The Borders of Baptism: Identities, Allegiances, and the Church

by Michael L. Budde

It's a simple claim, really - that for Christians, "being a Christian" should be their primary allegiance and identity. For those who proclaim Jesus as Lord, this identity should supersede all others, and this loyalty should trump all lesser ones. It may be a simple claim, but it is a controversial one for many people, Christians and non-Christians alike.
The Borders of Baptism uses the idea of solidarity among Christians as a lens through which to view politics, economics, and culture. It offers Christians a fresh perspective capable of moving beyond sterile and dead-end debates typical of debates on issues ranging from immigration and race to war, peace, and globalization.
The Borders of Baptism invites Christians of all traditions to reflect on the theological and political implications of first "being a Christian" in a world of rival loyalties. It invites readers to see what it might mean to be members of a community broader than the largest nation-state; more pluralistic than any culture in the world; more deeply rooted in the lives of the poor and marginalized than any revolutionary movement; and more capable of exemplifying the notion of e pluribus unum than any empire past, present, or futur

Genres: Theology, Politics

204 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2011

Reviews

[Brian Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about allegiances and the church - a good balance between hope and lament - where the church went wrong and when it shines.

One term was interesting - "Instrumentalist' - that when the church bows and becomes a tool of the state. (pg 66)

"Christians follow a most unusual sort of king, one who disarmed his followers and made them part of a body wider and larger than any nation, more pluralistic than any state, and committed to the audacious notion that a community can be constituted by forgiveness and mutuality instead of by force and violence."

[Alexander Pyles · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Reveiw forthcoming**

[Adam Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one gets four stars, but only just. The book ended up being not entirely what I expected, but good enough in its own right. I got it on its premise that if the Church is really supposed to be the Church, it must seek to form the identities, allegiances and loyalties of its parishioners to be above all other loyalties to economics or nationalisms. I was anticipating that the book would be a demonstration of this position, running through the theology of baptism as constitutive of our elevated loyalty to the city (polis) of God. Instead, the book mostly assumes this position and acts in accordance with it, outlining various issues in which our loyalties between Church on the one hand and nationalism or market on the other. Some of the middling chapters are not as fully engaged as they could be, or did not cover the issue in as thorough a fashion as hoped, but it shaped up in the later chapters as he analyzed the challenges of globalism, corporatism and managerial practices invading church leadership, and nationalism. The final chapters discuss the issue of the martyr and anti-martyr (the Christian who betrays his suffering for loyalty to the church in exchange for loyalty to the state), and then the issue of rival claims over death and its liturgical formation. The Church is given the power over death in the power of the resurrection, but particularly Americanism tries to set itself up as a rival to this power with its liturgical claims of sacrifice for nation and empire.

All in all, this is a challenging and important book for Christians to read, to reconsider how much of their loyalties are already and unknowingly surrendered to rival and foreign loyalties. Occasionally his aggressive anti-Constantinianism gets the better of him, and his focus is primarily the Roman Catholic church, but it is all equally applicable to the wider Church.