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Affusion
Affusion is a method of baptism where water is poured on the head of the person being baptized. The word "affusion" comes from the Latin affusio, meaning "to pour on".[1] Affusion is one of four methods of baptism used by Christians, which also include total submersion baptism, partial immersion baptism, and aspersion or sprinkling.[2][3][4][5]
Christian denominations which baptize by affusion do not deny the legitimacy of baptizing by submersion or immersion; rather, they consider that affusion is a sufficient, if not necessarily preferable, method of baptism. Affusion and aspersion tend to be practiced by Christian denominations that also practice infant baptism. This may be due to the practical difficulties and dangers of drowning and hypothermia associated with totally immersing an infant in cold water. However, Eastern Orthodox and some Roman Catholics practice infant immersion (though because of their different theology of original sin and historically different beliefs about the eternal fate of infants who die before baptism, Eastern Orthodox usually delay baptism until the infant is at least 40 days old, which considerably lessens the dangers of immersion). Amish, Old Order Mennonites, and Conservative Mennonites still practice baptism by pouring.
- ^ "Affusion" Dictionary.com
- ^ "There are four principal methods of baptizing: (1) submersion (or total immersion) ; (2) immersion, when the head is dipped with or without the candidate standing in the water; (3) affusion, when water is poured over the head and (4) …" (John Gordon Davies, The Architectural Setting of Baptism. Barrie and Rockliff 1962. p. 23).
- ^ "The four principal modes are: 1. Submersion; or total immersion, where the candidate goes briefly but entirely below the water, on the model of those baptised by John in the River Jordan; 2. Immersion; where the head, as the prime seat of Man's rational and spiritual being, is in some way submerged, with or without the candidate having to stand in the same container of water; 3. Affusion; …" (Charles Thomas, Christianity in Roman Britain to A.D. 500. University of California Press 1981 ISBN 0-520-04392-8. p, 204
- ^ "In the early Church baptism was by one of four methods: complete submersion of the entire body, immersion of the head, affusion or pouring, or aspersion or sprinkling" (Steven J. Schloeder, Architecture in Communion. Ignatius Press 1998 ISBN 0-89870-631-9. p. 113).
- ^ "There have been four different modes of conferring baptism throughout history: (1) submersion, also called dipping, in which the candidate is completely submerged under the baptismal waters; (2) immersion, in which the candidate stands or kneels in rather shallow water, and the water is either poured over the head of the candidate or the candidate's head itself is pushed partially into the water; (3) affusion, in which water is poured over the head of the candidate; and (4) aspersion …" (S. Anita Stauffer, On Baptismal Fonts: Ancient and Modern. Grove Books 1994, pp. 9-10).
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