Baptism á la Chilaquil

Celebrating Equality and Diversity Here and Now

Abstract

This essay argues that the original baptismal formula of Gal 3:26-28 has been “the great omission” throughout the Westernized version of Christianity. Nevertheless, it is the author's conviction that this formula, enfleshed in communal practices (Acts 2, 4) of Jesus' movement is interpreted koinonia in non-dichotomous spiritual and material realms.

From the metaphysical interpretation of “the great commission” (Matt 28:19), baptism was undermined from its horizontal imperatives imbricated in class, race, gender, cultural, and geopolitical oppressions. The port of departure of this essay is the naming of a myriad of dividing social “isms,” and the port of arrival is the Reign of God of equality and diversity here and now.