Archive | 2021
Baptismal Efficacy in Calvin’s Theology
Abstract
Chapter Abstract: This concluding chapter restates the central thesis of the book and summarizes the supporting material from the preceding chapters. The thesis is that when it comes to the three schools of interpretation introduced in chapter 1, Calvin’s doctrine of the efficacy of baptism does not fit exclusively into any one of them. In a lifelong attempt to chart a middle course between Roman Catholic and Zwinglian/Anabaptist views of the sacraments, Calvin constructed a doctrine of baptismal efficacy that displayed elements of all three categories and that carried over into his doctrine of infant baptism and many of the historic Reformed confessions. Aspects of his instrumental approach to baptism underwent change and development over his lifetime but not to the extent that some scholars have suggested. The overall trajectory was one of increasing clarity and refinement of basic themes already present in incipient form in the Institutes of 1536.