Abstract
Recent—albeit limited—anecdotal and polling data suggest some uptick in the number of Americans identifying as Christian. Those numbers will no doubt be tracked and scrutinized by church leaders and media outlets. But if the projections are reliable and there is indeed a renewed interest in the faith, Christian educators will need to be prepared for the task of instructing and forming new members.
Yet these trends present a special challenge to today's catechist. Many in the United States often learn about Christianity through the consumption of individualized “content” via media such as podcasts and YouTube videos, which are often determined by present-day politics and have relatively little interest in the real life of the parish. Instruction must therefore account for the way in which seekers have been formed by such instruction. Churches need to present an IRL (“In Real Life”) community to those who know facts about Christianity only from what they find in virtual spaces. To respond to personalized “podcast” Christianity, catechesis will need to be explicitly communal. To broaden the narrow range of concerns shared by those who inquire, catechesis will need to be rich in historical content.
In Making Disciples, Alex Fogleman offers an ideal guide for such a challenge. Like many scholars of the catechumenate before him, including Edward Yarnold and Alexander Schmemann, he draws on the history of the practice of forming new Christians to address the challenges of the current moment. As the fruit of his research and teaching, Fogleman has provided a valuable guide not merely for professional catechists, but for all Christians.
Fogleman follows the path worn by earlier reforms of the catechumenate. It is well known that the catechetical homilies of the so-called Golden Age of patristics, including the sermons of Cyril/John of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and John Chrysostom, were the inspiration for the twentieth-century renewal of training for those seeking Christian initiation. Indeed, the “resourced” order of the catechumenate (known formerly among Roman Catholics as the “Rite,” but now as the “Order” of Christian Initiation of Adults) was intended to retrieve the catechetical practices of the early church for a modern age. While scholars know the sources of the renewed order of catechesis quite well, catechumens have relatively little direct engagement with ancient sources.
Fogleman is well-suited for the task of guiding contemporary catechists through a profound encounter with the materials that are crucial for the success of their project. Drawing on his study of knowledge and faith in early Christian initiation (Cambridge University Press 2023) as well as on his extensive experience as a catechist for the Anglican Church, Fogleman integrates historical study with contemporary reflection on the challenges facing catechists as well as strategies for confronting them. His study weaves the academic and the pastoral so successfully that hardly a seam is evident.
Throughout the study, Fogleman approaches catechesis as a process of building solid foundations that will adequately support new Christians. God is the master builder, but human catechists, especially clergy, lay leaders, and students preparing for ministry, should be prepared to provide the groundwork for a stable and integrated faith. Attention to the architecture of catechesis is therefore crucial to its viability and endurance.
Fogleman maintains that a threefold structure for catechesis is the most solid. He identifies this structure with the pillars in the history of Christian instruction: the theological virtues, the core content of ancient instruction—namely, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Commandments—and the elements of doctrine, spirituality, and ethics. Each pillar is key to an authentic Christian vocation and therefore to a successful program of catechesis. Moreover, each pillar is based on biblical teaching as it was interpreted in the tradition.
As Fogleman argues, catechesis should also mimic God's distinctive manner of building. Drawing on Augustine and Chrysostom, he shows how God operates through synkatabasis or “condescension,” humbling himself to draw close to his children to show them his ways. The Incarnation of the Son is, then, the summative catechetical event in history and the model for all human efforts.
Fogleman employs condescension not simply as a guide for his readers, but also as the approach that he adopts throughout the volume. Fogleman regularly modulates his impressive learning to present his guide in a manner that is accessible and engaging. He inserts intermittent glossaries and overviews. He poses questions to the reader that encourage conversation among the entire church community. In short, he places himself on the level of the ordinary reader.
At the same time, Fogleman draws on the latest scholarship to show how the history of catechesis should inform contemporary practice. The historical sections focus on the Scriptural foundations of catechesis and on the history of the catechumenate from the patristic period to the Middle Ages. Arguing that catechesis adapts to the social and ecclesial context, he supplements the familiar narrative of the Christianization of Europe, which focuses on the widespread conversion of pagan nations but pays little attention to the mode of their formation. These sections contain fascinating details about small Christian communities, such as the Paulicians and Eastern Syrian sects, that are overlooked, in part, because of their heterodox views. The Middle Ages offer new versions of catechesis that aim to address the needs of an ill-formed clergy. The Reformation becomes a new age of catechesis, when a variety of Christian leaders hoped to recommunicate the essentials of the faith. Further renewals in catechesis appear after the Reformation and up to the present day. As he attends to the contextual differences between different ages of catechesis, he identifies common concerns for the threefold foundation he proposes.
