LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

HOGG: SCHLEIERMACHER’S DOCTRINE OF BAPTISM 21
damnamus of Augustana IX. He holds that fellowship with the Baptists
would be possible provided they recognise that infant Baptism is not
absolutely invalid “when supplemented by confirmation”. 29
As implied earlier, for Schleiermacher the normal candidate for
Baptism was the adult; thus he had to explain whence came the custom of
paedobaptism. He lists four reasons for infant Baptism’s appearance in the
life of the church:
1. The desire to include Christian children who had died before the age
of instruction in the people of God.
2. To make the church more responsible for the children of parents
unable to implement congregational obligations.
3. To separate Christian youth from Jewish and pagan youth.
4. The comfort that children thus brought would not miss the Spirit’s
nurturing care. 30
He finds no biblical ground for infant Baptism, and says in a practical way
that it should be the decision of each household whether to baptise their
children or wait until they were older.
Moving on to consider paedobaptism from the sphere of the
individual’s relationship to God, Schleiermacher denies that infants have
faith.
… infant baptism is the same as any other baptism which has erroneously
been imparted prior to the full faith of the person baptised and yet is
valid; only, its proper efficacy is suspended until the person baptised has
really become a believer. 31
This again points out what has been noted before, that Schleiermacher
denies that infants can believe. And why can children not believe The
answer is tied up with Schleiermacher’s view of both sin and grace as
conscious states in man. Indeed, original sin itself cannot be viewed as
resulting from the sin of Adam and Eve; Schleiermacher focuses in on the
sociological side of original sin, 32 children lacking consciousness of Godforgetfulness
and the consciousness of its being solved in the Redeemer:
... [J]ust as we cannot suppose that before baptism children are subject to
misery due to a consciousness of sin which is growing into penitence, we
cannot after baptism ascribe to them blessedness due to a dawning sense
of divine sonship. 33
29 Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith 638.
30 Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, summary of pages 634-35.
31 Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith 636.
32 Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith 282ff., 292.
33 Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith 635.