Catechesis for a Secular Age

 

Contemporary culture is deeply agitated about the problems of this world. We are worried the earth and its future viability. We labor for the material well-being of its inhabitants and justice in human relationships.

Living in a culture shaped primarily by this-worldly values, we need to ask the fundamental question:

What is the purpose of catechesis?

What are we aiming for when we teach new Christians the basic grammar of faith?

Are we setting our sights on this-worldly fulfillments of human desire?

Or are we training for the enjoyment of God?

 
 

The Beatific Vision as the Goal of Catechesis

In this thought provoking new book in the Catechist Handbooks series, leading theologian and Anglican priest Hans Boersma tackles the most important question for recovering a robust practice of church-based catechesis: What is it ultimately for?

Beginning with an account of the loss of a sacramental teleology in modernity, Boersma charts a constructive account of what it might mean for catechesis to be not just teaching “stuff” about God but about initiating new believers into God’s very own life.

Catechesis, Boersma argues, should be understood as a form of mystagogy. It is an apprenticeship in which the Divine Master leads us by the hand and draws us into fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Catechesis is aimed at nothing less than seeing God face to face.

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Clip: The Purpose of Catechesis

Watch more: The Challenges Facing Catechesis Today

 
 
“Catechesis—like theology more generally—isn’t like anything else we do. Knowing God, whether in the basic doctrines of the faith in catechesis or in advanced theological study, aims directly at our ultimate telos or purpose.”
— Hans Boersma
 
 

About the Author

The Rev. Dr. Hans Boersma is the Saint Benedict Servants of Christ Chair in Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin, a priest in the Anglican Church of North America, and a distinguished senior fellow with the Catechesis Institute. Previously, he taught at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. His research ranges across a variety of areas—patristic theology, twentieth-century Catholic thought, and spiritual interpretation of Scripture—but at the heart of his work is a desire to retrieve the “sacramental ontology” of the pre-modern tradition.

His books include Nouvelle Théologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (Oxford University Press, 2009); Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry (Eerdmans, 2011); Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa (Oxford University Press, 2013); Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church (Baker Academic, 2017); Seeing God: The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition (Eerdmans, 2018); and Five Things Theologians Wish Biblical Scholars Knew (IVP Academic, 2021). His newest book, Pierced by Love, is forthcoming with Lexham Press in April 2023.

About the Series

Catechist Handbooks

In the early fifth century, the great theologian Augustine of Hippo wrote a short catechetical treatise on the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the twin commandment to love God and neighbor, which he called an “Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love.” An “enchiridion,” he explained, is a Greek term meaning “handbook”—something to have ready at hand without it “burdening the bookshelf.” And yet, Augustine went on to stress, “it is necessary not that your hand be filled with a brief handbook but that your heart be set on fire with great love.”

The Catechist Handbooks series from the Catechesis Institute is a collection of short, theologically rich yet highly practical handbooks to serve working pastors and catechists. They’re written by expert theologians and experienced catechists on a wide range of topics related to catechesis. Above all, they are designed to help Christians pass on the faith and form the next generation of Christian disciples—to set hearts on fire with a great love for Jesus Christ and his church.

—Series editor, Alex Fogleman