Aids to Catechesis

In this section you’ll find writings from contemporary and historical figures on the main topics of catechetical instruction—Scripture, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Decalogue, and the Sacraments.

The aim of this resource list is to help pastors and catechists develop, as George Herbert put it, a “body of divinity” based on the Catechism, which will give the pastor-catechist a number of resources to aid the work of catechesis. 

George_Herbert.jpg

“The country parson hath read the Fathers ... and the schoolmen, and the later writers, or a good proportion of them, out of all which he hath compiled a book and body of divinity which is the storehouse of his sermons .... This body he made by way of expounding the Church Catechisme, to which all divinity may easily be reduced.”

– George Herbert, Priest to the Tempel (1632), chap. 5

 

This will be an ongoing project, so please contact me if you have things to add!  

 

 

The Story of Scripture

The Creed

 

Patristic

  • Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures. An outline can be found here.

    • Also, a famous account of the catechumenate in Jerusalem during Cyril’s time is found in the Journal of Egeria. Section VII (on Baptism) in this translation has a rare depiction of the fourth-century catechumenate in Jerusalem from a visitor’s perspective.

  • Rufinus of Aquileia, Commentary on the Creed (see also the volume translated by J.N.D. Kelly in Ancient Christian Writers vol. 20).

  • Augustine, On Faith and The Creed (written ca. 391 (shortly after ordination to the priesthood) as a simple explication of the creed for catechumens.

    • He also has a sermon to catechumens on the creed, other sermons to catechumens (ss. 212-214), and the Enchirdion on Faith, Hope, and Love (Albert Outler trans.).

  • See also the five-volume Ancient Christian Doctrine Series edited by Thomas Oden for InterVarsity Press, which contains patristic commentary on each article of the Nicene Creed.

Medieval

 

Contemporary

The Lord's Prayer

PATRISTIC

  • Tertullian, On Prayer.

  • Origen, On Prayer.

  • Cyprian, On the Lord’s Prayer.

  • Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catecheses 5.11–5.18.

    • Text. A recent translation by Maxwell Johnson is available with the Popular Patristics series.

  • Gregory of Nyssa, On the Lord’s Prayer (De oratione dominica)

  • Ambrose of Milan, On the Sacraments (De sacramentis) 5.4.18–5.4.30.

  • Evagrius Ponticus, Commentary on the Lord’s Prayer (Expositio in orationem dominicam),

    • Text: Trans. A. M. Casiday, Evagrius Ponticus, The Early Church Fathers (London: Routledge, 2006), 150–152.

  • John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew 19.6–19.12.

  • Augustine, Letter 130 (To Proba); A Sermon On the Sermon on the Mount 2.4.15–11.39; Sermons 56–59 (WSA III/3).

    • Matthew Drever, “Prayer, Self‐Examination, and Christian Catechesis in Augustine and Luther.” Dialog 55, no. 2 (June 2016): 147–157.

    • William Harmless, “‘Receive Today How You Are To Call Upon God’: The Lord’s Prayer and Augustine’s Mystagogy,” in Seeing with the Eyes of Faith, ed. Paul van Geest (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 349–373.

    • Han-luen Kantzer Komline, “Grace, Free Will, and the Lord’s Prayer: Cyprian’s Importance for the ‘Augustine’ Doctrine of Grace.” Augustinian Studies 45, no. 2 (September 22, 2014): 247–279.

    • Jonathan Teubner, Prayer After Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), esp. chaps. 2-4.

  • John Cassian, Conferences 9.18–9.25.

  • Peter Chrysologus, Sermons 67–72.

  • Jacob of Sarug, Homily on the Lord’s Prayer.

    • Text: Trans. Morgan Reed, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Lord’s Prayer (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2016).

  • Maximus the Confessor, A Brief Explanation of the Prayer Our Father to a Certain Friend of Christ (Orationis Dominicae expositio)

  • Compilations

  • Additional Secondary Literature

    • Michael Joseph Brown, The Lord's Prayer through North African Eyes (New York: T & T Clark International, 2004).

