For the exam, the following is the minimum you would want to know about Baptism (though, of course, you would not need to know the entire quote).

• Baptism is a ritual marking a person’s entry into the Christian life.

• Nearly all Christians recognise the importance of this ritual, but how and when they perform it varies between denominations.

• Here, we examine three different perspectives on how and when baptism should be conducted.

Infant Baptism

• Catholic Christians baptise people soon after their birth, usually by sprinkling them with water.

• The Catechism notes that ‘The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching, when whole "households" received baptism, infants may also have been baptised’ (1993, par. 1252).

• They argue that if the people who were so close in time to Jesus himself baptised infants, then it must be an acceptable practice.

Believer’s Baptism

• Baptist Christians baptise people after they have committed to the faith, usually by dunking them in water.

• The Baptist Faith and Message explains that baptism is ‘an act of obedience symbolising the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead’ (2000, par. 7).

• Since people need to understand the faith before they can be baptised, Baptists do not baptise infants, but only older children and adults.

Baptism of the Spirit

• Quaker Christians do not practise water baptism at all.

• Quaker Faith and Practice explains, ‘Our understanding of baptism is that it is not a single act of initiation but a continuing growth in the Holy Spirit and a commitment which must continually be renewed. It is this process which draws us into a fellowship with those who acknowledge the same power at work in their lives, those whom Christ is calling to be his body on earth’ (2014, 27.40).

• They mean that baptism is a continual working of the Holy Spirit, not a single ritual; indeed, to ritualise it is to try and control the Spirit.

References

• 'Baptist Faith and Message'. 2000. Southern Baptist Convention <https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/> [accessed 7 June 2026]

• Catechism of the Catholic Church. 1993. Holy See <https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3K.HTM> [accessed 7 June 2026]

• Quaker Faith and Practice, 5th ed. 2014. Quakers in Britain <https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/27-40/> [accessed 7 June 2026]