BMM1503 Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

Code
BMM1503
ECTS
10
Campus
Oslo
Language
English
Startup
Spring
Duration
1 semester

This course focuses on baptism and the Lord’s supper, the two sacraments practiced by most churches worldwide. 
The course is interdisciplinary and has four focuses: 

  1. Analyzing texts from the New Testament on baptism and the Lord’s Supper, including both how baptism and the Lord’s Supper was understood, as well as practiced, in the NT. 
  2. Analyzing various denominational understandings and practices of baptism and the Lord’s Supper in a historical perspective. 
  3. Analyzing how liturgical practices of baptism and the Lord’s supper reflect a systematic understanding of the two sacraments. 
  4. Analyzing the ecumenical endeavours to overcome the theological and practical differences between the churches regarding baptism and the Lord’s supper.

Teaching amounts to 30 hours of classroom instruction and is mainly given through lectures and/or seminars. The classroom experience aims to stimulate you to independent reflection.

Knowledge

The students have:

  • knowledge of Biblical texts that explicitly or implicitly discuss baptism and the Lord’s Supper
  • knowledge of how baptism and the Lord’s Supper have been understood and practiced in the history of the church
  • knowledge of how liturgical practices reflect doctrinal understandings of baptism and the Lord’s Supper
  • knowledge of the ecumenical endeavours to overcome the theological and practical differences between the churches regarding baptism and the Lord’s supper

Skills

The students can:

  • analyse and interpret Biblical texts about baptism and the Lord’s Supper in an informed way
  • use biblical, historical and theological knowledge to discuss how baptism and the Lord’s Supper may be understood and practiced in churches today
  • discuss how new ecumenical studies can contribute to the discussion of baptism and the Lord’s Supper as an ecumenical problem
  • reflect critically on how one’s own denominational presuppositions may inform the understanding and practice of baptism and the Lord’s Supper

To be eligible for final assessment you must:

  • Attend a minimum of 70 % of the lectures (cf. chap. 5.5)

Students who don’t complete the attendance requirement, must retake the course the next time it is offered.

See the document “Attendance Regulations for Fjellhaug International University College” for more details.

All course requirements and exams are individual and are submitted digitally.

Course Requirements:

To receive final assessment, you must:

  1. Visit three different denominations (1. Catholic or Orthodox, 2. Lutheran, and 3. Baptist, Methodist or Pentecostal). Based on each visit you must write a paper where you describe the liturgical practices you observe on either baptism or the Lord’s Supper and analyse how these practices may reflect different theological understandings of either baptism or the Lord’s supper. All three papers need to be on the same topic, either baptism or the Lord’s Supper. The required length of each paper is 500 words.

Deadline for submission is given at the start of the semester but notice that the requirements must be completed not later than two weeks before the exam date.

Final Assessment:

Form of assessment Duration Grading scale
Written Essay 2000 words A-F

Final assessment is based on the written essay. The course and written essay will be graded A-E for pass and F for fail.

In case of “fail”, the students must take a 5-hour written exam in the period for new/postponed exams.

Some readings are available digitally on the school’s learning management system (LMS) and are marked with *.

Baptists and Lutherans In Conversations. A Message to Our Churches. Report of the Joint Commission of the Baptist World Alliance and Lutheran World Federation. McLean: Virginia, 1990. pp. 1344. (31 pages)

Bartels, Ernest (2004): Take Eat, Take Drink. The Lord’s Supper through the Centuries. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, ss. 45-171. (126 pages)

Best, Thomas & Heller, Dagmar (ed.) (1999): Becoming a Christian. The Ecumenical Implications of Our Common Baptism. Faith and Order Paper No. 184. Geneva: WWC Publications, pp. 74-97. (33 pages) https://archive.org/details/wccfops2.191/mode/2up

Cross, Anthony R. (2010): Should We Take Peter at his Word? Recovering a Baptismal Sacramentalism. Oxford: Regent’s Park College, pp. 1-36. (35 pages)

Ferguson, Everett (2009): Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. pp 132-198 (66 pages).

Gaventa, Beverly R. (1983): “‘You Proclaim the Lord’s Death’: 1 Corinthians 11:26 and Paul’s Understanding or Worship”, in RevExp 80 (1983): 377-387. (10 pages)

Smith, Gordon T (ed.) (2008): The Lord’s Supper: Five Views. Downers Grove, IL, IVP Academic, pp. 13149 (136 pages)

Welker, Michael (2000): What Happens in Holy Communion? Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. (192 pages)

Wood, Susan K. (2009): One Baptism. Ecumenical Dimensions of the Doctrine of Baptism. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press (208 pages)

World Council of Churches, Faith and Order Commission (1982): Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Vol 111. Faith and Order Paper). Geneva: World Council of Churches. (33 pages) https://archive.org/details/wccfops2.118

World Council of Churches. One Baptism: Towards Mutual Recognition. A Study Text. (Faith and Order Paper No. 210). https://archive.org/details/wccfops2.217