Baptism
Baptism is a Christian rite using water to signify entry into or commitment to the faith. Churches differ over its meaning, recipients, and method.
Trinitarian formula: The baptismal wording “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” drawn from Matthew 28:19. Many churches use this wording when administering baptism.
Infant baptism: The baptism of infants, practiced in many Christian traditions as a sign of grace and incorporation into the church. It raises the question of how baptism relates to personal faith and parental commitment.
John the Baptist: A Jewish preacher who baptized people in the Jordan River and proclaimed repentance before Jesus’s ministry. His baptism is the immediate historical model named in accounts of Jesus’s baptism.
Christian initiation: The rites and practices through which a person becomes incorporated into Christian faith and community. Baptism is a central element of Christian initiation, though traditions structure it differently.
Repentance: A turning away from sin and toward God, central to Christian accounts of moral and spiritual change. John’s baptism joined immersion with a call to repentance.
Immersion baptism: A form of baptism in which the candidate is submerged in water, wholly or partly. Submersion makes burial and rising with Christ visible through the rite’s action.
Believer's baptism: The practice of baptizing people who personally profess Christian faith, rather than infants. It contrasts with infant baptism over whether a personal profession should precede the rite.
Baptism of Jesus: The event in which John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, recounted in the Gospels. The event became a foundational narrative for Christian baptism.
Confirmation: A Christian rite that strengthens or publicly affirms baptismal faith, with meaning and timing varying by tradition. Some churches separate confirmation from baptism as a later stage of initiation.
Christian conversion: A person's turn toward Christian faith, whether sudden or gradual, and the changes associated with that commitment. Baptism can publicly mark conversion, though churches differ on how the two relate.