’s. Protestants would argue that the meaning of baptism is lost when one does it for the benefit of another. “One must come to baptism by an active deed, and without that deed baptism becomes an objective act of the Church in which the relation between faith and baptism is broken” (Berkouwer 166). When one comes to baptism for reasons other than a personal taking on of the faith, as infant do in the Catholic Church as they are unable to take on any faith of their own, the act is rendered for show (166). Infant baptism was likened by one Protestant writer to the minister preforming the baptism sticking his own head into the baptismal in place of the child’s (George). The principle of choosing to accept the faith is what makes the baptism meaningful (George). Without it, the act becomes as non-personal and ineffective as the minister taking on the baptism himself