Case for Infant Baptism

by Colin Buchanan

Colin Buchanan's original booklet, A Case for Infant Baptism was published in 1973, and it went through four editions, and remained in print for nearly 35 years. It became a leading resource in places where the rightness of baptizing infants was doubted. Now Colin Buchanan has rewritten the booklet, still presenting the same case, but taking note of discussion in the intervening years, and updating it accordingly.

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1973

Reviews

[C. John Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is booklet number 20 in the Grove Press Ministry and Worship Series, and the second to deal with infant baptism. Ah for the days when issues such as should infants be baptized and when should communion be taken before confirmation were the most serious issues facing the Anglican Church (or any other denomination for that matter). The intention of the author in this volume is to make the case that infant baptism was the norm in the early church and thus should be the norm today. This in opposition to the argument that baptism should not be extended to infants, but only those who are capable of belief in Christ. Mr. Buchanan, to my mind, makes his case eloquently and forcefully. He is able to show how both the New Testament evidence and the evidence from other sources make the case that infant baptism was practiced in the early church as far back as the New Testament times. He also points out the weakness of the opposition argument, and that how it is often forced to twist the evidence into knots to make its case. An interesting volume on what is still an ongoing issue in the Christian church as a whole, just one that has been overtaken by other issues to the extent it is not as prominent as it once was.