One Baptism—One Church?

Kimberly Hope Belcher is associate professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, in liturgical studies. She uses sacramental and liturgical theology and ritual theory to study Christian worship. She represents the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the Methodist-Catholic, Episcopal-Catholic, and Pentecostal-Catholic dialogues in the United States. Her related publications include “Ritual Techniques in Affliction Rites and the Lutheran-Catholic ecumenical Liturgy of Lund, 2016” (Yearbook for Ritual and Liturgical Studies, 2022), “Ritual Systems: Prostration, Self, and Community in the Rule of Benedict” (Ecclesia Orans, 2020), and Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism: From Thanksgiving to Communion (Cambridge, 2020).  Nathan P. Chase (1990-2025) was assistant professor of liturgical and sacramental theology at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. He contributed articles to the field of liturgical studies, including pieces on liturgy in the early Church, initiation, the Eucharist, inculturation, and the Western Non-Roman Rites, particularly the Hispano-Mozarabic tradition. With Maxwell E. Johnson, he co-authored The Apostolic Tradition: Its Origins, Development, and Liturgical Practices (Liturgical Press, 2025), and The Origins of the Canons of Hippolytus (Liturgical Press, 2024). He was the author of The Homiliae Toletanae and the Theology of Lent and Easter (Peeters, 2020) and The Anaphoral Tradition in the ‘Barcelona Papyrus’ (Brepols, 2023).  Alexander Turpin is a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, and a doctoral candidate in liturgical studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. His dissertation focuses on the reception of non-Orthodox Christians into the Eastern Orthodox Church. Other scholarly interests include liturgical reform and renewal as well as liturgical history, especially in the Roman and Byzantine traditions. Some of his recent publications on these topics are “The Tridentine Genius of Traditionis Custodes” (Ecclesia Orans, 2021), “The Archaeology of Tradition: Theological Implications of Liturgiewissenschaft” (Antiphon, 2023), and “The Super Oblata Euchology of the Early Roman Mass: Divine-Human Exchange in a Local Eucharist” (Ecclesia Orans, 2024).

• ContentsAcknowledgments   viiiAbbreviations   ixChapter OneEcumenism and the Reception of Christians from Other Churches   1Introduction   1“One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism”   4Receptive Ecumenism and Growth in Communion   8The Social Dimensions of Church Communities   12Chapter TwoThe Historical Foundations   23Foundational Dispute: Cyprian and Stephen   23Mary Douglas and Cultural Theory   38Chapter ThreeClarifying the Debate: From Cyprian and Stephen to the First Liturgical Witnesses   47Trinitarian Baptism in East and West   48 The Eighth-Century Emergence of Liturgical Texts   63Chapter FourRebaptism and Canonical Reinterpretation   67Trouble in Bulgaria: The Ninth-Century Conflict between East and West   67Late Medieval and Early Modern Developments   77“Arians, Heretics, and Apostates”: The Western Liturgical Books of the Middle Ages  79East-West Relations in the “Medieval” Period   90Chapter FiveSettling into Schisms   99Early Modern Period (Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries)   100Historical and Ritual Conclusions   114Interlude: Other Eastern Churches   120Chapter SixEcumenical Revisions: The Twentieth Century, Today, and the Future   125East   126West   128Post–Vatican II Reforms   134Theological and Ecumenical Conclusions   143Best Practices Using the Current Liturgical Book   155Toward a New Liturgical Rite   167 AppendixA Proposed Order of Reception into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church of Those Already Validly Baptized   173Index   193

"Despite the massive strides in ecumenical dialogue that have taken place between East and West, and among the western churches, there are still a number of 'allergic' issues that show how few steps we have actually taken. These issues are often not very visible. They are akin to hidden landmines, but once trod upon they can explode. One such is the question of the recognition of baptism: this comes to the fore when someone moves from one church to another. This book faces up squarely to this problem and offers a way forward—it is an important contribution to mutual understanding and, perhaps, ecumenical progress."Thomas O'Loughlin, professor emeritus of historical theology, The University of Nottingham