There is little doubt that the Catholic Church has relied upon not just the written tradition found in the Bible but also on the verbal traditions passed down from the apostles to their immediate disciples and from those down their own lines of successors (2 Thessalonians 2:15). There is evidence for this being the best practice not only from Jesus initially trusting his flocks to the Apostles, especially St. Peter in John 21:15-17, but also throughout Acts and the letters where the apostles not only pass on their roles to new bishops and priests, but also outlined for them the process of doing the same (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1:5-9). However, as the church began to grow from a handle of men to a multitude of faithful, problems of orthodoxy began to arise.

All of the late writing of the Apostles from St. Peter, to St. Paul, to even the beloved St. John who did not initially seem to plan to write down his teachings at all; contained warnings against the rapidly growing false doctrines of the heretics that began to poison the church. These letters were passed around in the early church going far beyond their initial intended audience and eventually their main points as well as some of the major oral traditions were gathered together into a reference of teachings that were eventually written down into the very first catechism the Didaché. As a catechism is a formulation of matters of faith in a way that is meant to be more accessible to the faithful, there are many different catechism throughout the ages until the modern Catechism of the Catholic Church of today.

Even if they can have stuffy and seemingly restrictive language, Catechisms serve a very important purpose of providing a home for teachings of the faith and a guide to maintaining the right path and not straying into schism. The average layperson, especially in centuries past where education and free time were both limited, there were few who had the time to trove the annals of the church fathers for themselves or to familiarize themselves with the broader argumentation against problematic interpretations of the facts of faith. Catechisms helped to bridge that gap, providing a public and unshakable collection of council ruling and biblical teachings. They also can be tied into the issues of the day and give insight into what immediate topics the bishops needed to address. For example, apparently the reason St. Paul brought up the bit about no one who refuses to work should eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10) may have been because ancient grifters were coming into Christian communities and attempting to survive solely on charity as prophets or teachers. So much so that it’s mentioned in the text that those who pass though teaching should not stay past one day unless needed; going so far to say that those who stay for three days are false prophets! (Didaché 11) It’s hard to imagine this being applied to many of the original apostles as St. Paul for example stayed years at a time, but with the other verses in the chapter talking about watching for those who ask for money and pretend to be gripped by the Holy Spirit in order to order large and possibly extravagant meals, clearly at that time there was some sort of need for this type of advise.

Perhaps that’s why there is not one single Catechism going back as far as the gospels do. Due to the limitations of communication and travel, much of the early church was segmented into united—but different in their needs and trials—parishes and dioceses. It is only in more modern times when the internet allows for a transparent and immediate form of communication and the wars of the past have created a global level to society that catechisms can be universal in a way they never were before. Still, even if the one day rule was only for a certain time and place, it can still help us acknowledge mega church grifters. For this reason, and just in the spirit of observing the overall growth of the church and its consistances, the various catechism throughout history will be a good place to glean information.

However, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t think that outside of the declarations included in many of the ecumenical councils, the Didaché, and the modern CCC that there is a solid list of church councils to turn to. Therefore this might be a bit of a slow growing section, even compared to the others, until I’m able to start uncovering the different versions throughout history. That being said, the CCC is a thick book and even the Baltimore Catechism in its gradually increasing volumes contain a great deal of information and those works themselves will provide us with plenty of topics to start with.

Finally, as with my other introduction articles I will eventually add links to primary parts of this series here as they are written to create an easily followed hub page for sharing.