In the mid to late 1520's, Martin Luther had already posted his controversial 95 theses. There were already some sharp words being exchanged between those who followed Luther and those who held fast to the "Catholic" church of the day, led by the Pope. And even though those events were fairly significant, there was also something going on in Germany which led to the formation of the Small and Large Catechisms that so many Lutherans continue to make use of today.
During the 1520's, the German reformers ventured throughout Germany to see what the state of the Church looked like throughout their nation. To put it mildly, they were greatly disappointed in what they found. (Now remember, this is a pre-literate society, and the printing press was just becoming a fashionable thing about this time.) The people of the various parishes were rather ignorant about their Christian faith. To make matters even worse, the priests at the local congregations didn't seem to know all that much more about the faith.
This made the reformers rather uneasy. So Martin Luther decided to do something about the sorry situation. He undertook the task to create a small book of instruction, a catechism, that the head of each household could use to teach the people of his household. Luther strove to keep the catechism simple, laying out simple explanations for the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, what Confession and Absolution (forgiveness) really is, and then describing the two Sacraments (sacraments as the German reformers had come to define) of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Using simple explanations that were pretty easy to memorize, Luther then made use of the printing press to distribute these throughout Germany.
For the priests, Luther decided to give a little bit more of an explanation, to aid them in the task of teaching the people. For that purpose, he wrote the Large Catechism. This catechism takes the same elements and describes them in a bit more detail. By making use of such a resource, the local priests/pastors could then faithfully teach the message of God to the local congregation, who would then be reinforced by what they were (supposedly) learning at home.
Since there was such little knowledge of the Christian faith, Luther kept the catechisms brief, simple, and memorable. Even on the smaller pages of the Small Catechism I have, Luther's contribution takes up less than 30 pages, and that's with well-spaced out words and sentences. As an example, here is the first commandment and explanation.
You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
Short. Simple. Easy. Memorable. It's the kind of thing that a father could teach his children in relatively short time. And tomorrow, I'll go into a bit more depth about why I see this as important in our current day and age.
During the 1520's, the German reformers ventured throughout Germany to see what the state of the Church looked like throughout their nation. To put it mildly, they were greatly disappointed in what they found. (Now remember, this is a pre-literate society, and the printing press was just becoming a fashionable thing about this time.) The people of the various parishes were rather ignorant about their Christian faith. To make matters even worse, the priests at the local congregations didn't seem to know all that much more about the faith.
This made the reformers rather uneasy. So Martin Luther decided to do something about the sorry situation. He undertook the task to create a small book of instruction, a catechism, that the head of each household could use to teach the people of his household. Luther strove to keep the catechism simple, laying out simple explanations for the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, what Confession and Absolution (forgiveness) really is, and then describing the two Sacraments (sacraments as the German reformers had come to define) of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Using simple explanations that were pretty easy to memorize, Luther then made use of the printing press to distribute these throughout Germany.
For the priests, Luther decided to give a little bit more of an explanation, to aid them in the task of teaching the people. For that purpose, he wrote the Large Catechism. This catechism takes the same elements and describes them in a bit more detail. By making use of such a resource, the local priests/pastors could then faithfully teach the message of God to the local congregation, who would then be reinforced by what they were (supposedly) learning at home.
Since there was such little knowledge of the Christian faith, Luther kept the catechisms brief, simple, and memorable. Even on the smaller pages of the Small Catechism I have, Luther's contribution takes up less than 30 pages, and that's with well-spaced out words and sentences. As an example, here is the first commandment and explanation.
You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
Short. Simple. Easy. Memorable. It's the kind of thing that a father could teach his children in relatively short time. And tomorrow, I'll go into a bit more depth about why I see this as important in our current day and age.
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