The Church Catechism

Why is the Catechism of the Catholic Church the size of a book and the Anglican Catechism the length it is? Why did it get shortened so much?

 

I think because it is for the training of young people in the core doctrines of the Anglican faith for,confirmation purposes....along the lines of Luther's small catechism.

 

I attended the past round of RCIA classes at the local Roman Catholic Church in my community. The catechism book we used was quite comprehensive. I dropped out of the class as we approached the time for conversion. Going in, I told the instructors I would not be converting, but wanted to learn. Here is the big green catechism book we used in class and for homework assignments--very comprehensive as far as Roman Catholic doctrine goes, with excellent glossary and indexes in the back.

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I also used this white edition, which was smaller and easier to take to class. The smaller white book has the same text and footnotes as the big green book. However, the white book does not have the extensive glossary and all of the indexes in the back.

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I plan to keep both books in my personal library, as they are helpful in answering specific doctrinal and historical questions. However, sad to say, they are the type of books you tend to turn the spine towards the back of the bookcase when some protestant family and friends are coming over for a visit.

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The baltimore catechism and the catechism of Trent were popular before the CCC I think.

 

You shouldn't have to do so.

I have all sorts of books related to theology in my personal library, including the Qur'an. A person's library is not a confession of faith.

 

I have the paperback version and, although I've never taken RCIA classes, I've enjoyed reading it over the years. It gets so much right, and even what it gets wrong imho is written so beautifully it's difficult to fault them.

Once, when I was just getting back into the faith I read a book by Fulton Sheen that had an immense impact on me and, after the GC of 2003, I decided to contact the local RC parish about joining. They told me that I would have to start by taking RCIA which was only offered immediately following Sunday Mass. I explained to them that at the time I went to school full-time during the week and spent the weekends working from 6am to 10pm Friday through Sunday and was not available to attend mass and asked if there would be a way I could work something out until I was able to get a better schedule, that I had already read through the CCC twice and had been a life long Christian. The Catechist that ran the RCIA program wrote a very long and rather insulting letter telling me that under no uncertain terms could we work anything out and that I shouldn't even have wasted his time if I wasn't prepared to change my life in a way that was pleasing to God and that this was the problem with Episcopalians that they think that just because they read a book that's enough tell them all they need to know about the faith and that the RCC really didn't need people like me in the church since I wasn't really prepared to make the commitment God required. I passed his response along to the parish priest and asked for a 2nd opinion. He told me he would be happy to carve out time during the week to work with me personally and that if I was unable to come to Sunday Mass due to preexisting work commitments that it would be fine to attend during the week. He was a very nice priest and very willing to help. Sadly, he passed away suddenly prior to our first visit and the interim folks decided that I should go to RCIA at the scheduled time or not at all. I chose not at all and have felt like I dodged a bullet ever since. lol.

 

Are catechisms still widely used in the Anglican communion?

 

I use the catechism with my kids. We read through a section every Sunday. It's amazing how much they absorb and how seriously they take it.

 

That is interesting OC regarding the Qur'an. I tried to read the English translation of the Qur'an but I had to put it down about half way through it, I found it very difficult to read.

 

The Qur'an I happen to possess has both the Arabic and the English text. I've read the whole book once from cover to cover. I agree that it's difficult to read and to understand it if you're not aware of the chronological order of the suras and of the events in Mohammed's life that contextualise certain passages.

 

I am not sure how true it is but I did hear that the later suras are the more binding they are. Is that what you have heard?

 

Yes, there's the concept of abrogation, or naskh, in Islam (later verses abrogating earlier ones) although it's a rather complicated subject that divides Muslim scholars regarding its extent and content. For instance:

• Muslim scholars of old hold to the concept that some verses in the Qur'an abrogate other verses in the Qur'an, but do not all hold to the same set of abrogated and abrogating verses.
• Other Muslim scholars are of the opinion that the Qur'an may abrogate the Qur'an as well as the Sunnah (teaching example of Mohammed) and vice versa.
• Some Muslim scholars hold that the Qur'an abrogates all the previous scriptures, specifically the scriptures sent to the Jews and Christians, but not itself.
• Some Muslim scholars, especially of recent times, do not believe in the concept of abrogation at all.

It's an interesting topic and I could provide some examples but we would be derailing the thread even further.

 

If it has only existed in the last 20 years and it is already a major part of catholic life, what was used before?

 

The Catechism of Trent was standard for quite a while. It was also quite a bit shorter than the new one. The comprehensiveness of the new RC catechism is a new feature- if you go back to the historic catechisms, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox, they all tended to be more basic.

 

Could it be because the Romans have ignored the Pauline Injunctions against additions and subtractions, or diminutions, and added to the Deposit of Faith?

 

However! The Creed of Trent, was known as an illegal creed , by many catholics, even Roman ones. The Seven *Councils or one of them, decreed no more Creeds after Nicea/ Constaninople. Both Trent as a Council and its Creed were seen as ,"Robber Council "and Robber Creed.

* Probably 2nd,Constantinople.

 

The council of Ephesus is usually cited as forbidding a change in the creed- what they actually meant was a change in the faith represented by the creed. We know this because the creed that they quoted was the original creed of Nicaea and not the revised Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed we use today.