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Christian education and catechesis

What is christian education and catechesis?

Christian education and catechesis is the study of how the Christian faith is taught and learned: the churches' teaching from the early catechumenate and the catechisms to Sunday schools and mission schools, the theorists of the field, and research on how faith is handed on. It has no single name: catechesis, Christian education and religious education name overlapping fields.

  • 167Sources
  • 15Traditions
  • 16Dated entries
  • 15Minutes

Study v1.1, 5 November 2026

Christian education and catechesis

At a glance

Why it matters for reading Scripture

How faith is taught and learned, in churches and in groups.

What the study found

Churches teach faith through catechesis, catechisms, Sunday schools and groups, adapting to age; studies of mostly North American families find parents the strongest predictor of transmission, and retrieval and co-viewing aid learning.

Where traditions divide

Traditions and scholars divide on whom to catechise and when, on infant or believers' baptism, on the roles of family, congregation and school, and on whether teaching into faith indoctrinates.

How the traditions compare

  • Catholic Church

    Teaches from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), a reference text addressed first to bishops and writers of catechisms, which leaves the adaptation of doctrine and method to age and culture to local catechisms and to teachers.

    Method is set by directories, most recently the Directory for Catechesis (2020), which centers kerygmatic catechesis; the General Directory for Catechesis (1997) makes the baptismal catechumenate the model for all catechesis. Catechesis, which seeks personal adherence to Christ and is set mainly in parish and family, is held distinct from school religious education, which does not require the assent of faith. First confession and communion come at about the seventh year, under the decree Quam singulari (1910).

    Sources1–7

  • Eastern Orthodox churches

    Have no single universal catechism in the sense of the Catholic Catechism: Philaret's Longer Catechism is the most widely used historic text, and teaching authority rests with the synods and education bodies of each jurisdiction.

    Much formation is placed in worship, and Thomas Hopko's The Orthodox Faith calls the liturgy a primary source of Christian doctrine. Infants receive baptism, chrismation and communion together and learn the faith afterwards, chiefly through parents, godparents and the liturgy, while adult converts are catechized before reception. In 2017 the Moscow Patriarchate's Bishops' Council did not adopt a single catechism, approving instead a proposal to publish its material as three separate documents after amendment.

    Sources8–16

  • Coptic Orthodox Church

    Teaches children through the Sunday School movement, which dates officially from 1918, when Habib Girgis launched it on the model of Protestant Sunday schools, after informal classes from about 1898.

    In Egypt Sunday school meets on Friday. After Girgis the movement decentralized, so that each diocese, sometimes each church, sets its own curriculum and trains its own teachers, called servants.

    Sources17–20

  • Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

    Its traditional church schools run from the reading school, entered at age 5 to 7, to higher schools of liturgy, chant, verse composition and commentary, in which texts are memorized.

    A Sunday school movement grew from Coptic trainers, and Mahibere Kidusan, formed in 1991, revives Ge'ez, memorization and the interpretation of sacred texts.

    Sources21–24

  • Lutheran churches

    Teach from Luther's Small Catechism, most of whose parts are headed as what the head of the family should teach the household, and whose method fixes one form of words before explaining its meaning.

    The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod issued a new Explanation of 374 questions in 2017, on which Concordia Publishing House builds its Enduring Faith confirmation curriculum. The publishing house of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America offers Here We Stand Confirmation in three flexible units, and the church sets no age for first communion.

    Sources25–30

  • Reformed and Presbyterian churches

    Teach from the Heidelberg Catechism, whose 129 questions are divided into 52 Lord's Days, and from the Westminster Shorter Catechism of 107 questions, which conservative Presbyterian bodies keep as a standard and whose memorization Banner of Truth defends.

    Catechizing has traditionally led to a public profession of faith, in the Church of Scotland typically from about 16.

    Sources31–34

  • Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NG Kerk)

    Its General Synod recasts catechesis as lifelong faith formation shared by home and congregation, names parents the primary faith guides, and runs Jeugfokus Kategese, which combines digital material with meetings and home conversations.

