4. Sources And Resources For Catechetical Ministry
4
Sources and Resources
for Catechetical Ministry
My dear brother, learn Christ and him crucified.1
Martin Luther
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:27
We now turn our attention to the task of identifying sound catechetical content for application in contemporary congregations. In subsequent chapters, we will address some of the other critical elements that must accompany a good experience of catechesis—developmental and cultural sensitivity, faithful processes in appropriate settings, and the role of vital relationships. For now, though, we consider the makeup of the catechism itself, focusing in on the question: What must be taught?2
Content versus Process?
The first thing to say is that faithful and fruitful catechesis as we conceive it requires sustained attention to issues of both content and process. This is a matter over which it is easy to become one-sided, and many do, both in the church and in all arenas of the wider world in which educational theory is discussed. The exaggerations of cartoonists can, we know, feed prejudice, but they can also clarify issues, and we offer now a cartoon-type version of the modern content-versus-process brouhaha, to help our readers see what is at stake in the debate.
Observe, then, the traditionalists, who argue for rigidity and fidelity in the educational process in terms of what we teach. And now observe the progressives, who argue for relevance and effectiveness in the same process in terms of how we teach. For the former, content is all; they focus exclusively on the subject matter to be taught. For the latter, however, the focus is entirely on the learners. “I don’t teach math,” one might say indignantly; “I teach students!” Comeback from the traditionalists: “You teach your students what, exactly?” Longing to cultivate critical thinking skills, progressives shrink back from anything that seems like a mere dispensing of information, seeing that as mind-numbing. Traditionalists, for their part, cannot stop wondering just what it is learners will think critically about if they have no adequate knowledge base to start from. But traditionalists reveal a one-sidedness of their own when they concentrate on direct communication of the subject matter to be taught and leave it all to find its own level in the personal outlook of those being instructed. Progressives, championing process, argue in response that mere transmission of content, without evoking interest and thought about it, is precisely not good education; to which the waspish reply is that incomplete and insufficient transmission of content can hardly improve the situation. Say the progressives: “Your method will induce boredom, incomprehension, and apathy.” “Your method,” retort the traditionalists, “will lead to superficiality, waywardness, and arrogance.” So the exchanges go on. Within the church, where the traditionalists are usually conservatives while the progressives are liberals, the two groups regularly manage to speak both past each other and disdainfully about each other at the same time, and all departments of Christian education become battlegrounds. It is a sad scene, and one that leaves the learning process less than fully fruitful across the board.3
Against this background of unbalanced, lopsided, and barren feuding, we want simply to say once more that content and process must be objects of equal attention, working together in the communicative transaction, if there is to be faithful and fruitful catechesis. Otherwise, both the teaching and the learning will be defective and deficient. Being really and truly serious, and tenacious, about substantive content must be matched by equal concern and endeavor for sound educational process, the stimulating of critical thought and the formation of discerning powers of judgment. Elevating the task of teaching the given material, in the sense of laying it out in full, must not in any way smother or undercut the reflective exercises of mind that are required for genuinely learning it, in the sense of apprehending and internalizing it. Education is not indoctrination! What confronts us here, then, in this ongoing wrangle are false dichotomies and demeaning suspicions, all of which we reject in no uncertain terms, as we trust that the rest of this book will show.
Our emphasis on sound and substantive catechetical content must be unwavering. But it must be remembered that this is only one part of the task. In the book’s final chapter we shall present seven Cs for cultivating faithful and fruitful catechesis in contemporary congregations. Only one of them is primarily concerned with the issue of content. To be diligent at this point but negligent at any of the other six points will likely doom our journey in catechesis to relative failure. But on the other hand to be strong on the other six points and weak on this one will also steer us toward futility.
We turn first, then, to a consideration of what it is that we must teach for faithful and fruitful catechesis. At this point our focus, as the title of this chapter suggests, is on discerning sources and resources for catechetical content. In subsequent chapters, we flesh out our proposal for the actual substance of what might with advantage be taught in our churches today.
