A Patristic Commentary on the Catechism: Introduction

By Alex Fogleman

In patristic catechesis we see what Jean Daniélou once called the “living tradition in action.” The church’s tradition was passed along in many ways, of course, such as in the liturgy, preaching, and in its shared habits of life. But it was especially in catechesis that bishops and teachers clarified, conceptualized, and passed along the vital elements of the faith.

Catechesis was central to the early fathers. It set out the large-scale parameters of what was to be believed, prayed, and lived. It brought into focus, out of the enormous range of topics one could discuss, what was most central. Catechesis was the space in which, to borrow a famous metaphor from St. Irenaeus, the various pieces of the mosaic were arranged to display a king rather than fox. By attending to a limited but central set of topics, catechesis shaped the basic meaning of Christian theology and practice in its early, formative years.

At the beginning of the fourth century, when Eusebius of Caesarea returned from the first ecumenical council at Nicaea in 325, he wrote a brief letter back to his local church. In this letter, one of the things he thought it important to clarify was that the new creed that had been formulated was nothing essentially different than the local baptismal creed that they had been using for years.

This episode is telling for a number of reasons. But one of the most interesting bits is what it tells us about the importance of baptismal creeds—which were the centerpiece of catechesis—for shaping later theological debate. “New” creeds like the one at Nicaea needed to be congruous with the local baptismal creed if anyone was going to give it any credence. To put it another way, the kind of catechesis one received in preparation for baptism was the original “standard” or “rule” by which to measure any later theological formulations. Rather than theology being done “from the top down,” so to speak—the bishops meeting together at a conference—there is a sense in which theology was done “from the bottom up,” namely, from the bottom of the baptismal font.

For all the importance of the Nicene Creed in later centuries, it’s instructive that, well over a century later, it is still the local baptismal creeds (something like the Apostles’ Creed today) that bishops continued to use in catechesis. In the late 300s and early 400s, towering theologians like Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo, for example—great champions of Nicaea—continued to use their local baptismal creeds when instructing catechumens. This just goes to show the kind of weight given to local, credal catechesis.

In putting together this patristic commentary on the catechism, my hope is that pastors and teachers today might imbibe some of the energy with which the fathers applied to catechesis. The point is not so much to reiterate what the fathers said about X or Y. What seems more important is that we capture the ethos and tenor of the fathers’ mode of reflection on catechetical topics. They believed that catechetical instruction—as all theology—was meant to lead people to the vision of God. By reading the catechism “with” the fathers, the church today may recover the distinctive Christian identity that is found in the essential witness of apostolic teaching.

By doing catechesis with the fathers, in other words, we are not just getting a history lesson. The approach to tradition implied in this project is one that values history reverently, even sacredly, but not slavishly. We don’t cling to the patristic tradition for its own sake, or because “that’s the way they used to do it.” Instead, we attend to the Spirit’s way of building the church throughout the ages. Learning the early history of catechesis, then, is not about learning what happened or what people used to think. It’s a way of joining in the Spirit’s work of congregating the communion of saints. It’s an act of remembering within the body of Christ, of inhabiting the church’s collective memory so that our own memories become stamped more indelibly with the image of Christ. To study the past is to be led on a gentle path out of the spiritual amnesia that disorients the modern mind.

The pages here will provide an ongoing collection of patristic commentary, organized around the key teaching points of the Catechism—the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Sacraments. Ranging from the second to the seventh century, and including figures that spoke Latin, Greek, and Syriac, the range of texts presented is meant to be broad and diverse, in a way that shows where the fathers disagreed about certain topics, while also showing a certain measure of common consensus. Overall, there is a focus on texts that will be most helpful in a catechetical context, though the selections themselves are not necessarily from pre-baptismal instructions. No doubt there is a good deal of personal bias in these selections. But alas, one has to start somewhere. The selections are sometimes brief, sometimes lengthier, so that, in recognition of the limited time most people have for preparing for catechesis lessons, they may still glean something of the fundamental spirit of patristic catechetical theology. Again, the overall goal is to provide an insight into the mind of the fathers—a sense of how they handled Scripture, tradition, and reason in order to engage the hearts and minds of their hearers with the divine truths.

In selecting these passages, I’ve availed myself of a number of great resources, to which I gratefully acknowledge tribute, and recommend for further reading.

  • The Ancient Christian Doctrine series, edited by Thomas Oden, 5 vols. (IVP Academic)

  • Matthew, edited by D. H. Williams, in The Church’s Bible Commentary (Baker Academic, 2018)

  • Understandings of the Church, ed. Everett Ferguson (Fortress Press, 2016)

  • Wealth and Poverty in Early Christianity, ed. Helen Rhee (Fortress Press, 2017)

  • Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church, ed. Michael Graves (Fortress Press, 2017)

  • Marriage and Sexuality in Early Christianity, ed. David Hunter (Fortress Press, 2018)

  • The Early Church on Killing : A Comprehensive Sourcebook on War, Abortion, and Capital Punishment, edited by Ronald J. Sider (Baker Academic, 2012)