16 - The baptist sects

Summary

PROBLEM OF DEFINITIONS AND SOURCES

Scholars have come to apply the term ‘baptist sects’ to a series of phenomena in the post-biblical (‘early Jewish’) and early Christian phases of religious history. The most comprehensive monograph written on the subject to date is, in fact, entitled Le mouvement baptiste en Palestine et Syrie (150 av. J-C–300 ap. J-C). The meaning and legitimacy of such a title are indeed, arguable, depending on one's interpretation of ‘baptism’ and of its liturgical significance in a religious community. Not every community practising immersion, of whatever form, is a ‘baptist sect’. The act of baptism must occupy a central place in its ritual, that is, should be more than a preparatory ceremony, and must bear a special significance in the beliefs of the sect. One may also think in terms of the ceremony as a sacrament, different from the common and widespread rites of lustration or ablution, even if this is not apparent in mere externals. The ceremony commonly takes the form of partial or total immersion of the believer in ‘flowing’ (that is, running) water, so the expression ‘bath of immersion’ or baptism (baptisma) is quite in order. The periodic repetition of this ceremony is certainly a distinctive feature of the typical ‘baptist sects’, but is not necessarily their principal characteristic, since a single celebration – in its central role referred to above – may be a sufficient hallmark of a community which has, in this very respect, cut itself off from a larger community, that is, become a sect. Most representatives of these movements are both ‘sectarian’ and ‘heretical’.