noun
definition
A book, in question and answer form, summarizing the basic principles of Christianity.
definition
A basic manual in some subject.
definition
A set of questions designed to determine knowledge.
Examples of catechism in a Sentence
His principal work was Lectures on the Catechism of the Church of England (London, 1769).
His translation of the German Catechism of Justus Jonas, known as Cranmer's Catechism, appeared in the following year.
Nowell is believed to have composed the Catechism inserted before the Order of Confirmation in the Prayer Book of 1549, which was supplemented in 1604 and is still in use; but the evidence is not conclusive.
The catechism as we know it is intended primarily for children and uneducated persons.
A smaller catechism was drawn up by order of Peter the Great in 1723.
In this year he published his Exposition on the Church Catechism, perhaps better known by its sub-title, The Practice of Divine Love.
In this same year (1537) John Calvin at Geneva published his catechism for children.
In England the Roman Catholic bishops have agreed on the use of what is known as " The Penny Catechism," which is very lucid and well constructed.
The Anglican catechism with occasional modification, especially in the sacramental section, is used not only in the Church of England but in the Episcopal churches of Ireland, Scotland, the British dominions and the United States of America.
In 1898 the National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches in England and Wales published 1 Cranmer had published a separate and larger catechism on the basis of the work of Justus Jonas in 1548; note also Allen's Catechisme, A Christen Instruction of the Principall Pointes of Christes Religion (1551).
The Reformed churches of the Palatinate, on the other hand, used the Heidelberg Catechism (1562-1563), "sweetspirited, experiential, clear, moderate and happily-phrased," mainly the work of two of Calvin's younger disciples, Kaspar Olevianus and Zacharias Ursinus.
The Heidelberg Catechism, set forth by order of the elector, is perhaps the most widely accepted symbol of the Calvinistic faith, and is noteworthy for its emphasis on the less controversial aspects of the Genevan theology.
As revised by the synod of Dort in 1619, this catechism became the standard of most of the Reformed churches of central Europe, and in time of the Dutch and German Reformed churches of America.
In Scotland both Calvin's Geneva Catechism and then the Heidelberg Catechism were translated by order of the General Assembly and annotated.
The Larger Catechism is " for such as have made some proficiency in the knowledge of the Christian religion," but is too detailed and minute for memorizing, and has never received anything like the reception accorded to the Shorter Catechism, which is " for such as are of weaker capacity."
Even when (as in the Shorter Westminster Catechism and the School Catechism) the Creed is simply printed as an appendix, or where (as in the Free Church Catechism) it is not mentioned at all, its substance is dealt with.
Uytenbogaert gave them a catechism and regulated their churchly order.
Moreover, it is not a doctrinal compendium, or catechism, which a revelation would have to be.
It may be noted that Sir Oliver Lodge has adopted the catechetical form in his book, The Substance of Faith Allied with Science (1907), which is described as " a catechism for parents and teachers."
Practically nothing was done for the natives beyond oral instruction in the catechism.
At the time of the Reformation, the reformers, with their strong sense of the crucial importance of faith, emphasized the action of the individual in the service, and therefore laid it down as a rule that confirmation should be deferred till the child could learn a catechism on the fundamentals of the Christian faith, which Calvin thought he might do by the time he was ten.
In 1592 was published Craig's Catechism.
He joined the Jesuits in 1551, and in 1571 was sent as a missionary to Peru; he acted as provincial of his order from 1576 to 1581, was appointed theological adviser to the council of Lima in 1582, and in 1583 published a catechism in Quichua and Aymara - the first book printed in Peru.
In 1566 he gave publicity to the Tridentine catechism; in 1568 he introduced the amended Roman breviary; everywhere he insisted on strict monastic discipline, and the compulsory residence of bishops within their sees.
One hundred members, many of them foreign divines, composed this great assembly, who after 154 sittings gave their seal to the doctrines of the Netherlands Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism.
His Catechism (Catechisme ou instruction familiere, 1652) and his Christian's Defense against the Fears of Death (Consolations de l'dme fidele contre les frayeurs de la mort, 1651) became well known in England by means of translations, which were very frequently reprinted.
