Confirmation

For Further Reading

Davis, Charles. Sacraments of Initiation (Sheed and Ward, 1964) contains a clear account of the development of baptism and confirmation into separate sacraments.

Field, Anne. New Life (Servant Publications, 1978) gives a flavor of what early Christians were told by the people who taught and baptized them.

Haas, LaVerne. Personal Pentecost (Abbey Press, 1973) views the sacrament as a rite of passage into Christian adulthood.

Holmes, Urban. Confirmation: The Celebration of Maturity in Christ (Seabury Press, 1975) assumes that confirmation is for teenagers coming to own their faith.

Kiesling, Christopher. Confirmation and Full Life in the Spirit (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1973) takes a balanced look at the sacrament in contemporary Catholicism.

Monkres, Peter, and R. Kenneth Ostermiller. The Rite of Confirmation (United Church Press, 1995) asks many of the same questions about confirmation in the United Church of Christ that Catholics ask.

Scanlan, Michael, and Anne Therese Shields. And Their Eyes Were Opened (Word of Life, 1976) offers a charismatic approach to the sacraments, including confirmation.

Thurian, Max. Consecration of the Layman (Helicon Press, 1963) gives an ecumenical appraisal of the sacrament by a Protestant theologian.

For Further Study
History and Theology

Bohen, Marian. The Mystery of Confirmation (Herder and Herder, 1963) shows the historical and theological difficulties in developing a single consistent explanation of the sacrament.

Brubaker Cully, Kendig, ed. Confirmation Reexamined (Morehouse-Barlow, 1982) has articles describing and reflecting on the new confirmation practice in the Episcopal church.

Dunn, James. Baptism in the Holy Spirit (SCM Press, 1970) connects New Testament evidence to contemporary Pentecostal and charismatic practices.

Jungkutz, Theodore. Confirmation and the Charismata (University Press of America, 1983) argues that since the sacrament has been understood in various ways in the past, it can have a variety of meanings in the present.

O'Doherty, Michael. The Scholastic Teaching on the Sacrament of Confirmation (Catholic University of America Press, 1949) is a doctoral dissertation that lives up to its title.

Made, Not Born (University of Notre Dame Press, 1976) is a collection of articles on past practices and recent understanding of baptism and confirmation.

McDonnell, Kilian, and George Montague. Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Liturgical Press, 1991) collects evidence of charismatic gifts from writings in the first eight centuries.

Milner, Austin. The Theology of Confirmation (Fides Publishers, 1971) gives a good history of the rite and the ways it has been understood.

Roberto, John. Confirmation in the American Catholic Church (National Conference of Diocesan Directors of Religious Education, 1978) is a commissioned study of the history, theology, and recent practice of the sacrament in the United States.

Turner, Paul. Sources of Confirmation (Liturgical Press, 1993) provides quotations from the fathers to the reformers on the rite and its meaning.

Wainwright, Geoffrey. Christian Initiation (John Knox Press, 1969) is an ecumenical is an ecumenical study of various denominational positions on baptism and confirmation in comparison with the scriptural and historical evidence.

The Question of When to Confirm

Austin, Gerald. Anointing with the Spirit (Pueblo, 1985) presents a commentary on the new Rite of Confirmation and offers ecumenical comparisons.

Brown, Kathy, and Frank Sokol, eds. Issues in the Christian Initiation of Children (Liturgy Training Publications, 1989) discusses issues such as the sequence of sacraments and how they are taught.

Browning, Robert, and Roy Reed. Models of Confirmation and Baptismal Affirmation (Religious Education Press, 1995) reviews and compares the post-baptismal rites of seven different denominations.

Kavanagh, Aidan. Confirmation: Origins and Reform (Pueblo, 1988) argues that the rite of confirmation was originally only a dismissal rite performed at baptism by the bishop.

Kubick, Arthur, ed. Confirming the Faith of Adolescents (Paulist Press, 1991) contains articles in favor of retaining confirmation as a sacrament of mature Christian initiation.

Turner, Paul. The Meaning and Practice of Confirmation (Peter Lang, 1987) compares Protestant and Catholic positions taken in the sixteenth century with various positions taken today. Confirmation: The Baby in Solomon's Court (Paulist Press, 1993) is a comprehensive review of the practices and theologies of confirmation in Christian churches today.

Wilde, James, ed. When Should We Confirm? (Liturgy Training Publications, 1989) presents historical and liturgical arguments for confirmation before first communion. Confirmed As Children, Affirmed As Teens (1990) argues that early confirmation should not preclude special ministries and rituals for adolescents.