As a memory aid, we organize our thoughts with this simple numeric pattern in mind: 5–4–3–2–1. These figures represent the following elements:
All of this, of course, requires explanation. The rest of this chapter is devoted to that explanation. After having set forth this proposed outline for the content of our catechesis, the remaining chapters of the book will feature a number of suggestions regarding how to implement these elements in ministries of teaching and formation in evangelical congregations. And not only so—our hope (or should we say our dream?) is to formulate strategies that can be of service wherever the Bible and the Creeds are recognized as the true embodiment and channels of the truth of God’s grace as revealed once and for all in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
5—Five Founts, or Frames, for the Catechesis
To speak of five founts is to indicate that we are now identifying sources for all our catechetical content.4 From these we derive the substance of vital catechesis, and together they form an ever-present backdrop for all catechetical ministry. Although these could certainly be framed or enumerated differently, we here specify the following five as the essential bases of our catechizing:
• the Triune God, who alone is God and has revealed himself to us
• the Scriptures, the faithful and trustworthy record of God’s revelation
• the Story, which is unfolded in those Scriptures
• the Gospel, which is both apex and summary of the Story
• the Faith, which includes the Gospel and its implications
The Five Founts
1. THE TRIUNE GOD,WHO HAS REVEALED HIMSELF TO US
Of course, ultimate source of all things good is the living God. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). The almighty God is immortal, invisible, and incomprehensible. This one true God, according to Christian theology, eternally exists in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This Holy Trinity is an eternal, perfect, loving community. The Triune God, however, would be inaccessible to finite and fallen humans were it not for God’s gracious selfrevelation. “No one has seen God at any time,” writes John, “but God the one and only Son, has revealed him” (John 1:18). To have seen Jesus, the Son, is to have seen the Father (John 14:9). Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we are invited into personal knowledge of and vital communion with the living God. That is, we are invited to participate in the life and love, joy and peace, righteousness and holiness that always characterize the Holy Trinity. How do we know these things? We know them because this good God has chosen to reveal them to us in the Scriptures.
2. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES THE FAITHFUL RECORD OF GOD’SREVELATION
All Scripture, as Paul wrote to Timothy, “is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). The Bible is true in all that it teaches us and is the only fully authoritative guide for life and faith. The ministry of catechesis may well employ various traditions as handed down through the history of the church, but these must ultimately be tested and approved by appeal to the teachings of the Bible.
Holy Scripture must always be allowed to have the last word. To put it bluntly, our God is a speaking God who has used particular Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words, arranged in sentences and paragraphs in documents of canonical status, to open his mind to us and tell us things—specifically, to tell us of his covenant love for the lost, and to explain to us what he has done, is doing, and will do to re-create and reorder his lapsed world, with ourselves as part of it. This is the revealed truth by which he now calls his believing people, the new humanity, to live.
3. THE REDEMPTIVE STORY, WHICH IS UNFOLDED IN THOSE SCRIPTURES
The Scriptures record for us the marvelous Story of God’s redemptive dealings with all that he created, especially with humankind. The Story can be conceived as having various acts or movements. A familiar and very simple outline traces the Story through these four acts: creation, fall, redemption, culmination. There are of course many other ways the Story might be outlined. The vital thing is that God has acted, is acting, and will act in and through Jesus Christ to reconcile all things to himself. In this Story we learn that we, as God’s people, have already been reconciled to God through the cross of Christ. And having been reconciled we ourselves have been made ministers of reconciliation.
4. THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL, WHICH IS BOTH THE APEX AND SUMMARY OF THE STORY
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is both the climactic element and the vital summary of this great Story. This Gospel itself can be summarized in three words:
“God Saves Sinners.” By this we mean that, God—the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing; saves—does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies; sinners—men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, powerless, unable to lift a finger to do God’s will or better their spiritual lot.5
The good news of the Gospel is not only the apex and summary of the Story; it must also always be the very heart of our catechizing.
5. THE FAITH, WHICH INCLUDES THE GOSPEL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LIVING
We saw in chapter 2 that the New Testament presents two related but distinct conceptions of faith. There is our faith by which we respond to God’s revelation of his character, deeds, promises, and will. Such faith is described and illustrated in Hebrews 11. And there is the Faith, that is, the good deposit of God’s revelation to us through Christ and the apostles. This Faith, once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3), is to be safeguarded, contended for, obeyed, and passed on from generation to generation. When we speak of catechesis as a process, one of our key goals is to nurture faith in the former sense. When we speak of the content of the catechism, our goal is to properly teach the Faith in the latter sense. Here is a topical outline of what, at a minimum, actually constitutes “the Faith.”
1. The glorious Gospel of the blessed God (1 Tim. 1:11), and these further dimensions of the Faith that derive from the Gospel:
2. the sound doctrine that conforms to the Gospel (1 Tim. 1:10);
3. the life-giving benefits that flow from the Gospel (2 Tim. 1:10); and
4. the way of living that expresses and reflects the truth of the Gospel
(Titus 2:1).6
It is clear from the above that the Gospel is as central to our notion of the Faith as it is to what we have called the Story. Indeed, we could properly call the Faith “the Faith of the Gospel” (a Pauline expression; Phil. 1:27). But whereas the Story presents the vital teachings of Scripture in a narrative framework, the Faith presents them in a historically informed, thematic, and theological framework. Both approaches are biblically affirmed and exemplified, and each has its part to play in a sound ministry of catechesis.
