What is catechesis?
Catechesis is basic but comprehensive instruction in what Christians believe, hope, and love. By grounding Christians in the fundamental doctrines and practices of the faith, it sets the foundations for mature Christian discipleship.
Here’s what we mean by that.
BASIC
Catechesis is about teaching the basic elements of the faith. It is simple but not simplistic, thoughtful but not arcane, practical but not pragmatic. It focuses less on speculative aspects of theology or “hot topics” and more on providing the basic categories in which Christianity is understood and lived. It provides us the grammar to speak to God and neighbor in a genuinely Christian way.
Because it addresses core beliefs and narratives, catechesis is also counter-catechesis. That is, it hits at the level of our most basic convictions about who we are, who God is, and how we ought to live. In our own context, some of these core narratives would include the exclusion of God and religion from public life, the belief that human history is always inclining towards progress, or the idea that human beings have radically autonomous, self-directing wills, who ought to be unconstrained by any outside force.
Catechesis calls these narratives and beliefs into question and offers the gospel of Jesus Christ instead: the good news that Jesus died for our sins and rose to new life, and now rules and redeems through his body the church.
Catechesis, then, is basic in this sense: it cuts to the core of our fundamental beliefs and narratives; it confronts the idols of the age with the truth of the gospel; and it sets the conditions for faithfully living out the gospel in all of life.
COMPREHENSIVE
The second mark of catechesis is that it presents the faith in a comprehensive or systematic manner. It doesn’t just teach one aspect of the faith—either just doctrine or just ethics. It doesn’t just tell an assortment of Bible stories. Catechesis helps us see how the parts fit into the whole; it gives us the big picture—an overarching view of what it means to believe (the doctrinal or intellectual aspect), to hope (the spiritual or affective aspect), and to love (the moral or ethical aspect) as a Christian.
Typically, these three aspects are expressed using three key pillars that form the backbone of many traditional catechisms: the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. But catechesis is more than just teaching a catechism. A catechism is a text, a tool for teaching. Catechesis, on the other hand, is a practice—it’s an art, a pedagogy, one that may or may not use a formal catechism but that nevertheless provides a basic, comprehensive introduction to faith.
As a comprehensive form of Christian instruction, catechesis embodies the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and love.
We can picture it like this:
Together, these three aspects—all working together, depending on each other but not reducible to any one—make up catechesis.
Think about what happens when we leave out one of these. Christianity without doctrine, without faith, is mushy. It lacks substance and meaning. It doesn’t offer anything reliable that can nurture mature Christianity. It leads to heresy, schism, and anemic faith.
Christianity without spirituality, without hope, is a bunch of intellectuals or do-gooders who don’t know how to talk to Jesus. They have all the right answers or they’re committed to doing good work, but there’s no heart, no devotion, no ardent love of Jesus at the center.
Finally, Christianity without ethics, without love, as St. Paul put, is like a clanging bell. We know the right answers, we may pray fervently, but we walk right past Jesus on the street, begging for a cup of a water.
The unique charism of catechesis as a teaching ministry of the church is that it values all three of these together.
Why catechesis?
Christianity has become largely marginalized in the Western world. Basic Christian truths we could once assume are deteriorating, evacuated of any substantive meaning, or simply forgotten. More and more, Christians are losing touch with historic, orthodox Christianity.
We want to introduce new Christians to the faith in a coherent way, or to pass on the faith to the next generation. But too often, by buying into the latest trends in contemporary education or faith formation, we inadvertently smuggle in cultural ideas about God, personhood, morality, and even truth itself. In what Charles Taylor calls "a secular age," belief in God is but one option among many. Now it is this larger pattern of optionality that sets the terms for how Christians hand on the faith.
But by mining the depths of the Christian tradition—by recovering what the church has long known about how to teach the faith—pastors, teachers, parents, and mentors can begin to create pockets of faithful Christian witness. This is what we propose in recovering the ancient art of catechesis.
This video, originally produced by Fr. Ryan Jones for ministry in San Francisco but adapted here for the Catechesis Institute, helpfully explains the early Christian inspiration for recovering catechesis, and what it means for the church today:
Is Catechesis just a fancy word for Sunday School?
In many churches, catechesis is just another word for Sunday School. And that may be okay. But its proper sense is something quite different. Catechesis often involves a period of time, from several months to several years, for learning the essentials of Christian belief, spirituality, and ethics—primarily, again, through expounding the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. It’s a time to learn the Gospel and the basic narrative of Scripture, a time for learning how to love God and neighbor. Catechesis is a long process of converting our minds, our hearts, and our desires. It’s a school for training our loves.
Catechesis, in short, is a unique practice of teaching Christians, both children and adults, the basics of the faith. It shares certain features with Bible study, adult education, Sunday School, or other forms of discipleship, but none of these really capture what catechesis is about. Catechesis aims at passing on the faith in a way that not only informs us about the faith but also seeks to draw us into a changed way of thinking, feeling, and living as Christians.
Catechesis is about learning to walk in the way of the Lord.
Is catechesis just for kids?
No! Catechesis is for all Christians this side of beatitude. Even after one has been initially catechized, one doesn’t leave catechesis behind. Rather, one builds upon that foundation, growing deeper into the essential elements of the faith.
The great reformer Martin Luther warned pastors and parents “never to presume that they have finished learning” the catechism. “Even if they know and understand it completely (which, however, is impossible in this life), there are many benefits and fruits still to be obtained for those who daily read and practice it in thought and speech.” Ongoing catechesis, Luther says, gives us spiritual nourishment and weaponry against the devil. But mainly, it offers us God himself. In catechesis, he says, “the Holy Spirit is present in the reading, repetition, and meditation” of the catechism, bestowing “ever new light and devotion.” When the catechism is daily relished and appreciated, there “two or three are gathered together in My name, and I am in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20).
§§§§
Catechesis is a unique and powerful ministry of the church. All churches catechize, but only some do so intentionally and reflectively, with a clear sense of vision and practical application.
Catechesis cannot be reduced to preaching, liturgy, evangelism, or mission. It is not equivalent to preparing children or new Christians for membership, baptism, or confirmation. All of these dimensions are important, and related to catechesis, but they cannot be the replacement for catechesis.
J.I. Packer rightly noted that “where wise catechesis has flourished, the church has flourished. Where it has been neglected, the church has floundered.” By heeding the call to retrieve catechesis as a vital aspect of the church’s life, we are seeking and praying for a thriving and flourishing church in our time.