What is our Confession?

This month, I happened across an old change in our constitution. Today, it states our acceptance of the “symbolic books of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, the most important being: the Augsburg Confession, the Evangelical Catechism, and the Heidelberg Catechism.” Sometime between 1969 and 1977, the revision was made to insert “Evangelical” in place of “Luther’s” catechism. Why is that?

First of all, there are actually two catechisms called Luther’s - Luther’s small and Luther’s large catechisms. The small catechism covers the basics and is directed to confirmands, while the large catechism has more depth and is directed to those who teach: the pastors in the church and the fathers at home. These were composed in 1529, just a dozen years after the start of the reformation. The catechism in view by our constitution was surely the small catechism, while Heidelberg serves as our “large” catechism.

The Evangelical Catechism was written 300 years later in Missouri by and for the Evangelical Synod. It too is a short catechism directed at confirmands. Both Luther’s and the Evangelical catechisms cover the same material: the commandments, the creed, prayer, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The Evangelical Catechism looks at these items in more detail, while Luther’s Catechism also deals with confession & absolution and includes prayers for the day, a “table of duties”, and a short list of 20 questions to use before communion.

There are not any meaningful doctrinal disagreements between the two, so why the change in our constitution? I did not find any record of the discussion at that time, but I can guess that the Evangelical Catechism was already in use for Friedens’ confirmation classes. It was written especially for us, in this country and context, and used by churches like ours. The Evangelical Catechism has a history tied to Eden Seminary, where a number of our ministers were educated, and I would hazard a guess that these ministers were trained in its instruction and had access to teaching material. 

The E&R Church was once an organized denomination,  so when our constitution referred to “symbolic books of the Evangelical and Reformed Church,” it was referring to what was used by the denomination. Now, “Evangelical & Reformed” is a traditional label. It refers to churches from the long gone E&R denomination and those of similar heritage stretching back to Europe.

Despite the removal by name, there can be no 0doubt that Luther’s catechism is one of the “symbolic books” of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and therefore one of our standards, subordinate to scripture. It occurs to me that these three catechisms may each have their own places: Evangelical for confirmation, Heidelberg for weekly study, and Luther’s for home. 

If you haven’t, consider giving Luther’s Small Catechism a read. These prayers, questions and answers have given a common language to Evangelicals for centuries. You might feel a closer kinship with our brothers in local Lutheran churches, all of us adopted by the same Father.