    Public profession of faith comes at about 17 or 18, and since 1998 believing baptized children may take Communion before it.

    Sources35–38

  • Anglican churches

    The Prayer Book catechism is an instruction to be learned before confirmation, and the 1662 order admitted to Communion only those confirmed or ready and desirous to be confirmed.

    The Church of England's main recent instrument is a course, Pilgrim, whose method is "participation, not persuasion"; it sets no fixed age for confirmation, and since 2006 baptized children may receive communion before confirmation where the bishop permits. The Anglican Church in North America's catechism, To Be a Christian, is written with the average inquirer in mind.

    Sources39–44

  • Methodist churches

    United Methodist confirmation uses endorsed curricula with an adult mentor for each confirmand, and is held to be neither membership, which is given in baptism, nor graduation.

    The older Methodist form is the class meeting, a weekly group of about a dozen under a class leader, which United Methodist congregations have revived as covenant groups and the Methodist Church of Southern Africa keeps as a structure for accountability and growth.

    Sources45–49

  • Baptist churches

    Baptize only on profession of faith, and Steve Lemke holds that the Baptist Faith and Message statements treat children as not accountable until capable of moral action.

    The 2000 Baptist Faith and Message is, in its drafters' words, a statement of belief and not a binding document, so there is no binding catechism, though a tradition of catechisms in use runs from Keach's Catechism (1693) to Spurgeon, Boyce and Broadus. Most Baptist teaching runs through graded publisher curricula such as Lifeway's The Gospel Project.

    Sources50–54

  • Mennonite churches

    The Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (1995) reserves baptism for those who confess their sins, repent, accept Jesus Christ and pledge a covenant before the church.

    Its commentary holds infants and children safe in God's care, uses the term age of accountability without fixing an age, and presents confessions as an outline for instructing new members.

    Sources55

  • Pentecostal churches

    The Assemblies of God (USA) set its Statement of Fundamental Truths as a standard to teach, and its free Bible Engagement Project gives age-aligned 40-week years from preschool to adult, with small groups, family devotions, video and memorized faith verses.

    Cheryl Bridges Johns argues that Pentecostals already run a strong process of formation and catechesis by which believers come to own and tell the Christian story, and Wolfgang Vondey that Pentecostal formation varies with culture and social setting.

    Sources56–59

  • Seventh-day Adventist Church

    Holds that baptism follows instruction in the Holy Scriptures (Fundamental Belief 15), and teaches weekly through the Sabbath School: an adult quarterly with a memory text for each lesson, and Alive in Jesus for children from birth to 18 on a three-year cycle.

    Sources60–62

  • Jehovah's Witnesses

    Teach through a free personal Bible study in the home, now built on the 60-lesson Enjoy Life Forever!, in which a personal instructor works through the book topic by topic.

    Congregation studies follow a paragraph-and-question method, families are asked to set a definite time for Family Worship, and children of Witnesses follow the same steps to baptism as adults, with no minimum age.

    Sources63–67

  • The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

    Teaches through Come, Follow Me, a home-centered curriculum in which members read first at home and then discuss in class, rotating through the scriptures year by year.

    Doctrine and Covenants 68 charges parents to teach their children and sets baptism at eight, and seminary is a four-year program for youth generally aged 14 to 18.

    Sources68–72

How the field developed

  1. Second Temple
    c. 50 to 120

    The Didache opens with the teaching of the Two Ways, to be given before baptism, with fasting before the rite. Its date is contested: the common range runs from about 50 to 70 to about 110 to 120, with outlying dates on either side.737475

  2. Early church
    3rd century

    By the third century at the latest, inquirers spent two to three years as catechumens, with instruction in faith and morals intensified in Lent before baptism at Easter. The Apostolic Tradition gives three years as hearers of the word; Easton dated it close to 217, while its Hermeneia commentators read it as a composite of several periods.767778