    • Raymond E. Brown, “The Pater Noster as Eschatological Prayer,” in Raymond E. Brown, New Testament Essays (Milwaukee, Wis.: Bruce Publishing Co., 1965), 217-53.

    • David Clark, The Lord’s Prayer: Origins and Early Interpretations (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016).

    • Jeffrey B. Gibson, The Disciples’ Prayer : the Prayer Jesus Taught in Its Historical Setting (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015).

    • Justo L. González, Teach Us to Pray: The Lord’s Prayer in the Early Church and Today (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020).

    • Roy Hammerling, The Lord’s Prayer in the Early Church: The Pearl of Great Price (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

    • Roy Hammerling, A History of Prayer: The First to the Fifteenth Century (Leiden: Brill, 2008).

    • Robert L. Simpson, The Interpretation of Prayer in the Early Church (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965).

    • Kenneth W. Stevenson, The Lord’s Prayer: Text in Tradition (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).

Medieval and Reformation

  • Thomas Aquinas, The Catechetical Instructions of St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. Joseph P. Collins (Veritatis Splendor, 2012). Contains a compilation of St. Thomas’ teaching on the Lord's Prayer.

    • Thomas’ reflection on Prayer more generally, as well as the LP, can be found in Summa Theologiae 2-2, q. 83.

    • Paul Murray, Praying with Confidence: Aquinas on the Lord’s Prayer (Tunbridge Wells: Continuum, 2010.

  • Meister Eckhart, On the Lord’s Prayer [De oratione Dominica], trans. and commentary by Markus Vinzent. Leuven: Peeters, 2012. (An online version can be found here.)

  • Martin Luther – In addition to the “Large” and “Small” Catechisms (1529), see also “The Sermon on the Mount: The Sixth Chapter,” in Luther’s Works, vol. 21 (Saint Louis: Concordia, 1956), 141–8; “An Exposition on the Lord’s Prayer for Simple Laymen” (1519), in ibid., pp. 15–81; “Personal Prayer Book” (1522), in ibid., vol. 43 (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968), pp. 29–38; “A Simple Way to Pray” (1535)

  • John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.30, 1–35 (on prayer), 36–52 (on the Lord’s Prayer).

  • Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, 27–42 (trans. Allison Peers, from CCEL.org).

  • Richard Hooker, Ecclesiastical Laws 5, in vol. 2 of The Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine Mr Richard Hooker, 3 vols, 7th ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888).

  • William Perkins, An Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer (London: Legatt, 1636).

  • Lancelot Andrewes, The Sermons of Lancelot Andrewes, vol. 5, Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology (Oxford: Parker, 1854).

  • F. D. Maurice, The Lord’s Prayer: Nine Sermons Preached in the Chapel of Lincoln’s Inn (Cambridge: Macmillan, 1861)

  • Reformed Books Online has a number of shorter and longer catechisms from the 1500s to 1700s, with this list indexed towards expositions of the Lord’s Prayer.

  • Secondary Literature

    • Colin Buchanan, The Lord’s Prayer in the Church of England (Grove Worship

      Booklet 131; Bramcote: Grove, 1995),

    • Flynn Cratty, “‘To Whom Say You Your Pater Noster?’: Prayer on the Eve of the Scottish Reformation,” Reformation & Renaissance Review 20, no. 1 (2018): 18–34.

    • Ian Green, “The Lord’s Prayer,” chapter 11 in The Christian’s ABC (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).

    •  Katherine Mahon, Teach Us to Pray: The Lord’s Prayer, Catechesis, and Ritual Reform in the Sixteenth Century (London: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019).

    • Bruce McNair, “Martin Luther and Lucas Cranach Teaching the Lord’s Prayer,”

      Religions 8, no. 4 (2017):

    • Kenneth Stevenson, “Richard Hooker and the Lord’s Prayer: A Chapter in Reformation Controversy,” Scottish Journal of Theology 57, no. 1 (2004): 39–55.

