On the Catechising of the Uninstructed

St. Augustine of Hippo

  1. 1. — How Augustine Writes in Answer to a Favor Asked by a Deacon of Carthage
  2. 2. — How It Often Happens that a Discourse Which Gives Pleasure to the Hearer is Distasteful to the Speaker; And What Explanation is to Be Offered of that Fact
  3. 3. — Of the Full Narration to Be Employed in Catechising
  4. 4. — That the Great Reason for the Advent of Christ Was the Commendation of Love
  5. 5. — That the Person Who Comes for Catechetical Instruction is to Be Examined with Respect to His Views, on Desiring to Become a Christian
  6. 6. — Of the Way to Commence the Catechetical Instruction, and of the Narration of Facts from the History of the World's Creation on to the Present Times of the Church
  7. 7. — Of the Exposition of the Resurrection, the Judgment, and Other Subjects, Which Should Follow This Narration
  8. 8. — Of the Method to Be Pursued in Catechising Those Who Have Had a Liberal Education
  9. 9. — Of the Method in Which Grammarians and Professional Speakers are to Be Dealt with
  10. 10. — Of the Attainment of Cheerfulness in the Duty of Catechising, and of Various Causes Producing Weariness in the Catechumen
  11. 11. — Of the Remedy for the Second Source of Weariness
  12. 12. — Of the Remedy for the Third Source of Weariness
  13. 13. — Of the Remedy for the Fourth Source of Weariness
  14. 14. — Of the Remedy Against the Fifth and Sixth Sources of Weariness
  15. 15. — Of the Method in Which Our Address Should Be Adapted to Different Classes of Hearers
  16. 16. — A Specimen of a Catechetical Address; And First, the Case of a Catechumen with Worthy Views
  17. 17. — The Specimen of Catechetical Discourse Continued, in Reference Specially to the Reproval of False Aims on the Catechumen's Part
  18. 18. — Of What is to Be Believed on the Subject of the Creation of Man and Other Objects
  19. 19. — Of the Co-Existence of Good and Evil in the Church, and Their Final Separation
  20. 20. — Of Israel's Bondage in Egypt, Their Deliverance, and Their Passage Through the Red Sea
  21. 21. — Of the Babylonish Captivity, and the Things Signified Thereby
  22. 22. — Of the Six Ages of the World
  23. 23. — Of the Mission of the Holy Ghost Fifty Days After Christ's Resurrection
  24. 24. — Of the Church in Its Likeness to a Vine Sprouting and Suffering Pruning
  25. 25. — Of Constancy in the Faith of the Resurrection
  26. 26. — Of the Formal Admission of the Catechumen, and of the Signs Therein Made Use of
  27. 27. — Of the Prophecies of the Old Testament in Their Visible Fulfillment in the Church

1. You have requested me, brother Deogratias, to send you in writing something which might be of service to you in the matter of catechising the uninstructed. For you have informed me that in Carthage, where you hold the position of a deacon, persons, who have to be taught the Christian faith from its very rudiments, are frequently brought to you by reason of your enjoying the reputation of possessing a rich gift in catechising, due at once to an intimate acquaintance with the faith, and to an attractive method of discourse; but that you almost always find yourself in a difficulty as to the manner in which a suitable declaration is to be made of the precise doctrine, the belief of which constitutes us Christians: regarding the point at which our statement of the same ought to commence, and the limit to which it should be allowed to proceed: and with respect to the question whether, when our narration is concluded, we ought to make use of any kind of exhortation, or simply specify those precepts in the observance of which the person to whom we are discoursing may know the Christian life and profession to be maintained. At the same time, you have made the confession and complaint that it has often befallen you that in the course of a lengthened and languid address you have become profitless and distasteful even to yourself, not to speak of the learner whom you have been endeavoring to instruct by your utterance, and the other parties who have been present as hearers; and that you have been constrained by these straits to put upon me the constraint of that love which I owe to you, so that I may not feel it a burdensome thing among all my engagements to write you something on this subject.

2. As for myself then, if, in the exercise of those capacities which through the bounty of our Lord I am enabled to present, the same Lord requires me to offer any manner of aid to those whom He has made brethren to me, I feel constrained not only by that love and service which is due from me to you on the terms of familiar friendship, but also by that which I owe universally to my mother the Church, by no means to refuse the task, but rather to take it up with a prompt and devoted willingness. For the more extensively I desire to see the treasure of the Lord distributed, the more does it become my duty, if I ascertain that the stewards, who are my fellow-servants, find any difficulty in laying it out, to do all that lies in my power to the end that they may be able to accomplish easily and expeditiously what they sedulously and earnestly aim at.