  3. Late antiquity
    c. 347 to 350

    Cyril of Jerusalem gives the fullest surviving course of catechetical lectures, a consecutive course built on the Creed, followed in Easter week by five Mystagogical Catecheses for the newly baptized, whose authorship scholars divide between Cyril and his successor John. The lectures are dated about 347 or about 350, and Frank Borg argues that parts of them are later than 350.7980818283

  4. Late antiquity
    c. 400

    Augustine writes De catechizandis rudibus for Deogratias, a deacon of Carthage: the teacher tells the story from creation to the present Church, passing quickly over details and dwelling on key events, and adapts to the hearer.84

  5. Medieval
    1281

    At the council John Pecham summons to Lambeth, the canon Ignorantia sacerdotum requires priests to expound to the people four times a year, in the vernacular, the articles of faith, the Ten Commandments, the two Gospel precepts of love, the seven works of mercy, the seven deadly sins, the seven principal virtues and the seven sacraments.8586

  6. Reformation
    1529

    After the Saxon visitation, Luther writes the Large Catechism, about April, and the Small Catechism, about May. The Small Catechism first appears as wall charts for homes, schools and churches.8788

  7. Reformation
    1563

    The Heidelberg Catechism is approved in January, and from its third German edition, in the Palatinate Church Order of 15 November 1563, its 129 questions are divided into 52 Lord's Days so that one part can be explained each Sunday.318990

  8. Reformation
    1647 to 1648

    The Westminster Assembly sends its Larger and Shorter Catechisms to Parliament in 1647, and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland adopts them in July 1648. Britannica describes the Shorter, of 107 questions, as mainly for children.9192

  9. Modern
    1780

    Robert Raikes and Thomas Stock open the first of their Gloucester Sunday schools in July 1780, for poor children aged five to fourteen, combining reading, church attendance and catechism. Hannah Ball had begun a Sunday school in High Wycombe in 1769.939495

  10. Modern
    1847

    Horace Bushnell's Views of Christian Nurture argues that a child should grow up a Christian and never know himself as otherwise. The Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, which had issued his Discourses on Christian Nurture, suspends them after strong objections, and Bennett Tyler answers in print.96979899

  11. Modern
    1872

    The Fifth National Sunday School Convention, at Indianapolis, adopts the uniform, or International, lesson system. The series still runs, covering the whole Bible in six-year cycles.100101

  12. Modern
    1918

    The Coptic Sunday School movement is founded under Habib Girgis, so that Coptic children in civil schools could be taught their faith.1718

  13. Modern
    1953

    Before the Bantu Education Act, about 90 percent of black South African schools were state-aided mission schools, a figure that counts schools, not pupils. The Act centralizes control in the Bantu Education Department, and by the mid-1960s almost all mission schools have been forced to close.102103

  14. Modern
    1992

    John Paul II publishes the Catechism of the Catholic Church on 11 October, calling it "a sure norm for teaching the faith"; the Latin typical edition follows in 1997.1104

  15. Modern
    2020

    Pope Francis approves the Directory for Catechesis on 23 March, and it is published on 25 June, after the directories of 1971 and 1997; it centers kerygmatic catechesis and names digital culture as a major challenge.1054

  16. Modern
    2021

    By the motu proprio Antiquum ministerium of 10 May 2021, Pope Francis institutes the stable lay ministry of catechist for men and women, and the rite of institution follows on 3 December.106107

How to study christian education and catechesis

The questions it asks

  • What distinguishes teaching about a faith, which seeks understanding and does not require assent, from teaching into a faith, which seeks adherence?1086
  • Whom should the church catechize, and when: before full initiation or after it?
  • How is the work of teaching shared between family, congregation and school?
  • Is teaching children a faith indoctrination?109
  • How do people come to hold a faith, and what helps them keep it?
  • Did catechizing change what ordinary people knew and believed?110111

Its method

Start

  1. Describe what is going on in a community's teaching and interpret why, as the first two of the four linked tasks Richard Osmer sets for practical theology, where the field most often sits112.

