Memorizing the Catechism: False Dichotomy between Words and Meaning or, How to Forget the Faith

When I was a child, we already had the Small Catechism memorized before we entered confirmation instruction. We recited portions in Sunday School from about the third or fourth grade onward. We recited all portions in Vacation Bible School year after year. By the time we entered confirmation instruction, we had recited it at church … Read more

For the Ordinary Church Member Troubled about Their Faith

For the ordinary church member, however, especially for those who are troubled about their faith and yet come to no conclusions about it, for the innumerable people on the fringes of the church who cannot find their way through all the conflicting opinions, the almost chaotic confusion in the realm of religion, it is of … Read more

Law, Gospel, and Prayer

Law, gospel, and prayer are the chief elements of the Christian faith according to the Scriptures. Luther calls the law and the gospel the “arguments,” that is, the fundamentals necessary for an understanding of the Scriptures; they represent the real content of the Scriptures. The law and the gospel constitute the first two parts of … Read more

Catechesis Quotes from John T. Pless at 2016 BJS Conference

Quotations from John T. Pless speaking at the 2016 Brothers of John the Steadfast Conference in Tomball, Texas, as reported by Cafe’ Sola on Facebook. “The small Catechism has been influential in bringing whole congregations into the Lutheran faith.” “Even non Lutherans were using the Small Catechism for mission work!” “A full 1/4th of the … Read more

Luther deliberately reorganized the creedal material to concentrate on the saving work of the Triune God for us — Charles P. Arand

Luther deliberately reorganized the creedal material, without altering the wording, by reducing the twelve articles (corresponding to the twelve apostles) common in the late Middle Ages to the three articles common in the early church. More than a desire for historical accuracy on Luther’s part accounts for this rearrangement. He wanted to concentrate the catechumen’s … Read more