NOTES
Introduction
1. The collected papers of the conference have now been published under the title J. I. Packer and the Evangelical Future: The Impact of His Life and Thought, ed. Timothy George (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009).
2. The hymn—“As a Witness,” now expanded to include a fifth verse—can be found in Appendix I, “Examples of Catechetical Hymns.”
3. Thanks to Steve for his input on some of the notes in chapters 5 and 6.
Chapter 1 Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way
1. What Gary’s sister experienced is called the “Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults”
(RCIA), a contemporary effort of adult catechesis for converts to the Catholic Church that was formally begun in 1972. The first stage of this four-stage process (which roughly corresponds to the catechumenal processes that were widely practiced in the churches of the second through fifth centuries), called the period of inquiry, can last anywhere from several months to several years. The second stage, the period of the catechumenate, is for those who already have faith in Christ; it involves more formal instruction, and generally lasts about twelve months for those who have not been baptized. The actual shape of the RCIA varies from diocese to diocese.
2. Both of these very contemporary ministries are in fact a sort of return to very ancient catechetical practice. Augustine, for example, has left us with instructions about catechizing “inquirers” in his book First Catechetical Instruction, trans. Joseph P. Christopher, Ancient Christian Writers (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1978).
3. The story, as may be expected, is a complex one. We say more about this in chapter 3.
4. The historical content of catechesis which provided basic training in these areas included the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the sacraments, and the Decalogue. These formulae can be found in the majority of printed catechisms from the Reformation onward, Protestant and Catholic alike.
5. Quoted by William P. Haugaard, “The Continental Reformation of the Sixteenth Century,” in John H. Westerhoff III and O. C. Edwards, eds., A Faithful Church: Issues in the History of Catechesis (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2003).
6. This is clearly the understanding, for example, in Richard Baxter’s classic work The Reformed Pastor (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1979). The book is Baxter’s passionate plea to his colleagues to faithfully discharge their catechetical duties. On this book and Baxter’s own catechetical practice in its broad Puritan context see J. William Black, Reformation Pastors: Richard Baxter and the Ideal of the Reformed Pastor (Carlisle, UK: Paternoster, 2004) and Ian Green, The Christian’s ABC: Catechisms and Catechizing in England, c. 1530–1740 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).
7. The movement away from the use of catechisms and toward Bible stories appears to have been a deliberate effort motivated in part by the desire to avoid doctrinal controversies. There are of course a number of other significant factors that contributed to the decline of evangelical catechesis, which we will explore in chapter 3.
8. There are, thankfully, a number of exceptions to this among evangelical Protestants, especially among evangelical Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and other Reformed Christians.
9. C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 201–02.
10. Gerhard Kittel, ed., “katecheo,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, trans.
Geoffrey Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 3:638.
11. Zacharias Ursinus, The Commentary of Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism, trans. G. W. Williard (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1985), 11.
12. John H. Westerhoff III, “The Present Situation,” in Westerhoff and Edwards, A Faithful Church, 1.
13. John A. Berntsen, “Christian Affections and the Catechumenate,” in Jeff Astley, Leslie J.
Francis, and Colin Crowder, eds., Theological Perspectives on Christian Formation: A Reader on Theology and Christian Education (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 229.
14. Debra Dean Murphy, Teaching That Transforms: Worship as the Heart of Christian Education (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2004), 112.
15. National Directory for Catechesis (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2005), 6.
16. Pope John Paul II, On Catechesis in Our Time (Catechesis Tradendae) (Washington, DC: USCCB, 1979), nos. 1, 2.
Chapter 2 Catechesis Is a (Very!) Biblical Idea
1. We have of course substituted the Hebrew torah for “law” and derek for “way.” No one has continually meditated upon, nor fully obeyed, the Torah except the Lord Jesus Christ. We must also note that while the Torah points to life, it has no power to impart it. Thus the Torah points us finally to Christ alone (Gal. 3:21–25).
2. See Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 216, 296.
3. What is described here is a variation on the argument set forth by Walter Brueggemann in his book The Creative Word: Canon as a Model for Biblical Education (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982). For more on this, see chap. 6.