  2. Ask what ought to be going on, and decide how to respond, the last two of those tasks112.

  3. Read each tradition's teaching from its own texts: its catechisms, directories and curricula, and the bodies that issue and check them.

  4. Treat each catechism or curriculum as a teaching tool: why it was written, for whom, in what form and length, and how it was used in household, school and church.

  5. Separate teaching about a faith from teaching into it, as J. Mark Halstead separates education about religion from education in religion108.

  6. Give each theorist with the critics the sources name, and note where a profile was written by a student or colleague of its subject113.

  7. Report each figure on the handing on of faith with its year, sample and definition, since studies define leaving differently and many samples are narrow114115116.

  8. Where sources give different dates or attributions, give both readings with their holders, as for the date of the Heidelberg Catechism's 52 Lord's Days31117.

What to read

Its primary witnesses

  • The earliest witnesses to teaching before baptism: the Didache and Justin Martyr's First Apology 6173118.
  • The Apostolic Tradition, whose authorship and date are disputed7778.
  • The fourth-century catechetical series: Cyril of Jerusalem's Procatechesis and lectures, Ambrose's De mysteriis, John Chrysostom's Baptismal Instructions and Theodore of Mopsuestia's homilies119120121122.
  • Egeria's pilgrimage account of Lenten teaching at Jerusalem, in the translation of M. L. McClure and C. L. Feltoe and the analyses of A. A. Stephenson and G. E. Gingras12381124.
  • Two manuals for teachers: Augustine's De catechizandis rudibus and Gregory of Nyssa's Great Catechism84125.
  • Medieval programs for parish teaching: the Admonitio synodalis, Pecham's Ignorantia sacerdotum and the Lay Folks' Catechism12686127.
  • The catechisms of the Reformation era, among them Luther's Small and Large Catechisms, Calvin's Genevan Catechism, the Heidelberg and Westminster catechisms, the Prayer Book catechism and the Roman Catechism261281293132130131.
  • The Orthodox catechisms of Peter Mogila and of Philaret of Moscow132133.
  • Visitation records, from which Gerald Strauss argued that a century of Protestantism brought little change in the common religious conscience110.

Standard reference works

  • The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992; Latin typical edition 1997)1104.
  • The General Directory for Catechesis (1997) and the Directory for Catechesis (2020)54.
  • The Code of Canon Law, canons 773 to 780, and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, title 15134135.
  • Richard Osmer's Practical Theology: An Introduction (2008)112.
  • J. Mark Halstead's entry on religious education in the Encyclopedia of Religion108.
  • Jack Seymour's Mapping Christian Education (1997)136.
  • The Talbot School of Theology database Christian Educators of the 20th Century, with 217 entries113.
  • Ian Green's The Christian's ABC: Catechisms and Catechizing in England c.1530-1740 (1996)137.
  • The journals Religious Education, the British Journal of Religious Education and the Christian Education Journal138139140.
  • The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy account of the indoctrination debate by Phillips, Siegel and Callan109.

Scholarship referenced in this study

The works below shaped the field and are cited in this study, from the earliest to the most recent. Hover over a book, or select it, to see its author and the sources behind it.