Five Ways of Framing Catechesis
Each of the five founts could be taken up in its own right as the principal source or resource from which to work as we design and implement our catechesis. In other words, each can also provide us with a way of framing, or conceptualizing and organizing, our instruction.
1. A CATECHESIS OF THE TRINITY
Some may choose to build their entire approach to catechesis around the doctrine of the Trinity. Such an approach is suggested by numerous documents regarding catechetical renewal in the Catholic church. In the National Directory for Catechesis, for example, we read, “The harmony and coherence of the Christian message require that the different truths of the Faith be organized around a center, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity: ‘the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them.’”7 This emphasis on the Triune God is first in what is described as a “hierarchy of truths” within Catholic doctrine.8 In recent years many evangelical theologians have also shown a keen interest in the Trinity as an organizing principle for displaying the life and ministry of the church. Few, however, have specifically related this to the ministry of catechesis; but for some that will surely be the next step.
From such a way of framing our efforts the goal of catechesis will be that our instruction leads us more deeply into a living communion with the Triune God. James B. Torrance suggests the following definition of Christian worship: “Worship is the gift of participating through the Spirit in the incarnate Son’s communion with the Father.”9 We might choose to conceptualize our catechesis as leading us toward a fuller experience of such worship.
Catechetical content, in this framework, can be divided according to the three Persons of the Godhead so that it becomes explicitly a catechesis of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As we saw in chapter 3, catechesis has actually had a Trinitarian form from its earliest days. Building upon the baptismal formula of Matthew 28:18–20, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” creedal formulations developed in this way. Both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed have clear Trinitarian structures. These creeds have long been a centerpiece for catechizing, as we have seen already. The renewed emphasis on Trinitarian theology in recent years may make this a particularly appealing framework for today’s church leaders, particularly in mainline denominations where liberal incursions have long obscured Trinitarian truth.
2. A CATECHESIS OF THE SCRIPTURES
To be sure, all Christian catechesis should be biblically based and Scripture-rich. In some Christian communities, though, cultural sensitivity may require taking this even further. We have already noted the fact that in some church circles there is a strong sentiment that may be, and often is, expressed as follows: “No book but the Bible; no creed but Christ; no law but love.” Those seeking to establish or renew sound ministries of catechesis in such communities may find that building their catechetical content primarily upon a biblical framework and employing self-consciously biblical language will reduce resistance from church members. Other church leaders whose members really offer no such protestations but whose congregations, for whatever reason, have not been exposed to regular Bible teaching may well feel that a primarily or exclusively biblical way of framing things is for them the best possible course.
Such a framework may focus on systematically working through the Scriptures, both from the pulpit and in additional settings that are more specifically geared for formal catechesis. Cyril of Jerusalem, we are told, began his own formal catechesis by teaching through “the entire Scriptures,” which he managed to do, apparently, in a very brief span of time.10 More compelling for many in “Bible only” communities will be the example of Jesus instructing the apostles after his resurrection. Jesus said to them, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). These three terms represented the threefold division of the Hebrew Bible. Luke explains, “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).
The primary goal of such a “catechesis of the Scriptures” could be well summarized by this text from 2 Timothy:
From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (3:15–17 NIV)
Surveys of the Scriptures, feeding at each point into the realities of biblical faith and living, will always constitute a nourishing diet.
3. A CATECHESIS OF THE STORY
A similar but distinct approach to framing our catechesis would be to take a narrative approach. Here the primary aim will be to help congregants understand God’s grand redemptive work so that they may more fully take their appropriate places in that Story. To the disciples on the road to Emmaus Jesus unfolded the biblical testimony that pointed to his own life, suffering, death, and subsequent glorification. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). These things were not separate from the Story like hidden objects in a child’s puzzle picture but consisted of patterns, performances, and predictions integral to the Story itself. Knowledge of the Story thus was, and remains, necessary for full knowledge of Christ.
Augustine believed that this Story, which he called the narratio, was the best place to begin procatechesis—that is, the preliminary catechizing of those interested in becoming Christians or at least in learning more about the Faith. To such as these, Augustine wrote, the catechist should tell the Story in a compelling fashion. Rather than surveying all of the Scriptures, emphasis will be placed on a selective “unrolling of the scroll” before the hearers, highlighting the most critical episodes in the drama. For Augustine the narratio would extend from creation to the current age of the church.
A Story-based catechesis might be very congenial to many church leaders today, especially where it is perceived that the surrounding culture is largely postmodern in orientation. While a feature of postmodern thought is its dismissal of all forms of a single metanarrative that fits all persons in all cultures, interest in hearing the stories of others is irrepressibly human and often very keen. Thus some evangelistic ministries have moved from more propositional presentations of the Gospel to more narrative-based approaches.11
4. A CATECHESIS OF THE GOSPEL
At the heart of the Story, as we have seen, is the Gospel. Using the language of “passing on” what he himself had received, Paul wrote to the Corinthians that “what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared” (1 Cor. 15:3–5). We can see from his language—“of first importance”— that in any faithful approach to catechesis, the Gospel must have a place of priority.