4. See Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1976), 31.
5. The Apostolic Fathers, ed. and trans. Michael W. Holmes, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 161.
6. We note as well Paul’s language to Timothy that communicates similar convictions. He writes, “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:13–14). Furthermore, “the mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16) and “The [trustworthy] saying” (2 Tim. 2:11–13) could be confessional statements or early hymns that served, at least in part, a catechetical function. Other texts that may have served similar functions include Philippians 2:6–11 and Colossians 1:15–20.
7. See, for example, O. C. Edwards, “The New Testament Church,” in Westerhoff and Edwards, A Faithful Church, 33.
8. R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel according to St. Matthew, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 19.
9. Ibid.
Chapter 3 The Waxing and Waning of Catechesis
1. Quoted in Westerhoff and Edwards, A Faithful Church, 127.
2. Among others, the Barna Group continues to provide research data on these unhappy trends. See their website: http://www.barna.org.
3. This is the title of an article posted on CSMonitor.com by Michael Spencer, March 10, 2009. Just around the same time period, articles and features suggesting significant decline in evangelical numbers and influence were common fare in major media throughout the United States. Spencer’s article reminds us of the series of books that David Wells has written from the end of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century, decrying the loss of Protestant and evangelical identity as many American Christians in these communities have consistently succumbed to such potent cultural forces as modernism, secularism, pragmatism, pluralism, individualism, postmodernism, and more. See his No Place for Truth: Or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993); God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994); Losing Our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover Its Moral Vision (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999); Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005); and The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-Lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008).
4. See, for example, Westerhoff and Edwards, A Faithful Church; Green, The Christian’s ABC; and William J. Harmless, Augustine and the Catechumenate (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1995).
5. As we saw in chapter 2, it might even be argued that some sort of catechumenate was already in place, at least in some churches, during the times of the New Testament.
6. Augustine argued that catechists should set before inquirers the great narratio of the Scriptures, the grand story of God’s redemptive dealings with mankind.
7. What we know as the Apostles’ Creed was not in its present form until about the seventh century. But it had taken almost complete shape centuries earlier. The Jerusalem Creed and the Old Roman Creed (both attested to by the fourth century) are examples of earlier predecessors of the Apostles’ Creed.
8. Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (New York: Penguin, 1961), 164.
9. Quoted in Harmless, Augustine and the Catechumenate, 69.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., 313.
12. John Bunyan’s classic text, The Pilgrim’s Progress, powerfully captures this sense of the Christian’s journey. It really can be regarded as a wonderful and wise Puritan catechetical work.
13. John Meyendorff, quoted in Constance J. Tarasar, “The Orthodox Experience,” in Westerhoff and Edwards, A Faithful Church, 242.
14. Ibid.
15. David C. Steinmetz, “Luther and Formation in Faith,” in John Van Engen, ed., Educating People of Faith: Exploring the History of Jewish and Christian Communities (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 256.
16. William P. Haugaard, “The Continental Reformation of the Sixteenth Century,” in Westerhoff and Edwards, A Faithful Church, 109.
17. Steinmetz, “Luther and Formation in Faith,” 263. For an insightful treatment of Luther’s catechetical work, see Timothy J. Wengert, Martin Luther’s Catechisms: Forming the Faith (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009).
18. Theodore Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1989), 357.
19. Ibid., 338.
20. T. F. Torrance, The School of Faith: The Catechisms of the Reformed Church (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1959), xi.
21. Quoted ibid., viii.
22. Quoted in Haugaard, “The Continental Reformation of the Sixteenth Century,” in Westerhoff and Edwards, A Faithful Church, 119.
23. Tappert, The Book of Concord, 356.
24. Josef Andreas Jungmann, The Good News Yesterday and Today, ed. and trans. William A. Huesman (New York: W. H. Sadlier, 1962), 102.
25. Didache 1:1.
26. Tappert, The Book of Concord, 363.
27. See Packer, Rediscovering Holiness: Know the Fullness of Life with God (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009), 153 for a fuller explanation of how all three concerns are vital to our healthy spirituality.
28. Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us (Washington, DC: USCCB, 1999), 34. The quotation, including the italicized portion in parentheses, is from the General Directory for Catechesis (Washington, DC: USCCB, 1997).
29. I. John Hesselink, Calvin’s First Catechism: A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997), 40.
30. What Luther considered the “first use of the Law”—that is, an evangelistic use—others would come to call the “second use of the Law.” See Wengert, Martin Luther’s Catechisms, 4–9, for more on Luther’s primary catechetical use of the Law. For the majority of Protestants, the “first use of the Law” is a civil or governing use; that is, application of God’s commands for the good and safety of societies.
31. Ursinus, author of the Heidelberg Catechism, speaks about this twofold use of the Law in the introduction to his commentary on the catechism.
32. Reliquiae Baxterianae [Baxter’s autobiography] (1696), II.xli.180. Already in the dedication of The Reformed Pastor we find Baxter writing, “I find by some experience that this is the work that must Reform indeed; that must expel our common prevailing ignorance . . . and help on the success of our publike preaching; and must make godliness a commoner thing, through the Grace of God, which worketh by means. I find that we never took the rightest course to demolish the Kingdom of Darkness till now” (cited in Black, Reformation Pastors, 190).
33. J. C. Ryle, Light from Old Times (Hertfordshire, UK: Evangelical Press, 1980), 328.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid., 328–29.
38. Ibid., 329.
39. Ibid.
40. J. I. Packer, “Introduction,” in Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, 12.
41. Quoted in ibid., 12–13.
42. Ibid., 13.
43. Ibid., 12.
44. Ibid.
45. From a letter to the Massachusetts missionary John Eliot (N. H. Keeble and G. F. Nut-tell, Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Baxter [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992], 2:70, no. 768).
46. A first step toward its renewal was outlined by Wallace Benn, The Baxter Model: Guidelines for Pastoring Today (Lowestoft, UK: Fellowship of Word and Spirit, 1993).
47. The Heidelberg Catechism: A New Translation for the 21st Century, trans. Lee C. Barrett III (Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2007), 8.
48. Torrance, The School of Faith, xvii.
49. For an interesting example of a megachurch engaging in self-critique, see Greg L. Hawkins and Cally Parkinson’s Reveal: Where Are You? (Barrington, IL: Willow Creek Resources, 2007).
50. David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. Crossing, “Missiometrics 2008: Reality Checks for Christian World Communions,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 32.1
(January 2008): 30. See also http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/globalchristianity/resources.php. Thanks are due to Gary’s colleague Todd Johnson for providing this information to us.
51. Thanks to Gary’s research assistant Jang David Kim for suggesting the concerns we have explored in points 5 and 6 above.
Chapter 4 Sources and Resources for Catechetical Ministry 1. Martin Luther, “Letter to George Spenlein, April 8, 1516,” in Luther’s Works, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan and H. T. Lehmann (St. Louis: Concordia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966–1986), 48:12.
2. We are using the word catechism here not in the sense of a particular printed catechism. Rather we intend more generally that which comprises the biblical teaching in which we catechize.
3. Our use of the terms traditionalists and progressives is merely suggestive, not denotative. We are pointing out trends, not pointing at persons.
4. The five founts we have suggested are not to be taken as five distinct and authoritative sources for catechesis. Rather, we see Scripture alone as the final authoritative source. The other four elements represent the teaching of the fully inspired and fully authoritative Scriptures. Thus our approach is quite different from that of the Roman Catholic church, which acknowledges three sources for catechesis—Sacred Scripture, Holy Tradition, and the Magisterium (teaching office) of the Church. Of these three sources, the first two—Scripture and Tradition—are often presented in Catholic documents as being one, together constituting “the Word of God” (General Directory for Catechesis, 90). While Scripture is held to have primacy in this relationship, Tradition “transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [Washington, DC: USCCB, 1995], 31). The Magisterium is the Church’s authority and obligation to faithfully preserve, interpret, and present this Word (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 91).
