Baptism Research Paper

Baptism As Both Sign and Symbol Throughout the course of organized religion both present and past, ritualistic acts of praise and worship have been practiced as a sign of both love and honor to God. Catholicism refers to these rituals as sacraments. As Christians and members of this faith, the first sacrament received by each member is Baptism. This sacrament has not only been practiced since the beginning of our faith, but has deep meaning and symbolic ties to the start of creation with Adam and Eve. I hope to prove through both illustration and published works how Baptism as a sacrament is both a sign and symbol of humanities desire to become closer to God by cleansing them of original sin through this ritual and rite of passage. Although tied together and related a sign is not the same thing as a symbol. It is important in the understanding of Baptism as both a sign and symbol to discuss how the two are similar yet different. “A sign is something that points to another reality and means what it signifies; meaning it is mostly fixed.” (Muller 125) An example of this would be a deaf child at play sign on a street. The street sign informs people that a deaf child lives on that street however does not mean that the deaf child is currently playing. There is usually no guessing involved with signs even in biblical sense due to the fact that they are straight forward in the message it portrays. A symbol on the other hand, “is a multidimensional sign that points to another reality and manifests the reality to which it points.” (Mueller 125) In many ways all of the seven sacraments are excellent examples of such things. Sacraments can be interpreted in many ways depending on who is looking at it. Even though they are signs that use such things as water to represent cleansing and host to represent the body of Christ, they are much deeper symbolic rituals that bring us closer to achieving the Divine-human encounter we seek as Christians. Baptism is one of the best