"Catechesis, the teaching of children in the presence of their elders the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, is the wisest of Church restorations." -- - ARCHBISHOP BENSON. HE WORD CATECHIZE is derived from the Greek word TH to an xéw (echeo), which signifies to repeat, like an echo. It is used only twice in the New Testament. In the preface to S. Luke's Gospel he tells his friend Theophilus that his purpose in writing is, "that thou mightest know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou hast instructed (literally, catechized)"; or, as the margin has it, “taught by word of mouth." 1 That the Jews had a similar method of instruction seems to be illustrated in the case of the Child Jesus tarrying behind in Jerusalem, and "sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions." 2 In the primitive Church a person preparing for Holy Baptism was called for this reason a catechumen, though the instruction was by no means confined to questioning. In 1 S. Luke i, 4, Rev. Ver.; see also 1 Cor. xiv, 19, where “instruct" is the same in the Greek. • S. Luke ii, 46. the Church of Alexandria in Egypt, founded by S. Mark, there was a famous Catechetical School, so-called, where the teaching of the elements of Christianity seems rather to have been carried on by means of lectures, though doubtless the strict catechetical method followed this instruction, just as it does today in our schools and colleges in order to test and deepen the effect of the direct teaching. Clemens (A.D. 150-215), one of the celebrated teachers in this school, the instructor of Origen, has left us a series of his Catechetical Lectures. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, while still a Priest in that city, has given us a similar series of eighteen lectures addressed to catechumens before their baptism, in Lent, 347 or 348, followed by five others after Easter, in preparation for Holy Communion.1 S. Augustine also, in a letter to a young Deacon, Deogratias, in the year 400, gives us, in what is really a treatise on Catechizing, a a lifelike account, and many valuable practical hints, as to the best method of teaching the first principles of the Christian faith and life. In his preface to this book he writes: "You have told me, brother Deogratias, that at Carthage, where you are a Deacon, persons are often brought to you to be instructed in the rudiments of the Christian faith, in consequence of your reputation for possessing great resource and power in catechizing, on account of your knowledge of the faith, and your happy way of expressing yourself; but that you yourself always experience a painful difficulty in deciding how to set forth with profit to your hearers that very truth, by believing which we are Christians." "Many a modern clergyman," writes Canon Liddon, "has shared the perplexity of Deogratias, and has wished, perchance, that he had an Augustine to instruct him in the difficult art of catechizing the unlearned. For that it is difficult, — more 1 Cat. Lect., Oxford, 1838. - difficult to most men than effective preaching, no one who has tried his hand at it can well doubt."1 It was to aid in this work of rudimentary instruction that the Catechism of the Prayer Book was composed. It was not, however, something wholly new in England, except so far as the interrogatory method was employed throughout. The Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments formed the core round which it was constructed, and from the earliest period of English history we find injunctions of Bishops and synods requiring the clergy to teach and explain these in English to the children and people generally committed to their care. As early as A.D. 740 Egbert, Archbishop of York, directs "that every Priest do with great exactness instil the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed, into the people committed to him, and shew them to endeavour after the knowledge of the whole of religion, and the practice of Christianity." Two centuries later a canon of Aelfric, Archbishop of Canterbury, enjoins the clergy to "speak the sense of the Gospel to the people in English, and of the Pater Noster, and the Creed as oft as he can." Similar injunctions are found in the canons of many diocesan synods throughout the whole medieval period.2 1 Dupanloup, the great Bishop of Orleans, probably did more than any other man in the nineteenth century to keep alive the Christian faith among the people of France, and this chiefly by his marvellous work and example as a catechist. In his judgment this was no easy matter. "A good Catechetical Instruction," he writes, "demands of the most skilful four, five, or six hours of preparation. I have sometimes had two or three days of continuous work, sometimes a whole week, in preparation for certain very difficult or very special Instructions" (Ministry of Catechizing, ii. 3.). * See Johnson's English Canons, I. pp. 186, 248, 398. It is to be remembered in this connection that for a long period, beginning with the Roman occupation in the first century, and continuing even as late as the fourteenth, England was more or less a bilingual country, as India under the British, and the Philippines and Porto Rico under the United States, It is important to note the great practical necessity of such a summary of Christian faith, doctrine, and practice as is found in the Church Catechism, especially in days when a different method of instruction of the young is being attempted. According to the mind of the Church, the child is not directed primarily to the vast store of history, poetry, prophecy, philosophy, biography, and doctrine contained in the Divine Library of sixty-six books, the religious literature of a nation, written in more than one language, and which we know today as "the Bible," that is, "the Book." The remarkable practical wisdom of the Church is seen in her setting before the young the great essential truths, which they have neither time nor ability to discover for themselves in the Bible, but only for the "certainty" and illustration of which, they are to "search the Scriptures." 1 In pursuing this course she is only exercising her divinely given authority to "teach" as well as to "preach" or proclaim the good news of the Gospel. In this she is in fact following exactly the rule expressed by S. Luke in the preface to his Gospel; the Church to teach, the Scripture to give "the certainty." As further evidence of the Church's wisdom we can point also to the remarkable brevity of the Catechism, containing as it does only twenty-two questions and answers in addition to the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Commandments.2 are today. In the earlier period the upper classes spoke Latin, and after the Norman Conquest French was the ordinary language of the rulers for several centuries. As late as 1362 "an act of Parliament was passed enjoining all schoolmasters to teach their scholars to translate into English instead of into French" (Blunt, Ann. Pr. Bk., xxiii., note). 1 S. John v, 39. • In contrast with this the "Larger Catechism" adopted by the Puritan Assembly at Westminster in 1647, like those of the Continental Reformers, is very long. It contains 196 questions, and the "Shorter Catechism" In the first revised Prayer Book (1549) the Catechism ended with the question on the Lord's Prayer. The latter portion on the Sacraments was added in 1604 after the Hampton Court Conference, and, with two slight verbal emendations, was afterwards confirmed by Convocation and Parliament in 1662. It was composed by Overall then Dean of S. Paul's and Prolocutor of Convocation, afterwards Bishop of Norwich (1618-19). Though the Catechism is so admirable as it is, it is felt by many that some further addition is needed concerning the nature of the Church and the Ministry. To meet this need in the spirit of the earlier portion, the following questions and answers, chiefly in the words of the Prayer Book itself, and without any change or addition of doctrine, were adopted by the Lower House of the Convocation of Canterbury in 1887. Inasmuch, however, as they had not originated in the Upper House, a privilege claimed by the Bishops in matters of doctrine, the approval of that House was withheld. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE CHURCH, I. 2. What meanest thou by the Church? A. I mean the Body of which JESUS CHRIST is the Head, and of which I was made a member in my Baptism. II. 2. How is the Church described in the Creeds? - A. It is described as One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. III. 2. What meanest thou by each of these words? - A. I mean that the Church is One, as being One Body under the One Head; Holy, because the HOLY SPIRIT dwells in it, and sanctifies its Members; Catholic, because it is for all nations and all times; and Apostolic, because it continues stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship. has no less than 107, besides the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Commandments. The Roman Catechism of the Reforming Council of Trent (1545-63) is a formidable volume by itself, but it was meant for the instruction of the clergy, and not for children. |