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Living Water: Images, Symbols, and Settings of Early Christian Baptism
An interdisciplinary study of the practice and purpose of early Christian baptism as it is depicted in pictorial art and as it was practiced in-built structures, this book integrates physical remains with literary evidence for the early Christian initiation rite.
333 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 19, 2010
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About the author
Robin M. Jensen
29 books4 followersRobin M. Jensen (PhD, Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary) is Luce Chancellor’s Professor of the History of Christian Art and Worship at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She has authored several books, including Face to Face: Portraits of the Divine in Early Christianity and Understanding Early Christian Art.
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July 11, 2020
A truly fascinating study.
"If the symbolism of baptism and the decoration of a baptistery were to be summed and seen as a totality, rather than as many smaller symbolic units, its emphasis is on this very transformation: from death to life and from Adam and Eve's expulsion from Paradise to their triumphant reentry.
This is expressed in the symbolism of the ogdoad, the iconography of the women at the empty tomb, the starry sky, the processions of saints, and the lush images of birds, flowers, fruit, trees, and bubbling springs that one would expect to find in Eden. These visual images paralleled with the administration of baptism at daybreak in living water that was poured over naked bodies (mostly of infants!). Fresh from their cleansing bath and robed in white garments like brides or swaddled babes, the new members of the flock carried their lit candles into the church to receive their first food: the promised food of milk and honey."
"If the symbolism of baptism and the decoration of a baptistery were to be summed and seen as a totality, rather than as many smaller symbolic units, its emphasis is on this very transformation: from death to life and from Adam and Eve's expulsion from Paradise to their triumphant reentry.
This is expressed in the symbolism of the ogdoad, the iconography of the women at the empty tomb, the starry sky, the processions of saints, and the lush images of birds, flowers, fruit, trees, and bubbling springs that one would expect to find in Eden. These visual images paralleled with the administration of baptism at daybreak in living water that was poured over naked bodies (mostly of infants!). Fresh from their cleansing bath and robed in white garments like brides or swaddled babes, the new members of the flock carried their lit candles into the church to receive their first food: the promised food of milk and honey."
Displaying 1 of 1 review