The Role of Confirmation in Christian Initiation

Abstract

The relation between baptism, chrismation, and first communion has developed differently in different denominations. An important characteristic of this development is the establishment of confirmation as a separate rite during medieval times. Despite Luther’s being skeptical toward confirmation, which he considered a human invention with Semipelagian connotations, it was adopted for catechetical purposes by Martin Bucer, partly as a compromising gesture toward the Anabaptists. Today, confirmation is a well-established rite of passage with a theologically complicated history administered within a context where a new awareness of the rites of initiation in the early church has opened old debates concerning chrismation, confirmation, and the communion of infants. The article investigates how a knowledge of this history can help us develop an ecumenically relevant theology of confirmation and catechesis carried by a strong understanding of baptism as the undisputed rite of Christian initiation.