5. J. I. Packer, “Saved by His Precious Blood,” in A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994), 125–48. The quotation comes from page 130.
6. This is unpacked further below. The outline is adapted from Gary A. Parrett and S. Steve Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful: A Biblical Vision for Education in the Church (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009).
7. National Directory for Catechesis, 83.
8. Ibid.
9. James B. Torrance, Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1997), 30.
10. This testimony is from Egeria, a late fourth-century pilgrim (from Spain or the south of Gaul) to the Holy Land who observed and noted these practices. See Harmless, Augustine and the Catechumenate, 62–65.
11. See James Choung’s True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008).
12. For such language in the Bible, see Job 5:19; Proverbs 6:16; 30:15, 18, 21, 29.
13. This is the design of the 1549 and 1662 catechisms, as included in those editions of the Book of Common Prayer. The 1962 Canadian revision of 1662 augmented the catechism with a section on the church and its ministry, plus a suggested rule of adult Christian life.
14. This order is found in the 1995 Catechism of the Catholic Church, which incorporates the “four pillars” into four major sections that contain other teachings as well. The section headings are: “The Profession of Faith,” “The Celebration of the Christian Mystery,” “Life in Christ,” and “Christian Prayer.”
15. Jungmann, The Good News Yesterday and Today, 103.
16. Augustine does not exposit the full Decalogue in his Enchiridion (Chicago: Regnery, 1996) but rather deals with the double command of loving God and neighbor—regarded by both Jews and Christians as a summary of the Ten Commandments.
17. J. I. Packer, Growing in Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994).
18. “Anglican Catechism in Outline (ACIO): The Interim Report of the Global South Anglican Theological Formation and Education Task Force,” January 6, 2008, http://www.globalsouth anglican.org/sse/aciointerimreport_1.pdf.
19. Though not captured by the majority of English translations, the third commitment in Acts 2:42 is, literally, “the breaking of the bread.” Many scholars believe “the bread” here is a reference to celebration of the Lord’s Supper, rather than to a more general “breaking bread” as found in Acts 2:46. Likewise, the fourth commitment is not simply to “prayer,” but to “the prayers,” language which may suggest more communal and/or more liturgical prayers, rather than a commitment to prayer in some general sense.
20. From the Preface to the Large Catechism, in Tappert, The Book of Concord, 363.
21. Jungmann, The Good News Yesterday and Today, 103.
22. Packer, Growing in Christ, xi.
23. The same language is adopted and explained in Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, 118–19.
24. This last pairing is from E. Stanley Jones, The Way: 364 Adventures in Daily Living (Nashville: Abingdon, 1946). The expression “not-the-way” reminds us also of the title and thesis of Cornelius Plantinga Jr.’s Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995).
25. For example, “Therefore . . . learn Christ, specifically, the Crucified. Learn to sing to him and in your despair at yourself to say to him, ‘You, Lord Jesus, are my righteousness’” (Martin Luther, “Letter to George Spenlein: ‘Learn Christ . . . The Crucified,’” in Luther’s Spirituality, ed. and trans. Philip W. Key and Peter D. S. Krey, CWS [New York: Paulist, 2007], 4). Gary thanks his colleague, Gordon Isaac, for introducing him to this emphasis in Luther.
26. John Paul II, Catechesis in Our Time, 6.
Chapter 5 The Gospel as of First Importance
1. Robert W. Mounce, “Kerygma,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 6:84.
2. To draw too fine a line between the New Testament concepts of kerygma and didache, however, may well be overstating the case from the biblical data itself as it seems that, in some instances at least, the two terms are used interchangeably.
3. A similar listing of summaries of the Gospel appears in Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, 102–3.
4. The New Testament writers cite or allude to Isaiah 53 more than any other Old Testament prophecy. See, for example, Acts 8:31–35; John 12:38; Romans 10:16; 1 Peter 2:24–25.
5. Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, 103.
6. J. I. Packer and Mark Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of Atonement (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 25.
