Followers of many religions all over the world find themselves trying to discern the greater significance behind their devotional practices. “Ritual for ritual’s sake” is often decried, regardless of whether the message comes from a Muslim imam, a Christian minister, a Lukumi priestess, or an Asatru gydhja. Yet with a ubiquitous practice such as baptism, the act can take on a wide variety of meanings depending on an individual’s personal motivations for participating in the rite.
Baptism in Non-Christian Contexts
Some point to the Jewish practice of tevilah, a custom in which one immerses in a bath for ritual purification, as a possible precursor to Christian baptism. Nevertheless, the basic idea of water as a cleansing force is present in several cultures and belief systems throughout both ancient and modern human history. For example, the ceremonial sprinkling of water is mentioned in the Roman historian Apuleius’s descriptions of Isis mystery initiation rites. Sprinkling water over newborn infants may have also been a common custom in pre-Christian Norse cultures.
The Oxford Reference review reveals a few kinds of ancient Greek purification practices involving the use of water. These included ritualistic bathing by worshippers inside temples and the washing or sprinkling of objects with water from the ocean or sacred springs. BBC Religions describes the Amrit Sanskar, a Sikh rite in which believers are initiated. During this ceremony, the initiate drinks from a bowl of sugar and water that has been stirred by a double-edged sword. In some cases, the mixture is also sprinkled on the person’s eyes and hair.
Christianity and Baptism
According to the Pew Research Center’s last available estimates, around 70 percent of Americans identify as Christian, and most hail from denominations that practice some form of baptism. A few Christian movements do not practice baptism as a sacrament for a variety of reasons:
- Quakers, who dismiss the need for outward sacraments in one’s spiritual life
- The Salvation Army, whose founders stressed the importance of spiritual grace
- Hyperdispensationalists, who mostly reject the custom because it’s not discussed in any of Saint Paul’s epistles
The Bible’s New Testament uses Greek words such as “baptismos” or “baptisma” to describe either the practice itself or the state of being baptized. The Bible Encyclopedia divulges that both come from the verbs “bapto” and “baptizo,” but the latter emphasizes the act of changing an object’s nature by immersing it in liquid. These usages and meanings are radically different than “katharmoi,” a pre-Christian Hellenic term referring to all ritualistic purification customs regardless of whether they include water.
Baptism’s Significance in Modern Times
Today, baptism can take on both ritualistic and deeper spiritual meanings. It can be a key element in rites that initiate individuals into the faiths of their choosing. Examples include infant christenings in many Christian denominations, some adult Christian baptisms, and Sikh Amrit Sanskar ceremonies. In other contexts, it can stand for purification. While the debates over its theological significance can become heated amongst evangelical Protestants, many cite a passage in the Book of Acts that reads, “Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name,” as evidence that baptism is linked to the cleansing away of sin. On a personal level, some Christians view their baptism ceremonies as demarcation lines between their old lives and living in their newly adopted faiths.
A quick study of our history and religions exposes a vast range of purification and initiation customs involving the use of water. Christian baptism is just one contemporary example, but other practices have existed in many cultures since the dawn of humanity. Doctrine and dogma may explain the reasons for these acts, but the individuals engaging in them often assign their own personal meanings.
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