Fundamental View of Baptism as Rebirth

This book I wrote at home during the summer of 2010 is a fruit of my long exposure inorganizing Catechumenal Communities in the parishes of the Archdiocese of Caceres, Philippines. It tries to present the fundamental view of the ancient rite of Baptism as a serious attempt of one person to gain a full rebirth into a new state of life, or a restoration into a messianic community, and not merely as an empty ritual of initiation, purification, or whatever.The universal appeal contained in the idea of birth and rebirth has fascinated men of all the ages, from the beginning of human civilization up to ours. Both ancient and modern people saw that their only hope to escape the sufferings and corruptibility of life in this world was found in the idea of rebirth, whether personal such as the one contained in messianic myths, or societal as in millenarian myths. The idea that the world, and the whole universe, will be reborn is brought about by the hope for an establishment of a ¿new heaven and a new earth,¿ where righteousness will find a home and where suffering and corruptibility will end.