7. See also Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, chap. 4.
8. For a helpful survey of the thinking of many leaders within this movement, see Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger, Emerging Churches (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005). We should not make overly broad statements about “the emerging church(es),” however, since the movement— if it can properly be called that—is still very dynamic, with churches and individual leaders moving in and out. Identifying those accepting the moniker “emerging” and those distancing themselves from it is not easily done. What is done under the name “emerging” is sometimes dangerous, and yet at other times and by other leaders, praiseworthy. In other words it reminds us at times of some of the same difficulties in our day of trying to pin down what is meant by use of the title “evangelical.”
9. Anonymous quote in Gibbs and Bolger, Emerging Churches, 54.
10. Packer and Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood, 18.
11. Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2004), 453. Duncan is John “Rabbi” Duncan, sometime professor at the Free Church College, Edinburgh.
12. Packer and Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood, 21.
13. This time perhaps in the forms of modern-day “propositional” evangelicals versus postmodern, socially activistic postevangelicals.
14. D. A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005); Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones, eds., An Emergent Manifesto of Hope (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007).
15. To call the “new perspective” a movement may not be fair. There is a great deal of diversity among scholars who have been associated with the “new perspective.” The brief summary offered here, therefore, cannot possibly do justice to the full discussion. Many books have been written from various viewpoints on all these matters, and we ask readers to consult some of these texts. For an overview of the debate from differing standpoints we recommend Guy Prentiss Waters, Justification and the New Perspectives on Paul: A Review and Response (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2004); Stephen Westerholm, Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The “Lutheran”
Paul and His Critics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003); N. T. Wright, Paul: In Fresh Perspective (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006).
16. This is the title of a book by N. T. Wright: What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997).
17. Meaning, respectively: “Scripture alone, Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone, glory be to God alone.”
18. See John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984).
19. See D. A. Carson, Peter O’Brien, and Mark Seifrid, eds., The Complexities of Second Temple Judaism, vol. 1, Justification and Variegated Nomism (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001) and The Paradoxes of Paul, vol. 2, Justification and Variegated Nomism (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004).
20. E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1985).
21. See Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007).
22. Packer and Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood, 35.
23. C. J. Mahaney in ibid., 16.
24. Ibid., 138.
25. Keller, by the way, has developed a three-part catechetical curriculum (intended for about thirty weeks of instruction) that is focused on grounding and growing God’s people in the Gospel: Tim Keller, Gospel Christianity (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003). An overview and samples of the curriculum can be seen online at the church’s website, http:// www.redeemer2.com/websamples/GC1Sample.pdf.
26. For more on the notion of the Gospel as plumb line, please see the next chapter.
27. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones exhorts us in Spiritual Depression to preach the Gospel to ourselves ([Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965], 21). John Piper also picks up this theme when he says, “When we preach the Gospel to ourselves, we are addressing every word of every enemy of every kind” (When I Don’t Desire God [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004], 82).
28. “The Gospel Way,” in Arthur Bennett, ed., The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotion (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1975).
29. Chapter XVII of his Rule of 1221. See http://www.americancatholic.org/e-News/Friar Jack/fj092302.asp#F2.
30. Antinomianism has been defined as “the view that there is no need for the law of God in the Christian life” (Donald K. McKim, Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms [Louisville:
Westminster John Knox, 1996], 13).
31. Of course, a minority of evangelicals were not keen on Graham’s ecumenical approach.
32. From the hymn “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” by Augustus M. Toplady, 1776.
33. Xenophilia is a word found in relatively few English dictionaries. It is defined in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 3rd ed. (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1992) as attraction to “that which is foreign, especially to foreign peoples, manners, and customs.”
It thus stands in stark contrast with xenophobia, a sin that has too often characterized many churches. Gary has been using the word since the late 1990s in alphabets like this. He was not too surprised to see it used in an acrostic-based book by Leonard Sweet, Brian D. McLaren, and Jerry Haselmayer: A Is for Abductive: The Language of the Emerging Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003). After all, there are relatively few words that begin with x!
