Ecumenical and Confessional Writings

Volume 3: The Doctrine of Baptism

By (author) Edmund Schlink Edited by Matthew L. Becker

Book cover: Ecumenical and Confessional Writings

Extent: 331 pages

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Subjects: Religious Studies

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(April 2025)

ISBN: 9783525502174

6.34 x 9.25 inches

Price: $124.00

In stock

Although many of Edmund Schlink’s writings have been available in English for several decades, the publication of the new German edition offered a significant impetus for providing a fresh and more accurate translation of them. Matthew L. Becker and Eleanor Wegener translated key terms that occur in all five volumes consistently. Also, they corrected infelicitous and misleading renderings of Schlink’s language into English, which more or less happened in all of the earlier editions. This third volume presents a completely reworked translation of Schlink’s popular work “Die Lehre von der Taufe”.


Although several of Schlink’s writings, including his study of baptism, have been available in English for many decades, the publication of the new German edition offered a significant impetus for providing a fresh and more accurate translation of them. The first English edition of his book on baptism, published in 1972, was an abridgment of the German original. In this new edition, words and sentences that were omitted from the first edition have been restored and complete bibliographic information has been given. The editor has also provided many explanatory endnotes that help to illuminate the book’s contents. Schlink took the doctrine of baptism seriously, as if it truly matters for the unity of the church. Again and again, he returns to the gospel and its promises that are tied to baptism. While formally open toward siblings in Christ beyond his own confession, his humble and conciliatory method of ecumenism was undertaken consciously and intentionally from within a Lutheran confessional perspective.

Edmund Schlink war Professor fĂ¼r Systematische Theologie in Heidelberg und offizieller Beobachter des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils.

  • By (author) Edmund Schlink
  • Edited by Matthew L. Becker