On Catechesis

The Sunday after Ascension Day

O GOD the King of Glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven: We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Reorienting the skopos of the Church towards a culture of invitation and discipleship is one key in bucking the cultural trends that have contributed to the demographic decline. Last week focused largely on the issue of invitation, while this week delves into the second challenge that primarily involves discipleship by addressing the theology gap and catechesis.

One of the aspects of modernism described was a reinterpretation of Scripture in light of modern understanding. St Anselm of Canterbury once famously stated, “I believe in order that I may understand.” What he meant was that faith must precede intellectual understanding, or more precisely spiritual experience must first occur before it can be comprehended by the intellect. In attempts to create a culture of attraction it is entirely possible to create a reverse of that in which understanding precedes and informs faith.

Just look at Canada today. On all the issues of major theological controversy affecting the Anglican Church of Canada in the last 50 years, the move to change doctrine has ultimately been based on a desire to “catch up” to the beliefs of secular society. Whether it be calls for the ordination of women rooted in secular arguments of gender equality, or similar calls for the ongoing move to permit same-sex marriage in the Church. In these arguments, implicit in them is the idea that if the Church does not conform its doctrines to the beliefs of secular society, the Church will be rejected. Given how the Church has thus far, and seems to be in the case of same-sex marriage, moving with the tide of secular culture, it seems to suggest that Canada is the holiest state on the planet, beating the Church to God's punch.

When this trap of simply accepting secular wisdom is followed in an effort to attract the unchurched, it leads to hollow theology. Hollow theology is a theology which has no real substance to it. It relies on proclamations of what God is like or what God wants with limited support from Scripture. To use a contemporary example, when someone argues in favour of same-sex marriage in the Church solely from the perspective that Christ instructs us to love one another in the gospel, there is no substance to it, because it relies on one or two verses about love being interpreted as superseding and contradicting other parts of Scripture.

More accurately this type of theology causes a problem I call a theology gap. When our theology is generated in some way that is not explained consistently through the words of Holy Scripture, the Church Fathers and the Anglican formularies or when we simply lack the ability to explain our theology using that basis, there is a theology gap.

This reflects poor theological education and training both among clergy and laity alike. When someone asks a question and the answer is some variation on, “because I said so,” there is a theology gap. This affects modernists and theological liberals as provided in the example, but can also affect traditionalists in the second way. If a priest is unable to answer a theological question and resorts to saying something like, “that's the way it's always been,” or, “that's just how it is,” they have fallen into a theology gap as well. Whatever the cause of it, a theology gap will encourage or confirm scepticism towards Christianity and the church.

When there is a theology gap, we should not be surprised that it turns away seekers. When your theology lacks substance, it lacks God, and God is ultimately what keeps the faithful in Church. Similarly, if your theology only speaks to the wisdom of the world, what is the point of being in the church? Divorced from God, the church is merely an extremely inefficient charity organization, and inauthentic if it pays lip service to God whom it ignores when God's word conflicts with society. If society has already got it right, what is the point of church? God's grace transforms and sanctifies us, but if we enter into a church only to be told we've got it all right to begin with, what is the point of God's grace?

Such a church is not authentic and will not build disciples. In order to avoid this, theology must be authentic and done well. Theology done well in the Anglican tradition looks first to Holy Scripture, the interpretation and practice of the Church fathers and the writings of the Anglican formularies, which is to say the Book of Common Prayer, 39 Articles of Religion and the Ordinal. Using this process, any question on Anglican theology can be explored and explained. Bearing that in mind can address the first problem of doing theology poorly.

In order to address the second aspect of the theology gap, the solution is proper catechesis. The Book of Acts contains a famous passage in which Philip meets an Ethiopian who is reading the Book of Isaiah. Philip asks him if he understands what he has been reading, to which he answers, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8. 31). The practice of catechesis—instruction through word of mouth—is one referenced several times in the Scriptures. The authors recognized that the further removed from the context in which the Scriptures were written, the more difficult they would become to understand.

It is essential that all Christians have understanding of fundamental concepts. The Alpha course does a great job of introducing some of the fundamentals in a format which seeks to stoke the curiosity of the participants and allow them to further refine their questions in order to be able to come to the answers. This is great for some basic issues such as who Christ is, the nature of the Holy Spirit, and some similar basic issues. It does not address more complex issues, such as the nature of the sacraments, the doctrines of the church, the theology of suffering or other more complex issues. For that, a proper course of catechism is needed.

There is a short catechism in the Book of Common Prayer which addresses some of these issues, but the catechism is more meant as a final profession of faith at confirmation, rather than purely as an instructional tool. That said, the Prayer Book Society of Canada is developing something called 622. Named after the page on which the Book of Common Prayer's service for young people commences, it is designed as a 42 week exploration of issues in Christianity, aimed at teenagers. The Anglican Church of North America has also released their own catechism which provides, in question and answer format, 345 theological questions and answers along with Scriptural references, and is a good starting point for encouraging the exploration of faith in the Anglican tradition.

More than ever, seekers need Christian education resources that can orient them towards the God who deeply desires that they come to know him.

It may seem simple to say, but connecting people with God is the only way to address decline in the Church.