CONTEMPORARY

  • Nicholas Ayo, The Lord’s Prayer: A Survey Theological and Literary (1992, repr., Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).

  • Karl Barth, Prayer (Louisville: Westminster: John Knox, 2002 [orig. 1949]).

  • C. Clifton Black, The Lord’s Prayer, Interpretation (John Knox Press, 2018).

  • Gerald Bray, Yours Is the Kingdom: A Systematic Theology of the Lord’s Prayer (Leicester: IVP, 2007).

  • David E. Garland, “The Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Matthew.” RevExp. 89 (1992): 215–28.

  • Nijay Gupta, The Lord’s Prayer. Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 2017).

  • Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer & the Christian Life (Abingdon, 1996).

  • Wesley Hill, The Lord’s Prayer, Christian Essentials (Lexham, 2019).

  • Gerhard Lofink, The Our Father : A New Reading (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2019).

  • Oliver O’Donovan, “Prayer and Morality in the Sermon on the Mount,” Studies in Christian Ethics 22, no. 1 (February 2009): 21–33.

  • J. I. Packer, Praying The Lord’s Prayer (Crossway, 2007) (originally published as a part of the book, I Want to Be a Christian).

  • Alexander Schmemann, Our Father, translated by Alexis Vinogradov (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002).

  • Warren Smith, The Lord’s Prayer: Confessing the New Covenant (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2015).

  • Geoffrey Wainwright, “Hope and the Lord’s Prayer,” chapter 2 in Faith, Hope, and Love: The Ecumenical Trio of Virtues (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2014).

  • Simone Weil, “Concerning the Our Father,” in Waiting for God (New York: Putnam & Sons, 1951), 143–52.

  • Telford Work, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg: Living through the Lord’s Prayer. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007.

  • D. Wenham, “The Sevenfold Form of the Lord’s Prayer in Mathew’s Gospel,” Expository Times (2010): 377–82

  • N. T. Wright, The Lord and His Prayer (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997). See also an article of his here).

The Ten Commandments/ Moral Formation

 

Historical Overviews

  • Paul Grimley Kuntz, The Ten Commandments in History: Mosaic Paradigms for a Well-Ordered Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004).  

  • The Decalogue through the Centuries, ed. Jeffrey Greenman and Timothy Larsen (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012).

    • Includes chapters on the Decalogue in the Old Testament (Daniel Block), New Testament (Craig Evans), the patristic church (Alison Salvesen), Aquinas (Matthew Levering), Maimonides (David Novak), Luther (Timothy Wengert), Calvin (Susan Schreiner), John Owen (Carl Trueman), Lancelot Andrewes (Jeff Greenman), John Wesley (D. Stephen Long), Christina Rossetti (Timothy Larsen), Barth (George Hunsinger), and John Paul II and Benedict XVI (William May).

Patristic

  • Though it’s not specifically on the Ten Commandments, the Didache is one of the earliest catechetical documents (late first/early second century), and it provides an outline of the kind of moral living requisite for baptism and the Christian life.

  • Clement of Alexandria, Stomateis 6.16.

    • Robert G. T. Edwards, “Clement of Alexandria’s Gnostic Exposition of the Decalogue,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 23, no. 4 (2015): 501–528.

  • Origen, Homilies on Exodus 8–9.

  • Augustine’s Homilies on 1 John can’t be beat for their rich exposition of the “Law of Love.” These homilies were given during Easter Week of the year 407. While there's debate about whether they are “mystagogical” homilies per se (i.e., explaining the sacraments and rites of initiation), they remain a rich resource for growing in holiness and virtue.

  • Robert M. Grant, “The Decalogue in Early Christianity,” Harvard Theological Review 40 no. 1 (1947): 1–17.

Medieval and REformation

  • Hugh of St. Victor, Institutiones in Decalogum [Instructions on the Decalogue]. PL 176:9–15. Resused in Sacr. 1.12.