While Fogleman finds enduring treasures in every age, he offers a narrative that recognizes imbalances in every epoch. While the “Golden Age” of catechesis remains an ideal, no single pastoral strategy or collection of sermons was equipped to meet the needs of the missional church that emerges in the sixth century. Before the liturgical renewal of the twentieth century, catechesis came to be perceived as stale and overly didactic. Catechesis, then, must be regularly renewed.
In later chapters, Fogleman draws on this history to suggest principles for renewal. Linking catechesis to worship, mission, the theological virtues, scripture, and sacraments, Fogleman presents a rich and variegated account of the way catechesis should speak to different ages and contexts. Fogleman emphasizes the relationality of such instruction, and the need to treat catechesis as a “focal practice,” that is, a “hearth-based” activity that demands patient attention and that draws on our shared humanity. Moreover, it is an activity that activates the memory so that it may not only repeat what it has heard, but also recollect and re-create the spiritual realities that are associated with the sacramental celebrations.
His historical expertise is always close to the surface, and most chapters begin with references to major figures in the early history of the catechumenate. Fogleman presents details from the pastoral efforts of Origen, Basil of Caesarea, and Augustine, among others, that inform the various explorations of modern catechesis. Some of Fogleman's references, drawn from more obscure traditions, will be new even to experts. Likewise, themes that are prominent in early catechetics, such as the theology of the soul's spiritual senses and the multiple meanings of Scripture, are related to the aims of the training. Fogleman also engages many recent theologians, including David Bentley Hart and J. I. Packer, whose work illuminates the development of the modern appropriation of liturgical thought.
The supporting material makes the volume especially valuable as a handbook. Hans Boersma's brief foreword highlights the main contributions of the volume. Two appendices offer practical guides: an excellent list of recommended reading and a brief guide for those who hope to introduce a new catechesis into their church. The select bibliography reflects Fogleman's engagement with the breadth of scholarship on the catechumenate.
Fogleman's “condescension” is especially evident in illuminating digressions. At key moments, he furnishes detailed guides for approaching especially challenging topics in catechesis. His treatment of catechizing children, for instance, takes stock of the various stages of their development and builds toward a mature appropriation of the faith. For readers uneasy in the more technical discussions of the multiple senses of Scripture and the spiritual senses of the soul, Fogleman inserts illuminating anecdotes drawn from his personal experience. He regularly shifts his tone from the scholarly to the popular.
Writing from an Anglican background, Fogleman aims to speak to a broad ecclesial community, something akin to C. S. Lewis's “mere Christianity” (and Lewis is cited more than once). To speak to evangelical audiences, he includes abundant biblical references in his account and occasionally treats the appearance of key terms, such as katēcheō, in Scripture. To speak to Orthodox and Roman Catholic readers, he draws on the “Great Tradition” (143), as well as on contemporary theologians who adopt an approach to catechism that can appear more mystical than solely scriptural.
Fogleman paints an attractive, even rosy, picture of catechesis. To be sure, he does not ignore the difficulties that churches confront, and many of the anecdotes are included to provide a rounded picture of the catechist's reality. He recognizes the demands of family and the challenges of overcoming faulty notions of the divine. Yet, as should be expected from such an introduction, the liturgical and relational framework that is provided depicts the allure of the faith in its most inviting light.
This emphasis means that certain topics receive little attention. Like Lewis, Fogleman generally avoids engaging the issues that remain church-dividing. While he proposes three pillars of catechesis—doctrine, spirituality, and ethics—he does not devote equal attention to all three. The spiritual senses appear regularly, yet little attention is given to justification or substitutionary atonement. Moral instruction remains relatively abstract. Whereas ancient catechesis included extended sections of ethical guidance and exhortation to poverty and chastity, Fogleman generally limits his ethical guidance to the need for justice and the importance of relationality, with an occasional reference to the Ten Commandments. To be sure, Fogleman cannot anticipate every objection and provide detailed guides to the range of doctrinal concerns. Yet the big picture that Fogleman paints will necessarily require catechists to supply additional details and answer challenging questions, especially in a context where debates about racism, sexism, and sexuality unsettle many seekers. It will also require some catechists to prepare careful expositions of particular church discipline, such as clerical celibacy and male-only orders, or teaching on evangelical poverty, that can be radically at odds with the prevailing culture.
On the other hand, the data may indicate that such countercultural doctrines and disciplines have some attraction for the many who are looking to Christianity for answers to their moral and existential questions. Christians of the “Great Tradition” should take some courage from hints that the tide of anti-religious secularism may be waning, and that this may be a moment of yet another “new evangelization.” The tradition of catechesis may be entering a new stage that demands again the creative reappraisal of the tradition that he so expertly provides. All can take inspiration from Fogleman's insightful and timely guidance.