Adam Filipek

Catechesis has, at its core, a basic narrative or summary of the Christian faith. So, before you even begin to teach the Christian faith to someone, you or the curriculum you use must have thoroughly thought through how to present the Word of Christ systematically and concisely. Luther knew this all too well. In fact, the pedagogical genius of Luther’s Small Catechism is his reordering of the chief parts to tell the simple theological narrative of faith. About this reading Luther writes,

The commandments teach a man to recognize his sickness … that he is an evil and sinful man. After this, the creed shows and teaches him where he can find … the grace which will help him become a righteous man so that he may keep the commandments, and which show him God and the righteousness which he reveals and offers to us in Christ. Thirdly, the Lord’s Prayer teaches him how he should desire, get, and appropriate this grace for himself, namely through regular, humble, and consoling prayer. … These are the three chief things in all the Scriptures. (Martin Luther, “Brief Explanation of the Ten Commandments, The Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer, 1520,” in Works of Martin Luther, With Introductions and Notes, (Philadelphia, PA: A. J. Holman, 1915), 2:354-355.)

Now, as I use Luther’s Law/Gospel catechetical narrative in my 21^st-century American context, there is a prominent difficulty I need to be aware of and mitigate: anthropocentricity, or the idea that everything revolves around me. I do not want to give the impression that Jesus’ work is only for me or that the Church is all about what I want, feel, or think I need. The catechumen must see that they are part of Christ’s Church which is comprised of people of various ages, experiences, ethnicities, languages, and historical eras who weekly gather around Jesus in Word and Sacrament, and then daily live their lives in Him. I need them to see their life is one small part of a larger historical narrative that spans from Genesis to Revelation. This is where St. Augustine’s catechumenate is helpful.

Augustine’s narrative is based on six distinctive turning-points of salvation history: Adam to Noah, Noah to Abraham, Abraham to David, David to the Babylonian Captivity, the return of the exiles to Christ’s incarnation, and Christ’s birth to the present age.[1] Augustine’s catechetical narrative is “that Christ came, to wit, that man might learn how much God loves him; and that he might learn this, to the intent that he might be kindled to the love of Him by whom he was first loved, and might also love his neighbor at the command and showing of Him who became our neighbor.”^[2] The shape and substance of this catechetical narrative is largely retained in the twelve narratives of the Easter Vigil Service.

Using Luther and Augustine’s catechetical narratives in tandem has allowed me to retain the power of the Law/Gospel narrative, while simultaneously teaching the unified biblical narrative of God’s salvific work for all people in Jesus Christ. It has allowed me to address biblical illiteracy and anthropocentricity. The tandem catechetical narratives might simply be expressed as follows: God has joined you in the flesh (his human body), so that you may join Him in your flesh for eternity.

[1] R. A. Markus, Saeculum: History and Society in the Theology of St. Augustine, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 17-18.

[2] Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 287.

A January 2026 study by the American Bible Society reveals that 42% of Americans did not read the Bible this past year. An additional 20% read the Bible only once or twice. Those who read the Bible once a month or less were 13%. So, 75% percent of Americans are “Not Bible Users” or “Occasional Bible Users.”[1] Even more staggering, in February 2017, a similar survey revealed only 57% knew Mary Magdalene was the first person to see Jesus after the resurrection. And 56% knew Peter was the disciple who denied Jesus.[2] What research reveals, and my 17 years of pastoral experience confirms, is that Americans, Christians included, are becoming increasingly biblically illiterate. We don’t know the basics of the Christian story and how it all connects.

In some respects, there is “nothing new under the sun” (Eccl 1:9). Luther faced biblical illiteracy in his day. It was bad enough that he exclaimed, “Mercy! Dear God, what great misery I beheld! The common person, especially in the villages, has no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine.”[3] Before Luther, there were Deacon Deogratias of Carthage and Bishop Augustine of Hippo, who struggled with biblical illiteracy amid the influx of new converts following Emperor Constantine’s edict of Milan.[4]

The response of biblical illiteracy for Luther, Deogratias, and Augustine was not mere lament, but a deliberate, meticulous, systematic, and nuanced approach to catechesis that sought to cultivate a love of the One True God and a desire to dwell with him here in time: weekly in the Divine Service, and daily through confession and absolution, witness, service, and acts of mercy in the assumption of our respective vocations; and there again in eternity. For Luther, this response was his Small and Large Catechisms. For Augustine, it was a revamp of Hippolytus’s, Tertullian’s, and especially Ambrose’s third-century Catechumenate.

Since there is no thorough, detailed, catechetical plan given in Scripture, the Church has and must always struggle to faithfully answer the question, “How do we form Christians to live their lives in, with, and under Christ?”

My pastoral encounters with biblical illiteracy, theological studies of catechesis, and reflection on this question led me to implement a comprehensive and cohesive approach to Christian formation, termed “Life in Christ,”  which takes the genius of Luther’s Small Catechism and joins it to the framework of the Augustinian Catechumenate.

“Life in Christ” is one attempt at deliberately, meticulously, and systematically answering the catechetical question in light of our 21st-century American biblically illiterate context. My hope is that this blog series not only causes you to reflect but also helps you reflect more deeply on how we, as the Church, might form Christians to live their lives in, with, and under Christ in 2026.

[1] American Bible Society, “State of the Bible, 2026,” January 2026. https://sotb.americanbible.org/report/state-of-the-bible-usa-2026 . 6.

[2] American Bible Society, “State of the Bible, 2017,” February 2017. https://1s712.americanbible.org/cdn-www-ws03/uploads/content/State_of_the_Bible_2017_report_032317.pdf .  71-78.

[3] Concordia Publishing House, “‘Preface of Dr. Martin Luther’ in The Small Catechism,” Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Pocket Edition, accessed September 21, 2026, https://bookofconcord.cph.org/en/small-catechism/preface/ .

[4] William Harmless, Augustine and the Catechumenate, (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1995), 53