  • Thomas Aquinas, The Catechetical Instructions of St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. Joseph P. Collins (Veritatis Splendor, 2012). Contains a compilation of St. Thomas’ teaching on the Decalogue.

  • Bonaventure, Collations on the Ten Commandments (1995).

  • Martin Luther, Small Catechism and Large Catechism

  • John Calvin, Sermons on the Ten Commandments, ed. Benjamin W. Farley (Baker, 1980). 

  • Secondary Sources

    • Youri Desplenter and Jürgen Pieters, eds. The Ten Commandments in Medieval and Early Modern Culture (Brill, 2017).

    • Lesley Smith, The Ten Commandments: Interpreting the Bible in the Medieval World, Studies in the History of Christian Traditions (Brill, 2014)

      • Smith argues that the Fourth Lateran Council’s 1215 decree that everyone must make confession 1x/year marks a turning point in the use of the Decalogue in confession and examination of conscience.

    • Jonathan Willis, The Reformation of the Decalogue: Religious Identity and the Ten Commandments in England, c.1485–1625 (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Contemporary

  • David Baker, The Decalogue: Living as the People of God (IVP Academic, 2017).

  • Klaus Bockmuehl, The Christian Way of Life: An Ethics of the Ten Commandments (Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 1994). 

  • Carl Braaten and Christopher Seitz, eds., I Am the Lord Your God: Christian Reflections on the Ten Commandments (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005). 

    • Introduction by Philip Turner and Christopher Seitz on the Decalogue in church and society, followed by these essays on the Ten Commandments: Thomas Oden (“No Other Gods”), David Bentley Hart (“God or Nothingness”), Ephraim Radner (“Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain”), Markus Bockmuehl (“Keeping it Holy” [on Sabbath in NT and OT]), William Cavanaugh (“Killing in the Name of God”), Bernd Wannenwetsch (Killing), Robert Jenson (“Male and Female He Created Them”), Reinhard Hütter (Bearing False Witness), Carl Bratten (“Sins of the Tongue” [Bearing False Witness]), R. R. Reno (“God or Mammon”). Concludes with essays by Robert Louis Wilken (“Keeping the Commandments”) and Gilbert Meilaender (“Hearts Set to Obey”).

  • William P. Brown, ed. The Ten Commandments: The Reciprocity of Faithfulness. Library of Theological Ethics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2004).

  • Michael Coogan, The Ten Commandments: A Short History of an Ancient Text (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014)

  • Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, The Truth About God: The Ten Commandments in Christian Life (Abingdon, 1999).

  • Reinhard Hütter, “The Ten Commandments as a Mirror of Sin(s): Anglican Decline–Lutheran Eclipse,” Pro Ecclesia 14, no. 1 (2005). 

  • Peter Leithart, The Ten Commandments, Christian Essentials (Lexham, 2020).

  • Gilbert Meilaender, Thy Will Be Done: The Ten Commandments and the Christian Life (Baker Academic, 2020). Excerpt.

  • J. I. Packer, Keeping the Ten Commandments (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008).

  • Roger E. van Harn, ed., The Ten Commandments for Jews, Christians, and Others (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007)

  • Joseph A. Slattery, “The Catechetical Use of the Decalogue from the End of the Catechumenate Through the Late Medieval Period.” PhD diss., Catholic University of America, 1979.

  • Thomas Joseph White, Exodus, Brazos Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016), pp. 151-192 (on the Ten Commandments).

The Sacraments

Patristic

The best treatments of the Sacraments in the Patristic period come from the genre of literature called “mystagogical treatises.” These were sermons delivered to the newly baptized, usually during the week after Easter.

We are fortunate to possess a number of these texts, which is somewhat surprising, since in this period the so-called “discipline of secrecy” (disciplini arcani) prevented Christians from divulging what went on during sacraments of baptism and Eucharist. In the early church, non-Christians and catechumens were “dismissed” after the Scripture readings and prayers in order to guard the sacred mysteries for the faithful (baptized).

Nonetheless, a number of texts were written down or recorded and passed on: