Catechism

Teaching by word of mouth

The word comes from the Greek katēcheō (κατηχέω), to instruct by word of mouth. Luke wrote his Gospel so that Theophilus might "know the certainty of the things you have been taught" (Luke 1:4), and the word for taught there is this verb. Paul says that "the one who receives instruction in the word must share in all good things with his instructor" (Galatians 6:6): from the start the church had teachers and learners.

Patient teaching of the faith began in Israel's homes:

These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Matthew Henry's counsel on this passage is plain: "Be careful and exact in teaching thy children" Matthew Henry. The early church taught those preparing for baptism, the catechumens, over many weeks; the lectures Cyril of Jerusalem gave them on the creed and the sacraments around 350 still survive Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures.

The Reformation and the catechism

Short catechisms in question-and-answer form spread above all in the Reformation. Visiting the parishes of Saxony, Luther found many who knew neither the Lord's Prayer, the Creed nor the Commandments, and in 1529 he wrote his Small Catechism so that heads of households could teach them at home Luther, Small Catechism. Calvin wrote a catechism for Geneva, and in 1563 the Palatinate produced the Heidelberg Catechism, which opens by asking what is your only comfort in life and in death, and spreads its 129 questions over 52 Sundays Heidelberg Catechism. The Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism (1647) begins:

What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 1

Most catechisms teach what to believe (the Creed), how to live (the Commandments) and how to pray (the Lord's Prayer), and explain the sacraments. Since 1907 Presbyterians in Korea have used the Shorter Catechism as a doctrinal standard, teaching it to those preparing for baptism or for admission to the Lord's Supper, and to children in Sunday school (see Man's chief end).

Catechisms across the churches

Nearly every tradition has its catechisms. After the Council of Trent the Catholic Church issued the Roman Catechism (1566), and in 1992 it published the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a summary of its whole teaching Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Book of Common Prayer contains a catechism to be learned before confirmation Book of Common Prayer, and Baptists, too, have written catechisms modelled on the Shorter Catechism. Where churches differ, as on the number and meaning of the sacraments, each catechism follows its own tradition's confession.

When the teaching happens also depends on how a church understands baptism. Churches that practise infant baptism teach their baptized children until they profess the faith for themselves; churches that practise believers' baptism teach before baptism. Either way, a catechism is meant not only to be memorized but to plant the faith of Scripture in the heart, so that we love and serve God. It is the church's school for handing on to the next generation the faith of the creeds and confessions.