Introduction

The Christian faith has a content. From the beginning, the Church has not confined itself to exhorting men to believe, but has taught what to believe. Luke writes to Theophilus "that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed" (Luke 1:4), and the verb he uses is the very one from which the word "catechism" comes: to instruct by word of mouth, making the teaching sound in the ear of the one who learns. Paul charges Timothy to hold fast "the form of sound words" (2 Tim. 1:13), because revealed truth is not a vague impression, but a deposit that is received, kept and handed on.

So the Church understood it throughout her history. The ancient Church prepared her catechumens at length before baptism, and when the Reformation gave the Word back to the people, one of its first fruits was the catechisms: those of Luther (1529), that of Calvin in Geneva (1541) or that of Heidelberg (1563). The Reformers knew that preaching is not enough: the truth has to be settled in the mind and in the heart of every believer, and taught in every home. The Westminster Assembly gathered up that legacy and gave it its most complete expression.

Today, by contrast, doctrine is looked upon with suspicion, when not with disdain. It is said that it divides, that it chills the heart, that what matters is experience and not definitions. The fruit is plain to see: believers who cannot give a reason of the hope that is in them (1 Pet. 3:15), and churches living in the time foretold by the apostle, in which "they will not endure sound doctrine" (2 Tim. 4:3). But there is no true godliness without truth: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hos. 4:6).

With its 196 questions, the Larger Catechism is the most complete of the catechisms the Reformation left us. The Shorter was intended for beginners; the Larger was approved by the Church of Scotland as "a Directory for catechising such as have made some proficiency in the knowledge of the grounds of religion", and served as a guide to ministers in public teaching. It follows the order that it itself sets out: "what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man" (Q. 5). Its exposition of the ten commandments stands out, for it does not stop at the letter of each precept, but sets out in detail the duties it requires and the sins it forbids, according to the rules of interpretation that the catechism itself lays down (Q. 99). The Scottish General Assembly called it "a rich treasure for increasing knowledge among the people of God".

The believer who studies it with the Bible open, testing each answer by the proofs of Scripture that accompany it, will find in it what is scarce today: a sound, orderly and complete grounding, which does not depend on fashions or tastes. It does not take the place of Scripture, but summarises it faithfully and teaches how to read the whole of it. To know it is to lay the foundations: to know what is believed, why it is believed and how one ought to live, "that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14).

The Catechism is preceded by the act with which the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland approved it in 1648.