G. H. (George Henry) Gerberding wrote The Lutheran Catechist: A Companion Book to The Lutheran Pastor, because of his belief that there were a number of serious deficiencies in the preparation of pastors for the work of catechesis. A couple that he mentions were:
- Education that focused on conditions in Europe, especially in Germany.
- Education that was limited to hearing lectures without a textbook in hand and for later reference.
Gerberding thought that a full pedagogy depended on not only hearing but on reading and recurring reference to the reading material. But, he said, no such textbook existed in English for the Lutheran catechist.
Gerberding thought that conditions in Europe were not fully applicable to the conditions faced by catechists in North America. He thought the distance of language from German to North American English also was a problem in the way catechetics was taught.
With 20 years of experience, he set out to remedy that lack by preparing his textbook.
After the first edition was published, unfortunately, there was a serious dispute between the eminent historian of Lutheran catechesis, M. Reu and Gerberding. It shows up prominently in the preface to this fourth edition that LutheranCatechism.com now presents by its addition to the Documents Library. My recommendation is that the materials of both Reu and Gerberding are highly valuable to read.