Catechism, any compendious system of teaching drawn up in the form of question and answer. It is derived, through low Latin, from a Greek word katēcheō, which means to resound, or sound into one's ears; to instruct by word of mouth. Persons undergoing instruction in the principles of Christianity were hence called Catechumens (q.v.).
Catechisms have long formed one of the principal means employed for popular instruction in the truths and duties of the Christian religion. The composition of the first catechisms was, in all probability, suggested by the ordinary oral instruction of catechumens, and was intended for the help both of teachers and pupils. It appears to have been in the 8th and 9th centuries that the first regular catechisms were compiled, of which that by Kero, a monk of St Gall, that of Notker Labeo of St Gall, and that ascribed to Otfried of Weissenburg in Alsace, are among the most noted. At later periods the use of catechisms prevailed chiefly among the opponents of the hierarchy, as among the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Wyclifites, and, above all, among the Bohemian Brethren. The term catechism appears to have been first employed in its present sense among the latter. At an early period in the history of the Reformation the Reformers began to avail themselves of this method of popular instruction, and their catechisms became important instruments in that great religious movement. After Luther published in 1520 his primer of religion, entitled A Short Form of the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, several catechisms were prepared by leading Protestant theologians, that of Brenz (1527-28) being the most notable. In 1525 Justus Jonas and John Agricola had been intrusted with the preparation of a catechism, and Luther's visitation of the Saxon churches in 1528 led to his preparing his Larger and Smaller Catechisms (1529), which found a place among the standards of the Lutheran churches. The Larger he meant to be for teachers, the Smaller for the people. The latter has been constantly reprinted, and is very extensively used at the present day. A number of catechisms were published also by the theologians of the Reformed churches. The most noteworthy are the Geneva and Heidelberg catechisms, and those of Ecolampadius (Basel, 1526), Lco Judæ (Zurich, 1534), and Bullinger (Zurich, 1555). The Geneva catechisms, Larger and Smaller, were the work of Calvin. The latter was published in French in 1536 (Lat. ed. 1538); the former appeared in French in 1541 or 1542 (Lat. ed. 1545), was speedily translated into various languages, and became an acknowledged standard of the Reformed churches, not only in Switzerland but in the Low Countries, in France, and in Hungary. The First Book of Discipline of the Scottish Church (1560) directs that the children be taught this catechism—‘which catechism is the most perfect that ever yet was used in the kirk’—every ‘Sunday’ afternoon in the presence of the people. The Church of Geneva has set aside the authority of Calvin’s catechisms. The Heidelberg or Palatinate Catechism is of greater importance, however, than any other as a standard of the Swiss Reformed churches. It was compiled by the Heidelberg theologians, Caspar Olevianus and Zacharias Ursinus, at the request of the Elector Frederic III. of the Palatinate; it was published in 1563, was approved by several synods, and recognised as a symbolical book by the Synod of Dort in 1619, and has been translated into all the languages of Europe. It is the standard of the Dutch and German Reformed churches of America. A tercentenary edition of this catechism was published in German, Latin, and English at New York in 1863.—King James said at the Hampton Court Conference that in Scotland ‘every one who was the son of a good man’ thought himself competent to write a catechism. The catechisms of the Scottish Reformation must have been numerous. The most popular, until it was superseded by the Westminster Catechism, was John Craig’s Smaller Catechism (Edin. 1581; edited by T. G. Law, 1883).—The doctrines of the Socinians are embodied in the greater and smaller Racovian Catechisms (Polish ed. Racow, 1605; Latin ed. 1609). Besides a catechism of 1660, in the form of a conversation between father and son, said to have been written by George Fox, the Quakers have that of Robert Barclay (1673), in which the answers are in the language of the Bible, the distinctive peculiarities of the sect being involved in the questions.
In the Church of Rome there were several catechisms published in Germany and elsewhere before the Tridentine settlement of doctrine. A Scottish catechism, known as Archbishop Hamilton’s, was issued by authority of a provincial council in 1552, and was ordered to be read in church by the parish priests. But in 1563 the Council of Trent in its twenty-fourth session determined to compose and prescribe for the whole church an authorised form of catechism, which the bishops were to have translated into the vulgar tongue, and expounded to the people by the curates. The work was, however, not carried through by the council itself, and Pius IV. intrusted its completion to a commission of four theologians. Eminent scholars were also appointed to perfect its latinity, and when finished in 1564 it was once again submitted to a new commission under Cardinal Sirletus. It finally appeared in 1566 under the title Catechismus Romanus ex decreto Concilii Tridentini Pii V. Pont. Max. jussu editus. In form it is not catechetical, and it is addressed, not to the people, but to the curates as a guide to them in their instructions. It possesses very high authority, but is ill adapted for popular use. For lay teaching it has fallen into desuetude, and has been superseded by various catechisms of more private origin. The most popular of these were prepared by the Jesuit Peter Canisius. His larger work, entitled Summa Doctrinæ et Institutionis Christianæ, was published in 1554, and the shorter (1556) reached more than 400 editions, and was used in the schools of all countries. In the present day, as a general rule, each diocese possesses a catechism of its own approved by the bishop. In England the short ‘Penny Catechism’ is used by authority of all the bishops in concert.
