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Early Christian Baptism and the Catechumenate: West and East Syria. By THOMAS M. FINN. Message of the Fathers of the Church 5. Collegeville, Minn.: Michael Glazier and The Liturgical Press, 1992. xiv + 218 pp. $17.95.
Defining baptism as "the hinge upon which Christian identity turns," the author, in keeping with the purpose of this series, proposes that only by grasping the ancient understanding of baptism can one "understand what the rite discloses . . . today." Yet although baptism was the sine qua non of belonging to the church, it was enacted differently in different parts of the Christian world and received various interpretations as it developed. Thus this is only the first of two volumes anthologizing early Christian baptismal instructions, catechesis, and theological discourses, and its compass is remarkably broad. The second volume (volume 6 in the series) includes documents from Italy, North Africa, and Egypt.
Finn sets out to let the documents speak for themselves, presenting long portions of texts preceded by short introductions...