And the Gospel will be not only the starting place for our catechizing; it will guide us from beginning to end. In terms of catechetical aims this approach envisions believers and churches becoming, like the apostle Paul, wholly “set apart for the Gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1). There is recognition that the Gospel alone imparts life and brings immortality to light (2 Tim. 1:10), enabling believers to truly live for the glory of God. In terms of catechetical content, then, the notion is not that we move from the “milk” of the Gospel to the “meat” of something more profound. Rather, we move from the milk of the Gospel to the meat of the Gospel, and, to change the metaphor, to know that we are never able to fully plumb its glorious depths. Neither on earth nor in heaven will Christians ever grow weary of contemplating the truth, faithfulness, justice, and love of the Father and the obedient, self-humbling, self-sacrificing love of the Son, which the Gospel so wonderfully highlights.
5. A CATECHESIS OF THE FAITH
The fifth of our possible frames would be a catechesis built around the concept of the Faith once for all delivered to the saints. This is clearly a very ancient form of conceptualizing such ministries. From many of the ancient fathers we hear reference to the Faith, or the “rule of faith,” as embodying the proper content in which to catechize others.
While such language was often equated by the fathers with some sort of creedal confession, we believe that the biblical use of the term “the Faith” not only extends to what we believe or should believe, but also addresses how we are to live as well as teaching us where to find the power for such living. In other words, as we saw above, a catechesis in the Faith would include attention to: (1) the Gospel itself; (2) the sound doctrine that conforms to the Gospel; and (3) the life-giving power of the Gospel that enables us to walk in (4) the manner of living that is in line with the Gospel. The goal of such a catechetical framework would be that we more fully believe the Faith and become more obedient to it (see Acts 6:7).
Progressive Fount, Interrelated Framework, Vital Content
There is yet another way to conceive of the above five emphases. Perhaps the reader has already discerned how these can be seen as a progressive fount in the following way. All begins, of course, with the Triune God; from him, through him, and to him are all things. This God has revealed himself to us in the Scriptures. The Scriptures tell us of God’s great redemptive Story, the centerpiece of which is the Gospel. The Gospel and its implications constitute the Faith. It is this sort of conception of things that we advocate here. This fivefold relationship could be diagrammed very simply as follows:
the Triune God ¨ the Scriptures ¨ the Story ¨ the Gospel ¨ the Faith
Thinking of the five as being interrelated in this way lends itself to an equally interrelated framework for catechizing. Thus rather than choosing one of our five elements as a primary framework, we would advocate using all of them. Each clearly has something important to contribute to our understanding of the whole. Each has biblical validity. Each has historical precedents. Each, as well, has contemporary practical value and appeal. As the author of Ecclesiastes put it, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Eccles. 3:1). Our approach to catechesis involves a similar conviction about the five elements. There is a time when each of our five features provides just the right emphasis. And there is never a time when any of them should leave our view completely.
Beyond serving as sources for catechizing and/or as ways of framing our catechesis, each of the five elements we have identified can and should be part of its actual content. Certainly catechesis will have much to say about the Triune God—his nature, names, character, decrees, deeds, and more. In a manner of speaking, one might even claim that the God of the Scriptures is the only proper subject matter for catechesis. In any case, attention to God must be preeminent in any faithful and fruitful catechetical work. Both the Westminster catechisms begin by establishing an unmistakable God-centeredness and both offer definitions and descriptions of God within their first few questions and answers. In less formal catechesis—such as through our worship, fellowship, and service—God must remain equally central in all our pursuits.
The Scriptures should be read, proclaimed, and explained in all our various settings of preaching and teaching, including those of formal catechesis. The Story, too, is vital content not only for inquirers in the Faith but for all the faithful as well. Annual observance of the church year provides one important opportunity for retelling the Story and reminding us of our places in that Story.
The Gospel is proper content not only for the earliest stages of catechesis but for every phase. Many have argued that every sermon must contain some proclamation of the Gospel. The Gospel is also visually portrayed and proclaimed through the sacraments. In formal catechesis, too, we may move forward in the Gospel, but we never move on from the Gospel. The Faith, as we have said, includes the Gospel and its implications for life and doctrine. It also constitutes critical content for catechesis, as we shall see.
