{"id":5640,"date":"2021-12-01T02:00:50","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T02:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/?p=5640"},"modified":"2021-12-01T20:11:26","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T20:11:26","slug":"review-to-baptize-or-not-to-baptize-by-sarah-hinlicky-wilson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/review-to-baptize-or-not-to-baptize-by-sarah-hinlicky-wilson\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: To Baptize or Not to\u00a0Baptize by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Rev. Dr. Sarah Hinlicky Wilson is Associate Pastor at Tokyo Lutheran Church in Japan. She has lived, served, and taught in multiple contexts throughout her ministry and brings her curiosity, humor, intelligence, and confessional insights to us through those lenses. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">This book is a compendium of results from a case study method that Wilson used in a two-week course on Lutheran theology she co-founded at the LWB-Zentrum in Wittenberg.\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">To Baptize or Not to Baptize<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0is a \u201cdeliberately provocative\u201d title to synthesize all of what her students knew of the Bible, faith, and theology into one of the core functions of the Christian church on earth &#8212; the practice of baptism.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Those who have worn the yoke of ministry know that it is a vocation full of grey areas.\u00a0All\u00a0the words\u00a0students\u00a0read in seminary,\u00a0all\u00a0the divisions present in our culture and community, and\u00a0all\u00a0the balls and strikes\u00a0those pastors\u00a0call each day makes ministry, as Wilson calls it, \u201ca\u00a0messy business.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">This book is intended to disseminate the harvest of over ten years of reflections among a changing cast of students of theology.\u00a0It\u00a0includes a summa of Lutheran baptismal theology in 40+ pages that makes it worth the price of admission alone.\u00a0The\u00a0latter portion\u00a0of the book\u00a0is given over to a variety of\u00a0case study examples\u00a0from\u00a0Wilson\u2019s ministry as well as\u00a0many\u00a0supplied to her by former students and\u00a0colleagues.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The case studies are divided into three sections:\u00a0Validity,\u00a0Integrity of witness, and\u00a0Safety and\u00a0Permission.\u00a0They range from\u00a0the issue of\u00a0conversions from other faiths or creeds all the way to secret baptisms performed at\u00a0the\u00a0risk of persecution or death.\u00a0Thankfully, Wilson even includes a case study on baptism during epidemic conditions, a question that\u00a0all\u00a0churches\u00a0have\u00a0found themselves pondering since Spring of 2020.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Wilson brings a sharp intellect, an \u201cin the trenches\u201d wit, and a resistance to one-size-fits-all answers to each case.\u00a0 Wilson\u2019s main goal in this book is to a) get the Church out of the business of re-baptizing people and b) take a moment to reflect on why a person may feel the need to be rebaptized in the first place! The old gibbet of re-baptism as a signal sign of the individualism present in Western Christianity must be put on hold; pastors must first ask themselves if they have truly treated the sacrament as the real promise and gift that it is.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I highly recommend this book as a precursor to any serious discussions about baptism or even communion for that matter.\u00a0 As Wilson points out, it is barely worth talking about open communion tables when we do not even have our theology of baptism ironed out.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rev. Dr. Sarah Hinlicky Wilson is Associate Pastor at Tokyo Lutheran Church in Japan. She has lived, served, and taught in multiple contexts throughout her ministry and brings her curiosity, humor, intelligence, and confessional insights to us through those lenses. \u00a0 This book is a compendium of results from a case study method that Wilson [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: To Baptize or Not to\u00a0Baptize by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson - Journal of Lutheran Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/review-to-baptize-or-not-to-baptize-by-sarah-hinlicky-wilson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: To Baptize or Not to\u00a0Baptize by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson - Journal of Lutheran Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rev. Dr. Sarah Hinlicky Wilson is Associate Pastor at Tokyo Lutheran Church in Japan. She has lived, served, and taught in multiple contexts throughout her ministry and brings her curiosity, humor, intelligence, and confessional insights to us through those lenses. \u00a0 This book is a compendium of results from a case study method that Wilson [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/review-to-baptize-or-not-to-baptize-by-sarah-hinlicky-wilson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Lutheran Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-01T02:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-01T20:11:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/01\/Journal_of_Lutheran_Ethics_Logo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"heatherdean\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"heatherdean\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/review-to-baptize-or-not-to-baptize-by-sarah-hinlicky-wilson\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/review-to-baptize-or-not-to-baptize-by-sarah-hinlicky-wilson\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"heatherdean\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#\/schema\/person\/4493166c38ac3d4ed054c77e294df9fe\"},\"headline\":\"Review: To Baptize or Not to\u00a0Baptize by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-01T02:00:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-01T20:11:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/review-to-baptize-or-not-to-baptize-by-sarah-hinlicky-wilson\/\"},\"wordCount\":464,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Book Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/review-to-baptize-or-not-to-baptize-by-sarah-hinlicky-wilson\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/review-to-baptize-or-not-to-baptize-by-sarah-hinlicky-wilson\/\",\"name\":\"Review: To Baptize or Not to\u00a0Baptize by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson - 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