I recently chatted with a person who was perplexed by the practice of infant baptism in my church. The big issue wasn't that infants were baptized (although this was an issue as well), it was that my church uses sprinkling rather than full-immersion baptism. My immediate response was, "Well, I don't think we're going to practice full-immersion baptism on infants."
But as reflected on it later, my question should have been, "Do you prefer wine instead of grape juice during the Lord's Supper?"
Addendum
Speaking of Sacraments, can anyone define exactly what Paul McCain means by "Crypto- Calvinism" in regard to the Lord's Supper? I have my own ideas as to what he means, but since the comments section is closed, I'll have to simply guess.
The liturgy for the Lord's Supper used in my church is far more (John) Calvinist than (Ulrich) Zwinglian. So, when McCain refers to "Crypto-Calvinism", I'm wondering if he simply means anything that doesn't sound Lutheran.
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5 comments:
Crypto-Calvinist is a term for people within the Lutheran tradition who affirm the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran tradition, i.e the Book of Concord, but understand them with a Calvinistic bent. This is in reference especially to the sacraments.
Now, James, you know me well enough to know I'm not THAT stupid!
: )
Andrew got it pretty much right.
Crypto-Calvinism refers specifically to the period of time after Luther's death to the adoption of the Formula of Concord in 1574 when there were professors and teachers in the German Lutheran Church that had embraced views on the Supper that were in line with Calvin's spiritualizing of the Real Presence, the whole "my soul ascends to feed on Christ but my mouth eats only bread and wine." etc. etc.
You can always read more about this in a particularly good edition of The Lutheran Confessions:
http://www.cph.org/concordia
That's what I thought you meant Paul.
I was thinking of sneaking into a few Lutheran churches over the weekend, and wanted to be sure I didn't get caught. :)
By the way, Gene Veith has an interesting article at the top of his blog, a review of Steven D. Paulson's Lutheran Theology.
James, bring some green-jello or a "hot dish" for the pot luck. They wont suspect a thing. Beware. The coffee will be terrible. Drink it anyway and don't let on that its killing you inside. And last but certainly not least, DO NOT draw ANY attention to yourself at any time. Doing so would certainly give you away. We Lutherns don't cotton to that kind of thing. Observe these simple cautionary tips and you will go undetected.
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