4—Four Fixtures of the Catechism
• the Apostles’ Creed
• the Decalogue
• the Lord’s Prayer
• the sacraments
In chapter 3 we observed that the content of the historic catechisms focused on expositions of the Creed, the Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer, together with instruction on the sacraments. Sometimes this content is presented as a fourfold formulation. At other times, it is presented as a threefold pattern to which instructions about the sacraments have been appended. Luther spoke consistently of the “three parts” of the catechism—Commandments, Creed, and Lord’s Prayer—as the ancient inheritance of Christendom. But he certainly included in his catechisms instruction on the sacraments. Is it three parts or four then? Perhaps we should think in the language of a Hebrew proverb and say, “There are three parts of the catechism, four that can instruct us.”12 Under the next heading of this chapter—“Three Facets of the Faith”—we will argue for a threefold pattern in catechesis. At present, however, we concern ourselves with our inherited catechisms and their four historic fixtures.
The table below indicates the arrangement of the four fixtures in various catechisms. As we saw in chapter 3, Luther and Calvin were very intentional about the placement of the Ten Commandments relative to the Creed. Calvin’s first catechism followed Luther’s proposed order, but he changed that order in the Geneva Catechism. The Heidelberg Catechism aimed at the best of both worlds. Explaining the rest of his ordering choices, Ursinus, author of the Heidelberg Catechism, declared that the sacraments follow the Creed because they also help to unfold the Gospel, and the Lord’s Prayer follows the Decalogue because both of these parts are concerned with grateful response to God’s redeeming work in Christ.
The Westminster catechisms contain no exposition of the Creed (though in printed editions it is often appended at the end, without commentary). Had it been included, though, it would surely have been ordered as in Calvin’s Geneva Catechism. In place of an exposition of the Creed, the Westminster catechisms contain various theological teachings, including an unfolding of God’s redemptive work—a task which others left to the Creed. The earliest Anglican catechism, that of 1549, was very brief and also followed the order of Calvin’s second catechism. The most recent of the Catholic catechisms uses an order like that of the Heidelberg and a similar rationale is offered.
Roman Catholics have perhaps been most explicit in conceiving of the catechism in this fourfold way. From at least the time of Trent—and the catechetical renewal that sprung thence—these four elements have been referred to as “the Four Pillars” of the catechism. The Creed is set forth as having priority of place among the four. The twentieth-century Jesuit catechetical leader Josef Andreas Jungmann writes, “The Creed should have precedence—according to the whole of Christian tradition—since, to say no more, the main block of the distinctive teachings of faith are found there.”15
The priority of the Creed helps us see how these four parts flow naturally from the five founts. The last of our five founts was “the Faith.” Such language is, as we saw in chapter 2, very important biblically. This biblical language was taken up by the earliest church fathers who, as we noted above, sometimes used the phrase or a variant—the “rule of faith”—to refer to the emerging creedal formulas of the church. Returning to our five founts, we could say that both the Story and the Faith represent expansions upon the Gospel. The Story expands upon the Gospel in narrative form; the Faith expands in a form that is somewhat more propositional and didactic. Both approaches, we have already argued, are helpful and have important roles to play in catechetical ministry.
The four parts of the catechism represent a sort of distilling of the Faith. We can trace its movements as follows:
There are five founts, or frames, for catechesis 
the fifth element of which is the Faith which has been traditionally communicated through the four fixtures of the catechism.
The rationale for this four-part design of the catechism among both Reformers and Catholic catechists is based upon two primary convictions. The first conviction is that these ingredients of the catechism represent an ancient pattern. We noted this already in chapter 3. The second conviction is that this pattern is wise and comprehensive and addresses all major aspects of the spiritual life for both individuals and congregations. The Creed addresses fundamental Christian beliefs and is thus a sort of primer on theology. The Commandments address Christian behavior and are thus a sort of primer on ethics. The Lord’s Prayer helps the believer in his or her communion with God and is thus a sort of primer on prayer. The sacraments also help us in our communion with God, as well as helping us celebrate the Gospel, and are thus a sort of primer on congregational worship.
The following table illustrates how these four components have sometimes been viewed in this comprehensive scheme of things. Note that the sacraments have sometimes been regarded as a separate category in catechisms, but sometimes not. A biblical foundation or precedent for this fourfold content can be seen in the four commitments of Acts 2:42. We have indicated this in the bottom row of the table. The numbers before each item represent the order in which the four elements occur in the various sources.
In the ancient catechumenate, as we noted in chapter 3, elements such as the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer were typically reserved for the final stage of catechetical preparation for baptism. Teaching about the sacraments sometimes preceded the actual celebration of those sacraments. Others, however, preferred new believers to have the tactile and spiritual experience prior to receiving the instruction. While instruction in the Ten Commandments was not a common catechetical practice until medieval times, instruction in the moral behavior that befits Christians was a constant from the earliest efforts to catechize new believers and often included explanation of various biblical commandments.
