Confirmation

Confirmation: Presbyterian Practices in Ecumenical Perspective

Aleshire, Daniel O

Confirmation: Presbyterian Practices in Ecumenical Perspective

By Richard Robert Osmer

Louisville, Geneva, 1996. 260 pp. $19.99.

When a church confirms a fourteen-year-old, what is it doing? Why does it do it? What does it mean when a community of faith confirms a ninth grader, in this culture, at this particular historical moment, into a particular context of the Christian community? Does it mean, at the turn of this century, what it meant at the turn of the last century? If contemporary Protestant churches are engaging properly in the practice of confirmation, why do studies indicate that a significant factor in the decline of mainline Protestant membership is the loss of members in young adulthood who were confirmed as youth?

With thoughtful perceptions about the ways in which practices work in communities of faith over time, Richard Osmer, Professor of Christian Education at Princeton Theological Seminary, has written an engaging and significant study about confirmation. He begins with the present situation and reaches into historical practice in an effort to address contemporary concerns. Practices, Osmer notes, have histories-they are activities that can be traced back through time-and are narrative dependent-they require narrative to provide a cognitive framework by which the goals "engendered by practices are interpreted to and internalized by their participants."

The practice of confirmation in the Roman tradition was influenced by five significant changes over 1300 years: separation of confirmation from baptism; shortening of the period of time between birth and baptism; lengthening of the period of time between baptism and confirmation; debate over the significance of confirmation; and scholastic theology. The developing practices were formalized by the Middle Ages with the declaration of confirmation as a sacrament in various conciliar statements.

Osmer then turns attention to the Reformation and its influences on confirmation practices. He concludes that, while Luther had little to say about confirmation, he rejected it as a sacrament and emphasized the importance of catechetical instruction. For Luther, "Although faith is a gift of God, it is the responsibility of the church to provide its baptized members with the `minimum knowledge' they need to understand what is at stake when they participate in the Lord's Supper." Various Protestant practices of confirmation concurred in their abandonment of the sacramental understanding of confirmation, but varied on other perceptions. For some, confirmation was a practice that followed catechism and confirmed that learning for faith had occurred. For others, confirmation was evangelical or professional: It was the church's practice that enabled individuals to confess faith. Osmer moves from the Reformation to current denominational practice by leading the reader through a fascinating study of confirmation-instruction manuals, officially adopted statements of church bodies, hymnals, and liturgical resources to trace the changes in confirmation thought and practice for Lutherans, Episcopalians, United Methodists, and Presbyterians. While each group has differed from the others, the analysis makes it evident that, within each tradition, significant variations in practice have occurred over time.

Osmer then moves toward the work necessary for the task of a constructive theological understanding of the practice of confirmation. His understanding is Presbyterian, and he argues that "the contemporary practice of confirmation should focus on both the individual's confession of the church's faith and an act of covenant ratification by which he or she personally professes the faith and pledges obedience to the Triune God." In the context of other Presbyterian practices, confirmation is a practice for youth who, as the children of believers, were baptized as infants and may already have been participants in the Lord's Supper. Confirmation, for youth, becomes "choosing to become who you already are." This means, among other things, that congregations should realize that the primary purpose of confirmation is professional and that congregations need to develop a wide range of educational and catechetical activities through childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, for persons to learn the faith they affirm.

This book is a good study of an important issue. Theological reflection about confirmation tends to be limited to the introduction in a teacher's manual for an eighth- or ninth-grade confirmation class. Osmer's work recognizes the theological importance of communities of faith introducing the tradition of the believing community to the next generation and giving that generation a theologically informed means of affirming that faith.

This book is exemplary as a study in practical theology. The author is attentive to both historical and current cultural contexts in which religious practices occur, to the changing forms of church practices over time, to the changing theological constructions that inform and reflect those practices, and to the social-developmental needs of youth who are the subjects, and sometimes the objects, of current confirmation practices. The critical work of practical theology involves paying attention both to practices and to explanations in the broadest context possible and arriving at conclusions about theological construction and religious practice. Osmer's capacity to engage in analyses at multiple disciplinary levels is impressive. What is more impressive is that his analysis contributes to thoughtful, useable conclusions about practices that could benefit youth and the church. Practical theology is difficult, intellectually complex work. But when practical theology is done well, the result is a contribution like Osmer's study of confirmation.

DANIEL O. ALESHIRE

The Association of Theological Schools

Pittsburgh, PA

Copyright Theology Today Jul 1997