  • about 400De catechizandis rudibusAugustineDe catechizandis rudibus (about 400)AugustineSources84
  • 1529Small CatechismMartin LutherSmall Catechism (1529)Martin LutherSources87–88
  • 1847Christian NurtureHorace BushnellChristian Nurture (1847)Horace Bushnell (1802 to 1876)Sources96141
  • 1917A Social Theory of Religious EducationGeorge Albert CoeA Social Theory of Religious Education (1917)George Albert Coe (1862 to 1951)Sources142–143
  • 1959Handing on the FaithJosef JungmannHanding on the Faith (1959)Josef JungmannSources144
  • 1968Pedagogy of the OppressedPaulo FreirePedagogy of the Oppressed (1968)Paulo FreireSources145
  • 1974Of Water and the SpiritAlexander SchmemannOf Water and the Spirit (1974)Alexander SchmemannSources146
  • 1976Will Our Children Have Faith?John H. Westerhoff IIIWill Our Children Have Faith? (1976)John H. Westerhoff IIISources147
  • 1980Christian Religious EducationThomas H. GroomeChristian Religious Education (1980)Thomas H. GroomeSources148
  • 1981Stages of FaithJames W. FowlerStages of Faith (1981)James W. FowlerSources149
  • 1993Pentecostal Formation: A Pedagogy among the OppressedCheryl Bridges JohnsPentecostal Formation: A Pedagogy among the Oppressed (1993)Cheryl Bridges JohnsSources58150
  • 1997Mapping Christian EducationJack SeymourMapping Christian Education (1997)Jack SeymourSources136

Listed because this study draws on their published work; no association with or endorsement of Numa Verse is implied. Suggest a correction.

Key terms

The words that carry the most weight in this field, each defined from the sources of this study. Turn a card over to read its definition.

An education in the faith of children, young people and adults, chiefly the teaching of Christian doctrine in an organic and systematic way, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it; the Greek root points to oral teaching151152.

The text used in catechesis: a structured summary of belief and practice, usually laid out as questions and answers for learning by heart.

The staged preparation of catechumens, people accepted into the Order of Catechumens and preparing for baptism; the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults has four periods, ending in mystagogy153.

Teaching on the meaning of the rites given after baptism, as in the Mystagogical Catecheses given at Jerusalem in Easter week; the 2020 Directory for Catechesis calls it not optional794.

A school for religious education, usually of children and young people, usually attached to a church; Britannica calls it the main Protestant means of teaching the Bible154.

Instruction that leads to confirmation and, in most Protestant churches, to full membership; J. Mark Halstead names it beside the Sunday school as a main Christian form of education in religion108.

In the United States, the education of faith communities and the scholarship that studies it; in England, a statutory school subject taught to all pupils138155.

In Dallas Willard's definition, the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self156.

Catechesis centered on the proclamation of the good news: Josef Jungmann launched a kerygmatic renewal in 1936, unified around salvation history and the mystery of Christ, and the 2020 Directory for Catechesis makes the announcement of Jesus Christ central in every phase1444.

Christian Smith's label, from the National Study of Youth and Religion, for a creed in which God wants people to be good, nice and fair, the central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself, and God need not be involved except to resolve a problem157.

Where it sits

Builds on

Christian education and catechesis

Questions people ask

In Catholic documents catechesis seeks personal adherence to Christ and is set mainly in parish and family, while school religious education gives knowledge of Christianity, does not require the assent of faith and is taught with the rigor of other subjects; the two are called distinct and complementary65. In England religious education is a statutory school subject taught to all pupils whatever their background155.

The traditions differ. The Catholic Church admits children to first confession and communion at about seven7; Orthodox churches give baptism, chrismation and communion to infants together and teach afterwards12; Latter-day Saints baptize at eight71; and Steve Lemke argues that the Baptist Faith and Message statements hold children not accountable until capable of moral action, a state he places usually in adolescence50. The traditions agree that every baptized person needs teaching, and divide over whether it comes before or after full initiation158.

Philosophers of education divide. Paul Hirst asked in 1971 whether "Christian education" is a contradiction in terms, held that on a sophisticated concept of education it is an anachronism, and assigned religious formation to home and church159. Michael Hand restated the objection against faith schools, and Geoffrey Short replied that its assumptions fail160161. Elmer Thiessen holds that teaching for commitment is compatible with liberal ideals, Terence Copley that British schools practice a secular indoctrination, and Trevor Cooling that no classroom is neutral162163164.

The figures measure different things114115116. Lifeway found that 66 percent of Americans who had regularly attended a Protestant church in high school dropped out for at least a year between 18 and 22, and that 31 percent of those who left now attend twice a month or more114. Barna's 59 percent counts disconnection after age 15, whether permanent or for an extended period115. The widely quoted 40 to 50 percent is the Fuller Youth Institute's reading of other studies, not a finding of its own project116.

