If we are to know God, however, we have to begin to understand what separates Him both from His creation and from the gods of non-Christian religions. That's where Lesson Second of the Baltimore Catechism, "On God and His Perfections," starts. For many of us, the questions and answers contained in it may seem obvious, but they lie at the center of the Christian understanding of God.
The gods of paganism and of later Christian heresies such as Mormonism are never pure spirit but have a corporeal (material) element. And while powerful and knowledgeable, they always have limitations--indeed, there was even a time when they did not exist.
But God, as Christians know, knows no bounds: He is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipresent (everywhere). He has no beginning and no end. He created the material world, but He has no material element to His nature.
In the modern world, we can no longer take for granted that people--even professed Christians--understand these basic attributes of God. One of the advantages to the question-and-answer method of catechesis is that each question and each lesson builds upon the last. If a student understands the question at hand, he can move on, but if he finds the answer to be different from what he expects, he can examine it more fully before tackling more complex matters. That way, small errors of understanding will not compound into big ones.
Lesson Second from the Confirmation Catechism has eight questions; and while the corresponding lesson from the First Communion Catechism usually has fewer, this is a rare occasion when the lesson is exactly the same.
Note that the lesson begins with Question 13, continuing with the numbering from Lesson First.
Check out this week's lesson, and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments or ask them in the Catholicism Forum!
Why are there many Catechisms in the Catholic Church? Is there division in the church because of this?
You might as well ask why there are so many different types of college or university. Each authentic Catholic Catechism teaches exactly the same faith. Different methods of teaching are suitable for different people. A catechism for children will be different from one for adults. A catechism for the well educated will be different from one for the illiterate. And a catechism for the fifteenth century will address somewhat different concerns than one for the twenty first. The remarkable thing though is the perfect unity of them all. The Catechism of the Council of Trent and today’s Catechism of the Catholic Church recognisably teach the same faith since they are laid on the one foundation of Jesus Christ and His body the Church.
The reason I asked the question regarding the many versions of the Catechism is that several comments and references were made back in the discussion of the “Flight Into Egypt”, to the “Baltimore Catechism” and some preferred that version over any other. Why would that particular Catechism be preferred over the “Missionary Catechism”? What makes the Baltimore Catechism so much better than any other, since all hold to the basic fundamental teachings of the church?
Charles, I’ve explained above part of the reason why I’m fond of the Baltimore Catechism as a pedagogical tool: “One of the advantages to the question-and-answer method of catechesis is that each question and each lesson builds upon the last. If a student understands the question at hand, he can move on, but if he finds the answer to be different from what he expects, he can examine it more fully before tackling more complex matters. That way, small errors of understanding will not compound into big ones.”
If, by the “Missionary Catechism,” you mean Russell Ford’s The Missionary’s Catechism, then those remarks apply to it as well. While following the structure of the current Catechism of the Catholic Church, it offers lessons in a traditional question and answer format, though with a bit of modern flair that may make it more attractive to some than the Baltimore Catechism.
But as AMGP notes above, different catechisms have different uses. The current Catechism of the Catholic Church is an excellent–indeed, unparalleled–reference work (I use it daily), but it is, in my opinion, a lousy pedagogical tool. I mean no disrespect to the work itself or to its authors in saying that, but I think that the rise of many derivative catechisms based on it that are specifically marketed as teaching tools indicates that I’m not alone in that assessment.