As we will affirm below, we believe that instruction in these four parts of the catechism is still very profitable today. Luther’s catechetical instructions on the sacraments were placed alongside his more basic catechetical materials on the Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. His convictions regarding these “three parts” could well be applied to all four elements. In these, wrote Luther, “everything contained in Scripture is comprehended in short, plain, and simple terms, for the dear fathers or apostles, whoever they were, have thus summed up the doctrine, life, wisdom, and learning which constitute the Christian’s conversation, conduct, and concern.”20 Luther’s basic conviction has been shared in one degree or another by the majority of Christians through most of the past two millennia. We ought not to be so hasty, then, in dismissing, as though they were no longer relevant, these four parts of the historic catechism in its various forms.
3—Three Facets of the Faith
• The Truth
• The Life
• The Way
As we noted above, the traditional structure of the catechism has sometimes been thought of as having four parts, and sometimes as having three. Thus Augustine’s Enchiridion—which featured expositions of the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the double commandment of love—was constructed on the triad of faith, hope, and love. Luther, as we saw, added instruction about the sacraments, but referred again and again to the “three parts.” Jungmann similarly speaks of the three summaries or formulae as forming the heart of the catechism, but continues immediately by suggesting that teaching on the sacraments “can be considered separately.”21
More recently, in his contemporary catechetical work Growing in Christ, J.I. explains that his book is a series of studies on “the three formulae which have always been central in Christian teaching—the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments—plus Christian baptism.”22 The idea of the Hebrew proverb again sounds apt: “three parts, even four.” What are we to make of all this?
Here is a suggestion: The four parts of the catechism represent and bear witness to three facets of the Faith. Our journey, then, will look like this:
There are five founts, or frames, for catechesis the fifth element of which is the Faith which has been traditionally communicated through the four fixtures of the catecism which together bear witness to the three facets of the Faith.
While the “witnesses” are temporary, the facets of the Faith to which they point are enduring. When faith gives way to sight, we will no longer need a confession of faith, a creed, an “I believe.” When we are in God’s presence and delivered from all our present sinful proclivities we will no longer need commands to guide our behavior. When the Lord has returned we will no longer need to pray for his kingdom to come or his will to be done on earth. Nor will we need to continue the sacraments that testify to Christ’s death and resurrection “until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).
Though the Creed is a temporal aid, the truth to which it testifies is enduring. The Triune God in whom we confess our faith is eternal and unchanging. The Decalogue instructs us in the way we should conduct ourselves. That way will still be the way of love and righteousness even when the need for commandments is no more. The life that we receive and celebrate through the Gospel is life abundant and eternal, granting a living relationship with the living God. This covenant relationship, which both sacraments express and celebrate, endures even when the need for ritual remembrance has passed and we no longer need to recite the Lord’s Prayer.
We have chosen to call these three facets of the Faith “the Truth,” “the Life,” and “the Way,” making use of the language of Jesus in John 14:6. 23 These were not three words randomly strung together by our Lord. Rather, they represent three critical strands of biblical teaching that are found in both Old and New Testaments.
The Truth refers to all God has revealed concerning himself, especially in Jesus Christ. This is daily shared by and among God’s people through preaching, teaching, and living in light of the Gospel (Gal. 2:5; Eph. 1:13) and all the sound doctrine that accompanies it (1 Tim. 1:10). The Truth is to be believed, adhered to, and loved. Many, tragically, reject this Truth and are lost (2 Thess. 2:10–12). Jesus both testified to the Truth (John 18:37) and is himself the Truth incarnate (John 14:6), the totality of God’s revelation concerning himself (John 1:1, 14, 18; Col. 1:15; 2:9; Heb. 1:1–3).
The Life, especially in John’s writings, bespeaks a vital and eternal relationship with the living God (John 17:3). Jesus offers this Life to others (John 3:16; 4:10; 5:21; 10:10; 11:25–36; 20:31; 1 John 5:11–13) and is himself the Life incarnate. The Life is given through the ministry of the Holy Spirit to all who trust Christ (John 7:37–39; Rom. 8:9). We first experience the Life through the gift of new birth as, wholly by grace, we are made the children of God (John 1:12).
The Way is an expression found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, typically describing the manner of living that God requires and delights in (Pss. 1:6; 32:8; Isa. 30:21). Sometimes expressed as “the way of the Lord,” “the way of the righteous,” or “the way of life,” it is distinguished from “the way of the world,” “the way of the wicked,” and “the way of death.” Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, speaks of two roads, one of which leads to destruction and the other of which leads to life (Matt. 7:13–14). Christians were early known as followers of “the Way” (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). God’s way is, in simplest terms, that we live in love of God and neighbor (Mark 12:29–31). As with the Truth and the Life, Jesus incarnated this Way—he, and he only, fully and consistently lived in obedience to these two greatest commandments. Furthermore, by walking in this Way faithfully, he has become for all who believe in him a new and living way into the Holy of Holies (Heb. 10:20). It is through the obedience of this one man (Rom. 5:19), in life and in death (Phil. 2:8), that we are enabled to know the Father and be in right relationship with him (John 14:6–9).