The catechism called the Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church, was prepared about 1640 by Peter Mogilas, metropolitan of Kief, and received symbolical authority from a synod at Jerusalem in 1672. It is often called the Larger Russian Catechism, to distinguish it from the Smaller Catechism prepared by order of Peter the Great in 1723. These were practically superseded by the catechisms of Platon, metropolitan of Moscow (first published in 1762), and of Philaret, also metropolitan of Moscow, which has since 1839 been in general use in the schools and churches of Russia.—Besides these catechisms, which have a historic interest, or are of importance from their symbolical character, there have appeared at all periods, since the Reformation, many others, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, some doctrinal, some controversial, some devoted to particular subjects, as the sacraments, or to particular purposes, as the preparation of candidates for admission to the Lord’s Supper, some adapted to the mental capacity of very young children, &c. The opinion, however, has become prevalent, that doctrinal abstracts are not the best form in which religion can be presented to the young, and the use of catechisms has accordingly been in some measure relinquished in favour of other methods of instruction.
The catechism of the Church of England with which we are most familiar is the smaller one published in the Book of Common Prayer. It is in two parts: the first contains and explains the Baptismal Covenant, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer; the second explains the two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It is not known with absolute certainty who was the author of the first part; probably Cranmer and Ridley had the principal hand in framing the questions and answers. It was originally put forth in the reign of Edward VI., and condemned as heretical in the reign of Mary, and underwent several modifications from 1549 to 1661. It must not be confounded with Cranmer’s Catechism (1548), which was a larger work, differently arranged, and probably translated chiefly from the Latin catechism of Justus Jonas. This first part of the church catechism was formerly spoken of as the Shorter Catechism. There was a larger church catechism compiled also in the reign of Edward VI. by Poynet, Bishop of Winchester, and published, together with the 42 Articles, in 1553, and it corresponds in some degree with the smaller work above described. It was afterwards revised and enlarged by Dean Nowell, and published in 1570; and, though never officially promulgated by the church, it has some authority from having been approved by the lower house of Convocation. At the Hampton Court Conference (1604), the Shorter Catechism was considered too short, and Nowell’s larger one ‘too long for novices to learn by heart;’ accordingly, at James I.’s suggestion, an addition was made to the former of that explanation of the two sacraments which now forms the second part of the church catechism. This is attributed to Dean Overall. The whole is a work much esteemed by all sections of the church as remarkable for its simplicity, truth, and catholicity. It, however, states sacramental doctrine in a way that is not very acceptable to the extreme Low Church party. Hence, the Prayer-book put forth by the Church of Ireland, while leaving the catechism otherwise untouched, ingeniously interpolates an additional question and answer (based on Article XXVIII.), which, in the opinion of many, tends to modify the ideas suggested by the catechism concerning Holy Communion. Modifications occur, too, in the Catechism of the American Episcopal Church. The rubrics in the Common Prayer-book enjoin the teaching of the catechism in the church on Sundays and holidays after the second lesson at Evening Prayer; and the 59th canon contains a like injunction, imposing penalties on the clergy who neglect this. The custom of catechising in the church had fallen into almost universal disuse, but in many parishes it has been revived with excellent results.
The Larger and Shorter Catechisms, which, with the Westminster Confession of Faith, constitute the standards or symbolical books of the Presbyterian churches throughout the British empire and the United States of America, were compiled by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster (q.v.): the Shorter Catechism 'to be a directory for catechising such as are of weaker capacity;' the Larger, 'for catechising such as have made some proficiency in the knowledge of the Christian religion.' The Larger Catechism was presented to the English House of Commons on 22d October 1647; the Shorter on the 25th November 1647—and both, with proofs added, on or before the 14th April 1648; and in July 1648 both received the sanction of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland—the General Assembly, in the act approving of the Larger Catechism, declaring it to be 'a rich treasure for increasing knowledge among the people of God,' and that 'they bless the Lord that so excellent a catechism has been prepared.' The Shorter Catechism has, however, been far more generally used for the purpose of instruction than the Larger, which has been generally felt to be too minute in its statements, and too burdensome to the memory to be employed as a catechism. Even the Shorter Catechism is regarded by many, who substantially adhere to its doctrine, as carrying the statement of dogmatic theology beyond what is proper for elementary instruction, whilst it has been long felt to be unsuitable for the very young and the very ignorant, and its use is now almost always preceded by that of catechisms more adapted to their capacity. Its influence, however, has been very great in forming the religious opinions, and in exercising and training the intellectual faculties, wherever Presbyterianism has prevailed; for it has been, and still is, in almost universal use among Presbyterians speaking the English language, and to a considerable extent among Independents or Congregationalists both in Britain and America. In Holland also, a translation of it has been much used. It is very generally regarded, by those whose doctrinal views are in accordance with it, as an admirable compend of Christian doctrine and duty. 'The older I grow,' said Carlyle—'and I now stand upon the brink of eternity—the more comes back to me the first sentence in the catechism which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes: "What is the chief end of man?—To glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever."—Catechisms without number had been issued by Puritan divines in England between 1600 and 1645. A large proportion of the members of the Westminster Assembly had previously published catechisms of their own. The authorship of the Assembly's Catechisms has been the subject of much debate, or at least the authorship of the first drafts of them; it being admitted that they were prepared with great care by committees of the Assembly. Probably their authorship is to be ascribed entirely to these committees; and, like the Westminster Confession of Faith, they are thus the result of the joint labours of many.
See Ehrenfeuchter, Geschichte des Katechismus (1857); Niemeyer, Collectio Confessionum (1840); Schaff's History of the Creeds of Christendom (3 vols. New York, 1876; Lond. 1877); and Prof. Mitchell's Catechisms of the Second Reformation (1887).