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Catechesis is an elementary form of instruction involving rote memorization and discussion traditionally under the guidance of a parent, pastor, deacon, brother or nun within a religious order, or other religious authority who poses the questions and prompts the disciple toward understanding the answers given. Catechetics is the practice of this kind of instruction, or the study of it.[2]
Catechesis is simply "oral handing down" from teacher to student: instruction by dialogue. The word comes from a Greek word associated with the theater or agora; it means "to make resound, as with an echo." As with many things in Christian custom, the practice of catechizing was adapted from a similar style of instruction in the Jewish synagogues and rabbinical schools. The rabbis had the dialogue method, and the Greeks had the Socratic method, both of which informed Christian catechesis. Unlike both of these precursor influences, the Christian emphasis from the beginning was to pass on articles of faith, or definitions of belief. It is beginning with faith that Christians expected obedience to follow.
Christian tradition holds that Catechetical schools were established almost immediately by the apostles themselves. One of the most important of these schools is held by tradition to have been established by Mark the Evangelist, in Alexandria, Egypt. In his Ecclesiastic History, Eusebius recounts the legend that Mark came to Egypt during the first or third year of the Roman Emperor Claudius, and he returned to preach and evangelize in Alexandria, between 61Alternate uses, see Number 61 Centuries: 1st century BC 1st century 2nd century Decades: 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100s 110s Years: 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 Events Celtic revolt in Britain led by Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni. She is defe and 68Alternate uses, see Number 68 Centuries: 1st century BC 1st century 2nd century Decades: 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100s 110s Years: 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 Events June 9 Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide. Buddhism officially arrives in A.D. This is the school of theology where Clement of AlexandriaClement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens), was the first member of the Church of Alexandria to be more than a name, and one of its most distinguished teachers. He was born about the middle of the 2nd century, and died between 211 and 216. His Life He and OrigenOrigen was a Christian scholar and theologian and one of the most distinguished of the Fathers of the early Christian Church. He was born about 182, probably at Alexandria, and died at Caesarea not later than 251. Life Early training His full name was app were teachers.
Through schools such as this, summaries of doctrine were produced with a view to carefully and methodically hand down the teaching of the ChurchThis article is about the Christian buildings of worship. For other uses of the word, see Church (disambiguation . Stanford University. A church is a building used in Christian worship. See also altar, altar rails, confessional, dome, nave, pew, pulpit, s. As a summary of what must be believed, the Nicene creed was taught in the Greek churches, and the Apostles' Creed was dominant in the Latin churches; the Lord's PrayerThe Lord's Prayer (sometimes known by its first two Latin words as the Pater Noster or the English equivalent Our Father is probably the best-known prayer in the Christian religion. According to the New Testament, the prayer was given by Jesus of Nazareth was taught as the model of how to pray; and, the Ten Commandments were the summary of how to live. At various times and places, special chapters were added to the manuals, for instruction on the sacraments, the Athanasian Creed, the Te Deum, and other elements of the Liturgy. Lists of sins and virtues also became a common part of catechesis, in the monastaries and the churches. In the case of adult converts, this instruction preceded baptism; in the case of baptized infants, it followed baptism, and in the West culminated in their confirmation and the first communion. Baptized infants in the East were also chrismated (confirmed) almost immediately after baptism, and shortly after began receiving communion; catechism came later, often during the teenage years.
Cyril of Jerusalem left sixteen books of instructional sermons, explaining the Creed to families seeking baptism, which became standard in the Greek speaking churches. We also have from the same Cyril, five books of instruction concerning the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation in the Christian Faith, and Eucharist, for the benefit of those who have recently received one of these sacraments. In the Latin churches, St Augustine's treatise on catechizing (De catechizandis rudibus), written for teachers, came to dominate, together with his work on the basics of doctrine and prayer ( Enchiridion). A good idea of what the tradition of instruction had been, can be derived from comparing these relatively early works.After the Edict of Milan, catechesis became an increasingly greater challenge which sometimes fell into neglect, especially in the frontiers of the Empire. In 829, a council in Paris records the bishops' alarm over the neglect of catechetical instruction. Very simple instructional manuals survive, from the St Gall monks Kero ( 720) and Notker ( 912), and Otfrid of Weissenburg ( 870). Gerson's tract, De Parvulis ad Christum trahendis, gives another picture of what late medieval instruction was like. In 1281, the English Council of Lambeth made it a canonical rule of Church practice, for parish priests to instruct their people four times a year in the principal parts of Christian doctrine.
The best known modern catechisms of the Orthodox and Catholic traditions are not meant to be memorized. Rather, they are massive compendia of detailed explanations of doctrine. The Jerusalem Catechism of Orthodoxy is a work primarily designed for refutation of error - in the tradition of Irenaeus's Against Heresies. There are many Orthodox catechisms without obvious official authority, some of which appear to be designed for the instruction of converts especially from Protestantism. The Orthodox Faith is a four volume series that sets forth the basics of Orthodoxy. It is written by Father Thomas Hopko, dean of St. Vladimir's Seminary ( Orthodox Church in America); the full text is also available online. The Roman Catholic Catechism is a work of remarkable organization and breadth, containing articles of elegant reasoning and historical insight, arranged on the classical topics, but it is not a work adapted to the capacity of the untaught, and it is not in a question and answer format.
See Catechism of the Catholic Church