EARLY CHURCH CATECHESIS AND NEW CHRISTIANS' CLASSES IN CONTEMPORARY EVANGELICALISM

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2004 by Arnold, Clinton E

What matters most for our purposes, however, is learning from the early church how it helped assimilate these pagan seekers into the life of the church.

II. TIME AND IMPORTANCE

1. Four weeks was not enough. Although the NT itself never specifies a particular time frame or a set procedure for training new believers, there are numerous exhortations and narrative examples of the establishment of new believers in Christ. The development of an organized catechumenate may have derived much of its impetus from the second part of Jesus' so-called Great Commission where he enjoins his disciples not only to proclaim the gospel and baptize the new believers, but also "teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matt 28:19-20). Certainly the entire course of the apostle Paul's ministry could be described as a zealous combination of proclaiming the gospel along with an equally zealous commitment to forming communities of believers and teaching them. he tells the Galatians that "I am in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you" (Gal 4:19).

As we move into the post-apostolic period, there is widespread testimony of a focused and coherent plan21 to instruct new believers. There may have been some precedent for the structure and content of the catechumenate in the Jewish procedure for training proselytes. The ethical teaching of the "two ways" tradition that appears in early Christian catechetical documents (Barn, 18-20; Did, 1-6) appears to be rooted in Jewish tradition. This is seen most notably now in the comparison of these documents with the "two ways" teaching found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (IQS 3:13-4:26).22 Nevertheless, we need to recognize that "in regard to the instruction of I.Jewish] proselytes before their reception, nothing is known."23 We really know nothing of the length of the period of instruction for proselytes, how the time was structured, and very little of the content of what was taught. If it did serve as the model for the early Christians, we actually may learn more about the Jewish pattern from Christian catechetical sources than vice versa.

When we begin to examine the sources of the early Christian catechumenate, we discover that it often took place over a three-year span.24 The Apostolic Tradition reflects the practice of instructing them for a span of three years: "let the catechumens hear the Word for three years" (17.1). A three-year period is also attested in the Apostolic Constitutions (8.32.16) and the Testamentum Domini (3.3).25 Clement of Alexandria also alludes to a three-year catechumenate (Stromata 2.18).26

Part of the motivation and concern for a lengthy process was rooted in a desire to foster solid spiritual formation and to protect these new believers against sin, heresy, and apostasy. Thomas Finn summarizes the process well in affirming that, "The key was conversion, itself a journey, or as the ancients put it, a change ('turning,' epistrephein/conversio) from one 'way of walking' to another."27 Cyril of Jerusalem reflects on the vital importance of this process of growth for the health and stability of these new believers: "Let me compare the catechizing to a building. Unless we methodically bind and joint the whole structure together, we shall have leaks and dry rot, and all our previous exertions will be wasted" (Cyril of Jerusalem, Prochatechesis U).28