Historical Origins And Development Of Confirmation

Large dioceses in northern Europe during the early Middle Ages made it difficult for bishops to be present at the baptism of infants. Gradually a two-part initiation process emerged spanning the period from infancy to late childhood. With increased emphasis on catechism during the Reformation era, confirmation became a rite of passage for adolescents who had been properly instructed in the faith. Whether to admit baptized but unconfirmed children to the Eucharist became a great problem.

History Baptism is described in the book of Acts as a simple water rite, accomplished as soon as a convert showed unmistakable signs of faith. Some New Testament literature uses imagery other than water imagery, interpreting baptism in terms such as anointing, passage from darkness to light, or reclothing. Did these images grow from ritual practices which were already in place in the first century? Or were they parts of the poetry of becoming a Christian, which helped bring non-water ritual actions into use quite early? In either case, by the late second century, baptism was associated with pre- and postbaptismal acts which brought to expression initiatory images such as priesthood, royalty, and coronation, soldiering and combat, and athletic contest. The actions of Christian initiation were not uniform throughout the church. There was a prebaptismal anointing in Syria, but no postbaptismal anointing. Elsewhere, a postbaptismal anointing was common. In Milan, the feet of the newly baptized were washed. In all parts of the early church, baptism (which was ordinarily only at Easter) led at once to the first receiving of the Holy Communion. In the East, baptism was and still is followed by an anointing (called chrismation) by the minister of baptism, which leads immediately to the Holy Communion. In most parts of the West in the early centuries, the same pattern prevailed: Easter baptism, anointing, and Eucharist. But in Rome and its immediate vicinity, the anointing of the water by the minister of baptism was followed by an anointing of the forehead of the newly baptized, by the bishop, in the eucharistic room. This second postbaptismal anointing took on meanings associated with royalty and priestliness, and with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. (A prayer for the gifts of the Spirit, based on Isaiah 11:2, became widely used.) Such meanings were not separable from the general initiatory meanings, for the anointing with chrism and the washing in water were parts of a single ritual act. Some early Christian writers, however, began to assign separate meanings to the two actions. They spoke of water baptism as a washing from sin, but anointing acquired a more positive connotation, for it was a divine filling of the anointed person. In the course of time, this distinction led to separation of the two acts. In the early Middle Ages, the dioceses of Northern Europe attempted to follow the model of Rome and the sequence of two postbaptismal anointings (one by the minister of the baptism, and one by the bishop).This practice was also attempted in Gaul, where dioceses were large and bishops often inaccessible. The result was that the second part of Christian initiation (the bishop's part), when it was performed at all, was administered some years after baptism. The second anointing came to be thought of as a rite of coming of age, to be prepared for by some rudimentary education—perhaps enough to support a first confession. Thus, the West (and only the West) developed a two-stage initiatory rite. Baptism, a rite of infancy, was followed some years later by the bishop's anointing, which came to be called confirmation, a rite of coming of age. By the discipline of the late Middle Ages, entry on the life of a practicing communicant did not follow the first stage, baptism, but followed the second stage, confirmation. This second stage came to be thought appropriate for an age around seven years. The churches of the sixteenth century Reformation inherited this two-stage rite, unaware of how it had evolved. This incremental initiation was continued, with its educational feature (which had been little developed in medieval Catholicism) heightened. Catechisms, for children and for their teachers, were written; clergy added teaching to their expected duties; confirmation became (as it remains in these traditions) an important event for the children, their families, and the congregation. The rite of confirmation seemed a ready-made opportunity for the Reformers, who sought to raise the general level of understanding among Christian people. The Counter-Reformation was also an educational movement. Schools and educational literature multiplied profusely in the Roman communion. The Anabaptists rejected infant baptism because they believed that baptism is properly an act of witness to an engagement with Christ through vital, articulate faith. Consequently, infants, who are incapable of such faith, could not be baptized. Anabaptists brought to baptism only persons who were competent to give an account of their experience (either adult converts or else children of Christian parents who had come to an age of accountability) and who were baptized on profession of faith. The Modern Church These patterns which developed in the sixteenth century have persisted with only minor modifications. The Catholic tradition, following early liturgical understandings, observed the bishop's anointing as a performative sacramental action which bestowed the Holy Spirit. The medieval church added the understanding that the Spirit was given at confirmation for strength for combat under Christ against the world. The Protestant traditions, by contrast, developed (under the same name) a catechetical rite of children entering on adult responsibilities and owning the promises of their baptism. In recent generations, there has been some mingling of these traditions. The Catholic churches (possibly influenced by their parochial school system) have tended to say more about confirmands entering adulthood and making, at confirmation, a responsible self-declaration. At the same time, Protestant churches have come to say more at confirmation about the divine gift and the support and agency of the Holy Spirit. he churches which practiced infant baptism and the confirmation of adolescents permitted full, communicant membership only after confirmation. Baptism was thus incomplete Christian initiation. Children were within the life of the church, but did not feed at the Table of the Lord. The sort of confirmation which developed in the churches of the Reformation was not a sacramental rite, but a catechetical rite. Confirmation did not speak, except quite secondarily, of the gift of the Holy Spirit; it was an occasion of declaring for oneself the promises that had been made on one's behalf by others at baptism. Confirmation was an act made by a Christian who had baptismal vows to reaffirm. Baptism without this confirmation action was patently incomplete; both stages of initiation were required to confer full sacramental standing in the church. The Baptist tradition has stood apart from this two-stage initiatory pattern. This tradition clearly admits one to full, not partial, standing in the church when baptism is administered. However, this tradition has showed considerable awkwardness about the place in the church of the children of believers. Some Baptist groups in recent decades have instituted a service of thanksgiving for and dedication of infants. Birth in a Christian family is significant—for the child, the parents and the congregation. Baptism, however, in the Baptist churches must wait until an age of accountability. Thus, many of the Baptist churches too have developed something like a two-stage initiatory process—perhaps more out of felt pastoral and psychological necessity than out of theological inquiry. Generally speaking, in the Roman and Anglican churches, which have the historic episcopate, the bishop has been, by ancient prerogative, the minister of confirmation. In the Roman tradition, the bishop anoints the confirmands, while in the Anglican tradition, the authorized and sufficient action has been the laying on of hands. (Some Anglican bishops began in the nineteenth century, apart from Prayer Book authorization, to add anointing as an alternative.) The Protestant churches have given the task of confirming to the local pastors, who carry it out by the laying on of hands. Significantly, the Eastern churches know nothing of this two-stage initiatory process; the local priest administers baptism, chrismation, and first Communion to a child a few days after birth. Recent Questions In the second third of this century, significant questions began to be raised about this long-standing pattern. The Catholic insistence on the Holy Spirit as given in confirmation seems to qualify the Trinitarian fullness of baptism. Lack of understanding on the part of an infant was not thought to be a barrier to baptism, yet entry into communicant life was made to depend on knowing what one was doing, and, on the strength of that knowing, being confirmed. Why were the two great sacraments of the gospel treated so differently? Baptism was a sign of grace; Communion had been made a sign of achievement. Is it theologically or biblically defensible to make baptism only partial Christian initiation? Practically, adolescent confirmation placed a somewhat contrived religious crisis at an age which was too early to be truly adult in character and too late to give sacramental support to childhood. Moreover, in modern, secular society, a considerable proportion of adolescents seem to leave active Christian practice within a short time after confirmation. As Christian initiation has been rethought in connection with mid-twentieth century liturgical revisions, these questions have led to changes in understandings, intentions, rites, and practices in many churches.