In studies of mostly North American and Australian families, parents and the home are the strongest predictors. Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk conclude that parents' religious lives are the single most powerful causal influence on the religion of American teenagers165, and Vern Bengtson's three-generation study, as R. Stephen Warner reports it, found that warmth, especially from fathers, mattered more than parental piety166. In an Australian survey of young Catholic churchgoers, online engagement with religious resources added no predictive power for attendance once home factors were counted167.

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  1. 1Apostolic Constitution Fidei depositum, John Paul II, 11 October 1992 (Holy See)https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19921011_fidei-depositum.html (opens in a new tab)
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  35. 354.3.2 Taakspan Kategese; 4.3.3 Belydenis van Geloof, 2019 (NG Kerk Algemene Sinode)https://ngkerk.org.za/wp-content/uploads/jet-form-builder/8c928e4b16130ec63952b322842d11c0/2025/06/AS19_Roetemerkers.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  36. 36Bylaag 9: Kategesebediening, 2011 (NG Kerk Algemene Sinode)https://ngkerk.org.za/wp-content/uploads/jet-form-builder/8c928e4b16130ec63952b322842d11c0/2025/06/AS11_Roetemerkers.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  37. 37Kategese task team (NG Kerk)https://ngkerk.org.za/task-team/kategese/ (opens in a new tab)
  38. 38A.7.1 Kategese; A.7.2 Belydenisaflegging, 2013 (NG Kerk Algemene Sinode)https://ngkerk.org.za/wp-content/uploads/jet-form-builder/8c928e4b16130ec63952b322842d11c0/2025/06/AS13_Roetemerkers.pdf (opens in a new tab)
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  44. 44To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism (Anglican Church in North America)https://anglicanchurch.net/?p=3827 (opens in a new tab)
  45. 45Credo Confirmation Teaching Plans for 8 Weeks, 2011 (Cokesbury)https://www.cokesbury.com/9781426742194-Credo-Confirmation-Teaching-Plans-for-8-Weeks (opens in a new tab)
  46. 46Planning confirmation class, Philip J. Brooks, 29 May 2026 (United Methodist Communications)https://admin.resourceumc.org/content/planning-confirmation-class (opens in a new tab)
  47. 47What is the appropriate age for baptism and for confirmation?, 9 December 2009 (Discipleship Ministries, UMC)https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/what-is-the-appropriate-age-for-baptism-and-for-confirmation (opens in a new tab)
  48. 48How's your spiritual life? The Class Meeting for today, Joe Iovino, 17 August 2015 (UMC.org)https://umc.org/content/hows-your-spiritual-life-the-class-meeting-for-today (opens in a new tab)
  49. 49Series Teachings on the MCSA Book of Order, Session 1, Xhanti T. Mhlubulwana, 2 June 2026 (Wesley Guild, MCSA)https://wesleyguild.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Series-Teachings-on-the-MCSA-Book-of-Order.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  50. 50"Age of accountability" supported by Scripture, Erin Roach reporting Steve Lemke, 2010 (Southern Baptist Texan)https://texanonline.net/articles/news/age-of-accountability-supported-by-scripture (opens in a new tab)
  51. 51Southern Baptists overwhelmingly adopt revised Baptist Faith and Message, 14 June 2000 (Baptist Press)https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/southern-baptists-overwhelmingly-adopt-revised-baptist-faith-and-message/ (opens in a new tab)
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  65. 65New Book to Be Used for Congregation Study, Our Kingdom Ministry, January 1984 (Watchtower Online Library)https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/201984006 (opens in a new tab)
  66. 66Family Worship: Vital for Survival!, The Watchtower Study Edition, 15 October 2009 (Watchtower Online Library)https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/w20091015/Family-Worship-Vital-for-Survival/ (opens in a new tab)
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  68. 68Deep and Lasting Conversion to Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Quentin L. Cook, October 2018 (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/10/deep-and-lasting-conversion-to-heavenly-father-and-the-lord-jesus-christ?lang=eng (opens in a new tab)
