Taufe und Mahlgemeinschaft

In almost all known liturgies of early Christianity, the baptismal eucharist is the goal and the culmination of the initiation. In this study, which approaches the subject from the perspective of exegesis and liturgical history, Hans-Ulrich Weidemann reconstructs the history of this reciprocal relationship between baptism and cultic meals against the backdrop of the multiform early Christian eucharistic practice. In order to do this, he studies the major sources from the 2nd and 3rd centuries: the Didache, Justin, the apocryphal Acts of Peter, Paul and Thomas, the Pseudo-Clementines, Tertullian as well as the so-called Traditio Apostolica. He then analyzes those text passages in the New Testament in which there are reports of postbaptismal meals or in which baptism and the Eucharist are related to one another: the Acts of the Apostles, 1 Corinthians and Galatians as well as Hebrews.