We shall be examining all this in much more detail in chapter 6, so we leave off for the moment and move on to the next item in our 5–4–3–2–1 outline.
2—Two Fundamentals of the Way
• Love the Lord your God
• Love your neighbor as yourself
The third of the three facets of the Faith we explored above concerns our conduct, or manner of life in this world. We have labeled this facet “the Way.” Our movement to this point looks like this:
There are five founts, or frames, for catechesis the fifth element of which is the Faith which has been traditionally communicated through the four fixtures of the catechism which together bear witness to the three facets of the Faith the third of which is the Way.
As we saw above, the Way is an important concept in both Testaments of the Bible, as well as in the history of catechesis. In The Didache of the Apostles (written sometime in the late first or early second century) the opening words run as follows: “There are two ways, the way of life and the way of death.” These two divergent paths have also been known by other pairings, including: the way of the righteous versus the way of the wicked (Ps. 1:6); the hard way that leads to life versus the easy way that leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13–14); and “the Way vs. not-the-way.”24
There is a path, or way or manner of living, that has been designed by our loving God. It is a path of blessing, a road that leads to life and shalom. Besides those designations we have already noted, it is called in Scripture “the way of the good” (Prov. 2:20), “the way of wisdom” (Prov. 4:11), “the way of holiness” (Isa. 35:8), and “the way of God” (Luke 20:21). Jesus claimed to be the Way. His life and death both illustrate the Way and become for us a new and living way to a vital relationship through him with God (Heb. 10:20).
In a world of deep moral confusion, how does one discern the Way and distinguish it from paths that simply are not-the-way? According to the Hebrew Scriptures, the Way is discerned through contemplation upon the Torah. The Hebrew root from which the word torah springs means, as we saw earlier, “to shoot” or “to cast” and has the connotation of hitting a target, of pointing or guiding in the right direction. From the same root come words for “parent” and “teacher,” as well as a key verb for “teaching.” Thus the Torah—in written or embodied form—works to show weary wanderers the Way that they should walk. Isaiah 30:21 puts it like this: “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’”
A major goal of Christian catechesis is precisely this directive guidance in the Way. Christian teachers are to be models of the manner of living that God requires and desires. And we are to instruct others in the precepts of the Way. The Decalogue, as we have seen, is the primer in the Way historically affirmed by both Jews and Christians. Christian catechesis in this facet has also regularly included instruction from the Sermon on the Mount as well as from a variety of other biblical texts. The biblical book of Proverbs and the letter of James both prominently feature wisdom for walking in God’s Way.
In simplest terms, the Way of the Lord is revealed as the way of love. To love is to walk in God’s Way. Jesus affirmed more than once that the two greatest of all the commandments were these: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength . . . and you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:29–31; Luke 10:25–37). This double commandment of love is regarded by both Jews and Christians as a summary of the Ten Words and thus a summary of “the whole duty of man” (see Eccles. 12:13).
To love God and to love one’s neighbor are the two nonnegotiable fundamentals of the Way. The Way is not a more vital facet of the Faith than either the Truth or the Life. But the Truth and the Life converge to enable us to walk in the Way. We can in fact articulate the goal of all catechetical ministry as follows: Taught by the Truth and liberated by the Life, we walk in the Way.
That obedience to God’s Way must be our aim is made abundantly clear by a host of biblical teachings. Jesus was especially concerned with obedience (see, for example, Matt. 28:20; Luke 37; John 13:17; 14:15). Any attention to the Truth and to the Life that does not lead to a sincere desire to walk in the Way profoundly misses the mark and dishonors God. In the ancient catechumenate this emphasis on obedience—on raising up a people who were distinguishable by the fact that they walked in the Way of Jesus—was very clear. At times in church history we have lost sight of this goal. Any serious attempts at catechetical renewal today must once again restore prominence to the life of love to which Christians are called. The two fundamentals of the Way—loving God and loving one’s neighbor—must never be allowed to leave our sights.
Even as we point others toward these two fundamentals of the Way, however, we acknowledge that in all of human history there is only One who has fully obeyed and fully walked that Way. It is to Jesus Christ we must turn not only to see the Way lived out but also to receive forgiveness for our own deviance (from the Latin prefix de and noun via—a departing “from the way”) and new power to begin walking in the Way that pleases God. Through Christ alone a “new and living way” has been opened for us to experience fellowship with the Triune God. We shall say more of this later.