Chapter 6 Three Facets of the Faith
1. Thomas à Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ, III.56.1.
2. Parrett and Kang briefly introduce this idea in Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, 110.
3. “The Love of God,” by Frederick M. Lehman, 1917. The verse was apparently based upon the opening verses of a Jewish poem, Akdamut, written in Aramaic in the eleventh century by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai. A tragic irony is that the poem on which the hymn was based was originally written against the backdrop of crusades that involved Christian hostilities and aggressions against Jews.
4. Surprisingly (and misleadingly) the ESV has as its heading over Titus 2 “Teach Sound Doctrine.” Other major versions typically have done better with their headings. The NIV has “What Must Be Taught to Various Groups.” The NASB is better still, with “Duties of the Older and Younger.”
5. The Greek term used here literally means “right-footed” and implies walking correctly, that is, in the Way of the Gospel.
6. In the next chapter we explore this matter more fully.
7. This language is taken from the definition of teaching that is offered and explained in Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, chap. 10.
8. The remainder of the chapter represents an expansion upon ideas Gary first introduced in Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, chap. 4.
9. Elsewhere, J.I. has called these “the three formulae which have always been central in Christian teaching” (Growing in Christ, xi).
10. D. H. Williams has offered a provocative and often insightful introduction to these issues in Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005).
11. Geoffrey Wainwright has offered a very helpful and extensive treatment of these things in his book Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine, and Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980). See especially chapters 7 and 8.
12. Heschel, God in Search of Man, 31. Heschel earlier identified these as (1) the way of sensing the presence of God in the world, in things; (2) the way of sensing his presence in the Bible; and (3) the way of sensing his presence in sacred deeds.
13. Beit knesset (house of assembly) is the Hebrew name for the synagogue. But it is also called beit midrash (house of study) and beit tefilah (house of prayer).
14. Brueggemann, The Creative Word.
15. Cultus here simply refers to rituals for religious life. We prefer to use the word communion for this category, emphasizing practices to deepen our communion with the living God.
16. Augustine, Confessions, 43.
17. Blaise Pascal, Pensées, trans. W. F. Trotter (Mineola, NY: Dover, 2003), 65.
18. C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (New York: Harcourt, 1955), 5.
19. Marva Dawn, Is It a Lost Cause? Having the Heart of God for the Church’s Children (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 18–19.
20. John Stott, Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1994), 151.
21. Gene Edward Veith, The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals (St.
Louis: Concordia, 1999).
22. Another familiar division has metaphysics as the third category in place of ontology.
This is also a significant witness to the human longing for transcendence.
23. The principle Hebrew word for “way” or “path” is derek.
24. Additional Old Testament uses of “the Way” suggest that it is associated with life (Prov.
10:17; 12:28) and salvation (Ps. 50:23). Since the people have rejected the Way (Isa. 59:8), God sends his messengers to preach repentance and thus prepare the Way by removing obstacles from the path (Isa. 40:3; 57:14). But God himself must remove the obstacles (Isa. 62:10–12) and bring salvation to the people (Isa. 51:5). So, at last, the Way of holiness (Isa. 35:8) is established among the redeemed, the ransomed of the Lord (Isa. 35:1–11). This pattern of preparing the Way before the coming of the Lord himself was manifest in the ministry of John (Mal. 3:1) preceding Jesus (Mark 1:1–11).
25. The Greek word for “life” is zoe.
26. See ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), notes on Acts 5:20.
27. This table is adapted from Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, chap. 4.
Chapter 7 Forward in the Faith of the Gospel
1. Ralph Venning, Learning in Christ’s School (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1999), 4. This book, written by Venning in 1675, is a study of spiritual maturing based upon John’s three terms in 1 John 2:12–14: “little children,” “fathers,” and “young men.”
2. For a consideration of these theorists and their implications for Christian education see Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, chaps. 8 and 9.
3. Charles Spurgeon, A Puritan Catechism, available at http://www.spurgeon.org/catechis .htm.
4. Gary heard this expression from Robbie Castleman in a lecture she gave at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in May, 2007. See her book Parenting in the Pew: Guiding Your Children into the Joy of Worship (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2002).