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  82. 82St Cyril of Jerusalem, J. Chapman, 1908 (Catholic Encyclopedia)https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04595b.htm (opens in a new tab)
  83. 83The Sacrament of Baptism in Cyril's Mystagogical Catecheses I-III, Frank Borg OP, Melita Theologica 46(2) (University of Malta)https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/37868/1/MT%2c_46%282%29_-_A3.pdf (opens in a new tab)
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  90. 90Heidelbergse Catechismus 1563 (Universiteit Utrecht, Bijzondere Collecties)https://www.uu.nl/bijzondere-collecties/collecties/oude-en-bijzondere-drukken/theologische-werken/heidelbergse-catechismus-1563 (opens in a new tab)
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  94. 94Robert Raikes tour notes, Ted Edmunds (Gloucester Civic Trust)https://www.gloucestercivictrust.org/wp-content/uploads/Robert-Raikes-tour-notes-Ted-Edmunds.pdf (opens in a new tab)
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  98. 98Discourses on Christian Nurture; Dr. Tyler's Letter; An Argument, 1847 (Atla Digital Library, Princeton Theological Seminary Library)https://dl.atla.com/concern/works/m613nf66m?locale=en (opens in a new tab)
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  134. 134Code of Canon Law, Book III, cann. 756 to 780 (Holy See)https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib3-cann756-780_en.html (opens in a new tab)
  135. 135CCEO canon 617, Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (IntraText)https://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_PH5.HTM (opens in a new tab)
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  158. 158Response to the Lima Document on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, 1984 (Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Consultation in the USA, USCCB)https://usccb.org/resources/usccb-org-statement-lima-baptism-eucharist-and-ministry.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  159. 159"Christian Education": A Contradiction in Terms?, Paul H. Hirst, 1971 (Faith and Thought, gospelstudies.org.uk)https://www.gospelstudies.org.uk/biblicalstudies/pdf/ft/99-1_043.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  160. 160A Philosophical Objection to Faith Schools, 2003 (University of Birmingham Research Portal)https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/en/publications/a-philosophical-objection-to-faith-schools/ (opens in a new tab)
  161. 161Faith schools and indoctrination: A response to Michael Hand, G. Short, 2003 (University of Hertfordshire Research Archive)https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/19283/ (opens in a new tab)
  162. 162Teaching for Commitment (Wabash Center)https://wabashcenter.wabash.edu/resources/scholarship/teaching-for-commitment-liberal-education-indoctrination-and-christian-nurture (opens in a new tab)
  163. 163Schoolchildren indoctrinated, says RE expert, Margaret Holness, 18 March 2005 (Church Times, via WWRN)https://wwrn.org/articles/16020 (opens in a new tab)
  164. 164Doing God in Education, 2 December 2010 (Theos)https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/research/2010/12/02/doing-god-in-education (opens in a new tab)
  165. 165Review of Handing Down the Faith, Emily Soloff, 28 July 2021 (The Christian Century)https://christiancentury.org/print/pdf/node/38697 (opens in a new tab)
  166. 166Patience May Be Rewarded, R. Stephen Warner, 2014 (Books and Culture, Christianity Today)https://christianitytoday.com/?p=97346 (opens in a new tab)
  167. 167Ecclesia domestica and the role of the home in sustaining churchgoing among Catholics, Francis, McKenna and Powell (CORE)https://core.ac.uk/download/327952504.pdf (opens in a new tab)

Page record

Reviewed and approved by Duane Herholdt, BA (Theology), Chief Executive Officer, Numa Verse

Study version: v1.1, 5 November 2026 (theology map v1.27)

Last reviewed: 9 November 2026

How these pages are made

  • 9 November 2026: First draft from the approved assessment v1.1.