교육의 장으로서의 세례와 세례교육

Abstract

To be a Christian is to be baptized. However, baptismal rituals tendto be simper and more convenient in many of the contemporary Koreanchurches, whose goal has been none other than their ceaseless growthin numbers in terms of active or aggressive mission programs. Nonetheless, a qualification to wholly participate in a Christian worship,which consists of the Word and Sacraments, can be given only by beingbaptized. As a matter of fact, it is not acknowledged that baptism is anunique and singular event in Christian life, and thus even sincereChristians often regard it as a passing rite. Hae-Jung Park criticizes such a trend of the age as “an instantizationof faith” and “casualization of faith”, and, in this vein, he emphasizes“the recovery of the theological, biblical and historical meanings ofbaptism for Protestant Church today” as “the supreme value that thecontemporary Protestant church has to revive.”This article aims at a new Christian acknowledgment of baptism andcatechism as fields of education, in which Christian identity is formedfor the first time and in terms of which church finds its ground. Traditionally, baptism had consisted of catechism, baptism and initiation,but catechism has been reduced, and initiation has become muchsimpler. In face of this modern trend of religious life in which ourreligiosity has instant-ized and casual-ized, this article wants to reflectupon the meaning of baptism and to seek for a religious-educational meaning of catechism. Then, this paper introduces a baptismal program of Manna MethodistChurch whose subject title is “Children Baptismal Camp - Born Again.”The program takes a form of camping overnight during which it offersparticipants a chance to experience the real meaning of baptism byhaving them participate in their first Eucharist after their baptism. Such a ritualistic surroundings makes the camp experience an uniqueand singular event for their subsequent lives. This model of “baptismalcamp” challenges the common sense of Korean churches whoseeducation model for baptism and catechism has been devised for adulteducation. This baptismal camp model could be an example that achurch develops some models for baptism and catechism pertain to itsactuality and context and transforms them into the fields of education.