5. Ibid., xxvii–xxviii.
6. Ibid., xxix–xxx. Ironically, one of the most visible efforts in our time at catechetical renewal among children, The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, very much has in view the vision of educare that Torrance is cautioning against. This ministry, established by Hebrew and Scripture scholar Sophia Cavaletti in the mid-1950s, now operates in more than thirty countries and is utilized by both Catholic and Protestant churches. It is, according to the official website, “rooted in the Bible, the liturgy of the church, and the educational principles of Maria Montessori” (www.cgsusa.org).
7. Venning, Learning in Christ’s School, 4.
8. For a helpful discussion of this intriguing passage see I. Howard Marshall, The Epistles of John, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 134–38.
9. Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1988), 16. Additional major resources regarding catechesis as envisioned in the Catholic Church include Pope John Paul II, Catechesis Tradendae; The General Directory for Catechesis; The National Directory for Catechesis; and The Catechism of the Catholic Church.
10. Robert Webber, Journey to Jesus: The Worship, Evangelism, and Nurture Mission of the Church (Nashville: Abingdon, 2001).
11. These are called, respectively, Follow Me!, Be My Disciple!, Walk in the Spirit!, and Find Your Gift! (Wheaton, IL: IWS Resources, 2001).
12. For more on Alpha, see www.alphana.org/Group/Group.aspx?ID=1000016933. Alpha has developed an official follow-up course entitled “A Life Worth Living” based on the biblical book of Philippians. Another sort of guide for follow-up is Michael Green’s book, After Alpha: You’ve Been on an Alpha Course—What Now? (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2004). For more on Christianity Explored, see www.christianityexplored.org. The Christianity Explored program also has a follow-up course based on Philippians, entitled Discipleship Explored.
Chapter 8 Drawing Lines and Choosing Sides
1. This saying has been variously attributed. Some have suggested it reaches back as far as Augustine. Others believe that it first came from the Puritan Richard Baxter. While Augustine would have agreed with the general spirit of the saying, and while Baxter helped this favorite saying of his to become popularized, the quote is most likely attributable to Rupert Melde-nius, a pseudonym for Peter Meiderlin, an irenic Lutheran theologian of seventeenth-century Augsburg.
2. Parrett and Kang interact with the first three of these three terms in Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, chap. 14.
3. See James Cutsinger, ed., Reclaiming the Great Tradition: Evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox in Dialogue (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1997) and Charles W. Colson and Harold Fickett, The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008).
4. J. I. Packer and Thomas C. Oden, One Faith: The Evangelical Consensus (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004).
5. The sixteen topics actually represent the sixteen chapters in the book.
6. Some contemporary evangelicals, however, would protest the inclusion of one or more of these solas. For example, advocates of the so-called “New Perspectives on Paul” might protest, or seriously redefine, the doctrine of sola fide. Others would stumble over including sola scriptura as an “evangelical essential.” See for example D. H. Williams, Evangelicals and Tradition, and Craig D. Allert, A High View of Scripture? The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007). On our part, we wholeheartedly affirm each of the five solas and are quite unwilling to give ground on any of them. Indeed, we might say that we must not yield on these points because of a sixth implicit sola from which the others all derive: solus Deus (God alone). There is none good but God alone. This means that all of us are desperately in need of a saving work that must come from Another, and not from ourselves. Because we lack goodness in ourselves, we must depend upon faith alone (not in any work of our own) in Christ alone (the Righteous One and only Savior) for our salvation. We would not know these things if God did not reveal them to us in the testimony of Scripture alone (which is affirmed by the fathers). Thus all our salvation is of grace alone (purely God’s gift to us). Obviously, then, all glory goes to God alone (who alone is worthy of such and will never yield his glory to another). For a hymn that celebrates these solas, please see “There Is None Good but God Alone” in Appendix I.
7. See Gary Parrett, “The Wondrous Cross and the Broken Wall,” in Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, S. Steve Kang, and Gary A. Parrett, A Many Colored Kingdom: Multicultural Dynamics for Spiritual Formation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004), 75–78.
