Other languages

• Dutch: catechismus 
• French: catéchisme 
• German: Katechismus  
• Italian: catechismo, dottrina, compendio/sommario/interrogatorio della dottrina cristiana
• Polish: katechizm
• Spanish: catecismo 

Material form

Subject

Description

The catechism is an exposition of Christian doctrine, or oftentimes rather an ideal of what the true doctrine should be. Such texts quickly became participants in the fierce political and religious struggles between Catholics and Protestants over the correct interpretation of the faith.  

Most catechisms were published as stand-alone works, but they also appeared as part of larger instructional works, such as the Book of Common Prayer in England. Though usually small in size (not larger than quarto), catechisms could vary substantially in length; abbreviated versions were obviously aimed at the widest readership.  The catechism was used mainly as didactic material, to teach the young on the proper interpretation of Christianity. This happened after children had first learned to read with the aid of catechism primers that contained elementary religious material.  

Catechisms were also produced in the New World, e.g. New Spain, in indigenous languages and/or multilingual (with Spanish), in the context of missionary activities. Sometimes they also included images to convey the doctrinal content more easily. 

Related terms

catechism primer, children’s book and schoolbook, devotional literature

Sources

S. González-Sarasa Hernáez, Tipología editorial del impreso antiguo español, thesis Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2013), 453-461 (‘Catecismo’). https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/24020/

I.M. Green, The Christian’s ABC: Catechisms and Catechizing in England c. 1530-1740 (Oxford: Clarendon Press/New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

W. Heijting, De catechismi en confessies in de Nederlandse Reformatie tot 1585 (Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1989).

E. Marazzi, ‘Catechism Primers in Italy’, in: B. Juska-Bacher, M. Grenby, T. Laine and W. Sroka (eds.), Learning to Read, Learning Religion. Catechism Primers in Europe from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2023), 272-291, esp. 278-279.

A. Monaque, Catéchismes diocésains de la France d’Ancien Régime conservés dans les bibliothèques françaises (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2002).

M. Morrissey, ‘Sermons, Primers, and Prayerbooks’, in: J. Raymond (ed.), The Oxford History of Popular Print Culture, Vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 491-509.

L. Palmer Wandel, Reading Catechisms, Teaching Religion (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2016).

E. Watson, ‘Education in partibus infidelium: Catcholic Catechisms and Controversy in the Dutch Republic’, Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis 29 (2022), 4-31, https://doi.org/10.5117/JNB2022.002.WATS.