ABSTRACT
A powerful symbol of renewal, baptism marks the beginning of the soul's ascent and the adoption of the believer into mystical union with Christ, and divine sonship. The crossing of the Red Sea as a type of baptism is developed by St Ambrose in De Mysteriis and De Sacramentis. In the latter, Ambrose uses the type to show the greater efficacy of the Christian sacrament: In Ambrose, we see a further line of baptismal typology. The Old Testament types of baptism emphasise a symbolism of spiritual journey and ascent; baptism begins an incorporation into the mystical body of the church, completed in the end-time of Christ's return. A proper reading of the Song of Songs, Origen suggests, is the culmination of the mystical ascent that is the true function of Scripture and of exegesis. Hopkins's mystical narrative of the self is a discourse on the 'inner man' whose spiritual life and ascent to God forms the poem's subtext.
