Shaping Piety Through Catechetical Structures: The Importance of Order

Abstract

This paper explores how the order in which the Creed, Lord's Prayer and Decalogue are placed in a catechism shapes the way the authors intend to inculcate piety. First, the reason for the order of three chief parts in the catechisms by Augustine of Hippo is studied. Then, three catechisms from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which place these chief parts of the catechism in different orders, are compared, namely Dietrich Kolde's A Fruitful Mirror, Luther's Small Catechism and in Henrician England, The King's Book. It is shown that each of the composers of these catechisms was deliberate in the order they set out the material before them, with a view to shaping the piety of the people in a particular way.