Baptism in the Theology of Martin Luther

This text provides a comprehensive survey of Martin Luther of baptism. The mature Luther was unstinting in praise on baptism. How does his vigorously expressed sacramental understanding sit with his earlier reformation insights? What is its impact upon justification, faith, conversion, the Church? The tensions and paradoxes are examined. Analysis of formal doctrine is complemented by a picture of baptism in action , culled mainly from the Lectures on Genesis . Baptism’s present tense is central - its abiding force in the Christian’s life, ever available for an encounter with God. His insistence that Christian progress is not onwards from baptism, but a repeated return to it, emerges from the heart of Luther’s thought.