1—One Focus of the Catechetical Content
• We Proclaim Christ
We come finally to the one focus of all our catechetical content. It is simply this: We proclaim Christ. This was Paul’s stated content in his own ministry of teaching, a ministry which aimed at presenting “everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28). Luther was convinced that what every Christian needs is to “learn Christ.”25 If Christians must learn Christ then we who catechize and preach must faithfully and fully proclaim Christ.
This Christ-centered approach is evident in all that we have discussed in this chapter. Each element of the fivefold fount points to Christ. The Triune God has revealed himself in Christ. The Scriptures testify to Christ. Christ is the central character in the redemptive Story. The Gospel is the proclamation of what God has done, and does now, in and through Christ. All of this is at the heart of the Faith that we pass on to others.
The four fixtures of the catechism likewise lead to Christ. The Creed focuses on the person and work of Christ. The Decalogue is the grounding, guardian, and guide that leads us as needy sinners to Christ (Gal. 3:24), who alone has completely kept these commands. The Lord’s Prayer is the pattern of praise and petition which Christ himself taught; it looks ahead to his coming return and the final establishing of his kingdom. And the sacraments are signs and seals of Christ’s saving work in our lives.
By naming the three facets of the Faith as we did—the Way, the Truth, and the Life—we were reminded that in all our teaching it is really Christ himself that we proclaim (Col. 1:28). The two fundamentals of the Way, love of God and love of neighbor, have been fully obeyed by Jesus alone in all of human history. Only from his example, which elucidates his teaching, do we learn what this double love really means. And only through his grace do we find forgiveness for all our wanderings and power to begin walking in the Way of Christian love ourselves.
The content of our catechesis, then, if we may put it so, must always be Christ-obsessed. It must ever be relayed and received as the expression of minds and hearts, the horizon of whose outlook is wholly filled from every angle by the figure—indeed the face—of Jesus Christ in person. We will see also that the best practices of catechesis are those that have been modeled for us by Jesus, the master Catechist. And as we have already seen, the proper aim of our catechetical labors is also all about Jesus Christ. In Catechesis Tradendae, his 1979 call to catechetical renewal in the Catholic church, Pope John Paul II explicitly promoted this very sort of Christocentrism:
At the heart of catechesis we find, in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, “the only Son from the Father . . . full of grace and truth,” who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising, is living with us forever. It is Jesus who is “the way, and the truth, and the life.”
The definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ: only He can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity.26
Evangelical Protestants, of course, should be just as focused on the preeminence of Christ in all that we do, including our ministries of catechesis, as was John Paul II. It is Jesus Christ we must proclaim, and the imparting of true knowledge of him must be our goal. “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,” and we “have been filled in him” (Col. 2:9–10). To know him truly and experientially must be our greatest ambition (Phil. 3:7). Toward this goal, according to “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,” we must ever press on and encourage others to press on with us (Phil. 3:14). May we ever keep our eyes on the prize as we catechize. (Pardon our picayune doggerel; it just happened, and will now serve to jog our memories, as perhaps it will jog yours.)
With such a Christocentric focus it is fitting that catechesis also be Gospelcentric. We earlier identified the Gospel as part of the fivefold fount of catechetical content. We saw also that it could serve as a possible overall framework for a faithful ministry of catechesis. In addition to these things we should also see the Gospel as a vital part of the actual content in which we catechize others. Indeed, according to the apostle, the Gospel must have priority of place in such ministry. In the next chapter, we examine this notion more fully.
Concluding Remarks
At the end of our survey of sources for essential content for catechizing, the movement within the 5–4–3–2–1 pattern we have followed looks like this:
There are five founts, or frames, for catechesis the fifth element of which is the Faith which has been traditionally communicated through the four fixtures of the catechism which together bear witness to the three facets of the Faith the third of which is the Way which has two fundamentals: love of God and love of neighbor which Jesus alone has fully obeyed, and whose grace alone enables us to begin to obey. Therefore Jesus Christ must ever be the one focus of all our ministries of catechesis.
How shall we make practical use of these sources and resources for catechetical content? Our proposal will be unfolded in the following chapters. In brief, here is the approach we intend to take.
As to the fivefold fount, we acknowledge that all of the five elements are proper sources for catechesis. In practical terms, we utilize the Holy Scriptures as our primary source for catechetical material.
As to framing our content, we adopt a hybrid approach that includes elements of the Story, the Gospel, and the Faith. These, as we have already suggested, are bound together in many ways. The Gospel is both apex and summary of the Story. The Faith is, in essence, comprised of the Gospel and its various implications for life and teaching. Our frame combines all three of these elements.
As to the actual content of instruction, nearly every element that we have identified in the present chapter must be taken up, somehow, in our teaching ministries. Where do we begin? We begin as the apostles did, with “the glorious Gospel of the blessed God” (1 Tim. 1:10).