By Alex Fogleman
It’s been a remarkable year for the Catechesis Institute. We participated in several gatherings that fostered rich conversations and relationships around catechesis. I say often that, while a catechism is a text, catechesis is about people—about what happens when the gospel takes shape amid actual lives in actual places. At year’s end, I’m more hopeful than ever about what God is doing in and among the catechists I’ve gotten to know this year.
I especially enjoyed:
A seminar in Dallas featuring D.H. Williams on apologetics, with two other CI fellows—Jonathan Bailes and Dustin Messer—bridging the gap between the patristic world and the modern parish.
Several gatherings over the summer—including the Anglican Way Institute, the Robert Webber Center, and the ACNA provincial council, where I began a new role with the ACNA as Director of the Provincial Catechesis Team.
In the fall, we co-hosted an event with John Behr at Baylor on the topic of theological anthropology, with Natalie Carnes and Thomas Breedlove responding, which you can watch here.
We also co-hosted our first Catechists’ Retreat, along with two of our partner organizations: the Anglican Catechist Training School and Iona House, with Father Jonathan Kanary leading discussion on catechesis and the Book of Common Prayer.
In October, we also co-hosted a wonderful public lecture and reading seminar on Augustine’s catechesis with Michael Cameron at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI.
A seminar in Forth Worth on catechesis with the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, hosted by one of our fellows, Stephen Presley.
Wonderful gatherings in San Antonio surrounding the annual ETS/AAR-SBL conferences. Especially delightful to reconnect with the Society of Anglican Theologians and to present at ETS on the Catechesis Institute to a panel on retrieval theology projects organized by Stefana Laing.
In addition, we expanded our partner centers and fellows network this year. I’m delighted to welcome Paul Gutacker, Kyle Hughes, Don Richmond, Keith Stanglin, Charles Ringma, and Paul Gavrilyuk to the roster of CI fellows. Truly an exceptional group of people.
It was also an especially productive year of writing for our fellows. This year might just be the Year of Catechesis Books! A few highlights include:
Hans Boersma’s Pierced by Love, a thoughtful and often moving account of Lectio Divina, or “spiritual reading,” which won one of Credo’s book-of-the-year awards.
Paul Gutacker’s, Old Faith in a New Nation, on the surprising role of church history in early American Protestantism. (Also check out Paul’s review of Andrew Wilson’s Remaking the World in Christianity Today.)
Kyle Hughes’s two part, “Anglican Confirmation for Suspicious Evangelicals” in The North American Anglican. (Also check out Kyle’s recent interview with Mars Hill Audio about his 2022 book, Teaching for Spiritual Formation.)
Greg Peters’s article, “The Necessity of Monastic Asceticism,” in The Journal of Spirituality and Soul Care.
Curtis Freeman’s Pilgrim Journey, a mystagogical sequel to his catechetical Pilgrim Letters—truly an outstanding pair of catechetical works written in the ancient-evangelical, bapto-catholic framework.
Hanna Lucas’ Sensing the Sacred, on patristic catechesis as a way of being “capacitated” to the divine mysteries. (NB: On January 9, join us virtually to celebrate her new book!)
Finally, my own Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation came out in October, and we’ll do a book launch with Brazos Fellows in Waco on January 18. (You can hear a podcast conversation about it on “Cardigan and Collar” with David Luy and Maurice Lee; I had a great time with these folks.)
Looking ahead to next year, I’m really looking forward to Stephen Presley’s Cultural Sanctification, about what we can learn from the early church about engaging culture without forsaking the gospel. Look out for this one in the spring—as well as a CI event related to it.
Again, such a great year! The catechesis movement is in full swing, and it’s exciting to be at the forefront.
As we come to the end of the year, do please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our work. We depend on the generosity of our supporters, without whom we could not carry out our mission to equip the church through the renewal of Christian catechesis. Thank you all so much for being a part of this project, in whatever way that looks like, and every blessing to you and yours this Christmas season.