8. This language is from the Nicene Creed and is common in many historic confessions of the faith.
9. The use of the term classes is simply intended to use language that is familiar and common. It need not imply a lecture-driven experience or anything approximating a formal classroom setting. The form of such learning experiences can depend upon all sorts of variables—subject matter, the teacher, the learners, the venue, the schedule, and more.
10. These “Guidelines for Receiving Communion” were adopted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1996. They can be found at www.cosmm.com/out/guide.html.
11. See, for example, http://rec.Gospelcom.net/index.php?section=57 regarding the decision of the Christian Reformed Church.
12. National Directory for Catechesis, 211.
13. Rev. Constas H. Demetry, Catechism of the Eastern Orthodox Church. This can be found online at www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/catechis.html.
14. National Directory for Catechesis, 215.
15. See the Barna Group’s research at http://www.barna.org.
Chapter 9 Moving In and Moving On
1. Quoted in Harmless, Augustine and the Catechumenate, 381–82.
2. See chapter 5, note 34.
3. Evangelical educator Robert Pazmiño has offered a helpful discussion of the three forms of education we are referring to in Principles and Practices of Christian Education (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 62–65.
4. See Eliot Eisner, The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs, 3rd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1994).
5. For a very helpful guide to the Heidelberg Catechism, see Kevin DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism (Chicago: Moody, 2010).
6. Some may wish to add another layer of formal catechesis that focuses on the meaning of “the mysteries”—that is, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This could occur after one’s baptism, or confirmation, and before a first experience of the Lord’s Supper.
7. See Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008).
8. Examples of Puritan commentaries, or “explanations,” of the Westminster Shorter Catechism include Thomas Watson’s Body of Divinity (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1957) and Thomas Vincent’s The Shorter Catechism Explained from Scripture (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1980).
9. The Mission of an Evangelist (Minneapolis: World Wide Publications, 2001), 37–38.
Chapter 10 Championing Catechesis in Contemporary Congregations
1. Torrance, The School of Faith, xi.
2. For an extended discussion of biblical aims for our ministries of teaching, see Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, chap. 2.
3. For another look at questions 4–7, see ibid., chap. 5.
4. Again, see http://www.barna.org for examples.
5. See Appendix II for a list of resources for further reading and study.
6. Quoted in Frederic W. Farrar, Lives of the Fathers (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1907), 2:197.
7. Paul J. Grime, “Luther and the Church Song,” http://www.lifeoftheworld.com/lotw/article .php?a_num=3&m_num=1&m_vol=8.
8. Gary has written numerous hymns for congregational worship, including a number that are explicitly intended as catechetical hymns. See Appendix I for a few examples. For more on this idea of the power of our hymnody for formation, see Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, chap. 12.
9. Torrance, The School of Faith, xxv–xxvi.
Appendix I Examples of Catechetical Hymns
1. The hymn is based on Colossians 1:28 and reminds us that the one focus of our catechetical ministry is to proclaim Christ alone. Most of the hymns in this appendix can be found in Gary Parrett and Julie Tennent, Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Chicago: MorgenBooks, 2009).
2. The hymn is another Christ proclamation, this time in narrative form. The first four verses are to be sung to the tune Picardy (familiarly used with “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”).
Then, with the help of a musical transition, the last four verses are sung to Lauda Anima (familiarly used with “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven”).
3. A meditation upon Christ, God’s perfect gift, this hymn aims to foster both orthodoxy and doxology.
4. The hymn aims to portray a holistic vision of the wonder of salvation, noting its “past, present, and future” aspects and attributing the work of our salvation to the Triune God.
5. A reflection upon what we have called the “Three Facets of the Faith.”
6. This hymn is based upon the book of Romans, specifically upon 1:16–17. The complete hymn has sixteen verses and emerged from a sermon series Gary had preached on the book of Romans.
7. This hymn—which celebrates the Reformation solas—was written in honor of David Wells, to whom we have dedicated the book. The tune is familiar to most as that used with “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”
8. Written by Gary in honor of J.I.’s eightieth birthday. The hymn celebrates what Gary sees as the biblically holistic, catechetical vision of J.I.’s ministry as churchman, professor, and author.