He was the author of a Catechism (Kiev, 1645) and other minor works, but is principally celebrated for the Orthodox Confession, drawn up at his instance by the Abbot Kosslowski of Kiev, approved at a provincial synod in 1640, and accepted by the patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch in 1642-1643, and by the synod of Jerusalem in 1672.
Owing to his influence over Pius IV., he was able to facilitate the final deliberations of the council of Trent, and he took a large share in the drawing up of the Tridentine catechism (Catechismus Romanus).
The Shorter Catechism was taught; the liturgy was not brought in; the sole change was in kirk government.
A monument of the labours of the missionaries is a manuscript dictionary (c. 1720) of the language of the Illinois, with catechism and prayers, probably the work of Father Le Boulanger.
They learned that simple faith which Luther afterwards expounded in his Small Catechism and called the Kinderlehre.
It was adopted by the Reformed Church not only throughout Switzerland but in Scotland (1566), Hungary (1567), France (1571), Poland (1578), and next to the Heidelberg Catechism is the most generally recognized Confession of the Reformed Church.
Other minor works written in later life, such as the Partitiones Oratoriae, a catechism of rhetoric, in which instruction is given by Cicero to his son Marcus; the Topica, and an introduction to a translation of the speeches delivered by Demosthenes and Aeschines for and against Ctesiphon, styled de optimo genere oratorum, also need only be mentioned.
Soon after his death his brother Dr John Clarke, dean of Sarum, published, from his original manuscripts, An Exposition of the Church Catechism, and ten volumes of sermons.
The best of them are his Practical Catechism, first published in 1644; his Paraphrase and Annotations on the New Testament; and an incomplete work of a similar nature on the Old Testament.
He also ordered that the Catechism of Caranza, who, like him, was to suffer from the Inquisition for this very book, should be translated into English for the use of the laity.
The earliest publication in Esthonian was a Lutheran catechism in the 16th century.
In St Andrews he taught "John's Gospel" and a certain catechism - probably that which Wishart had got from "Helvetia" and translated; but his teaching was supposed to be private and tutorial and for the benefit of his friends' "bairns."
A peculiar duty of the clergy is found in the husfOrhOr or meetings designed to enable the priest to test and develop the religious knowledge of his parishioners by methods of catechism.
The Dutch Bible and Catechism are written in pure Dutch.
Schaff's broad views strongly influenced the German Reformed Church, through his teaching at Mercersburg, through his championship of English in German Reformed churches and schools in America, through his hymnal (18J9), through his labours as chairman of the committee which prepared a new liturgy, and by his edition (1863) of the Heidelberg Catechism.
At the Reformation it became a stronghold of Protestant learning, the Heidelberg catechism being drawn up by its theologians.
In addition to those mentioned above he wrote Milk for Babes, or a Mother's Catechism for her Children (1646), and A Christian Family builded by God, or Directions for Governors of Families (1653).
The Psalms and Catechism together occupy more than half the book.
This effort culminated in the Westminster Assembly of divines which met in 1643, at which six commissioners from the Church of Scotland were present, and joined in the task of drawing up a Common Confession, Catechism and Directory for the three kingdoms. The commissioners reported to the General Assembly of 1644 that this Common Directory "is so begun.
Placed in a convent in Paris at an early age, she received a very slight education, learning little but the catechism and drawing; and at the age of sixteen entered a milliner's shop in the rue St Honore.
The most important of these testimonies are (i) the Orthodox confession or catechism of Peter Mogilas, confirmed by the Eastern patriarchs and by the synod of Jerusalem (1643), and (2) the decree of the synod of Jerusalem or the confession of Dositheus (1672).
Besides these, the catechisms of the Russian Church should be consulted, especially the catechism of Philaret, which since 1839 has been used in all the churches and schools in Russia.
He had no party views; the Heidelberg catechism, authoritative in Holland, he criticized.
A remarkable manifestation of this unprecedented reunion was the fact that a committee of the associated churches prepared and published a catechism expressing the positive and fundamental agreement of all the Evangelical Free Churches on the essential doctrines of Christianity (see The Contemporary Review, January 1899).