Hıristiyanlıkta Bebek Vaftizinin Meşruiyeti Üzerine Tartışmalar
Debates on the Legitimacy of Infant Baptism in Christianity

Summary/Abstract: One of the theological disagreements in Christianity is the legitimacy of infant bap-tism. It was not discussed in the early period of Christianity. Nevertheless, it is one of the problems that have been debated especially since the post-reform period. Debates about in-fant baptism create differences in Christianity. Churches accepting infant baptism, especially the Catholic Church, acknowledge it as a tradition that has been practiced for thousands of years. According to them, children were baptized by Jesus and the Church Fathers kept doing this ritual. However, most of the Protestant Churches, like Anabaptists, criticize infant bap-tism as it does not happen based on free will. They claim that such people should get baptized again. According to them, Jesus did not baptize infants and the biblical texts, which are shown as a source of infant baptism, indicate that either Jesus blessed babies or baptized adults. Therefore, theological debates about infant baptism have continued in Christianity. The arti-cle discusses the historical process of infant baptism and the arguments presented by differ-ent groups about this discussion. The main framework of the article is the discussions be-tween groups about biblical texts and religious identification, especially the post-reform pe-riod. Infant baptism is an important issue because it includes modern discussions about dif-ferences among churches, Bible interpretation, will, and mind. Since there is no specific study on infant baptism in our country, we can say that the article will contribute to the studies of the history of religions.

• Details
• Contents