New Presbyterian Catechisms Proposed

NEW YORK —  “Won’t heaven be a boring place?” “Is Christianity the only true religion?” “Does ‘God the Father’ mean that God is male?”

Replacing rote exercises with conversation, two proposed catechisms for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) explore how ancient truths apply to contemporary culture.

Instead of hurling Reformation anathemas at other Christian churches, these brief recaps of Presbyterian teaching talk about being part of “the holy catholic church” and ponder whether salvation is available to non-Christians.

Interpreting masculine images of God without excluding women is also part of the proposed catechisms, which will be presented to the church’s General Assembly in June. If approved, they will be sent to the denomination’s 11,000 churches as study documents.

If they pass muster in the pews, they may become part of the church’s authoritative Book of Confessions. But “only if they enable the contemporary church to confess Jesus Christ today,” said Richard Osmer, a professor of Christian education at Princeton University.

Osmer led a special committee, appointed by the General Assembly in 1994, to create a contemporary statement of church teachings.

“We tried very much to produce a consensus document, the broad consensus, the broad middle within the Presbyterian Church,” said George Hunsinger, who directs the Center for Barth Studies at Princeton.

In a Presbyterian church split by bitter struggles over issues of sexuality, reaching agreement on basic statements of faith is a historic moment, he said.

But unlike the 688-page Catholic catechism, the Presbyterian catechisms avoid definitive stands on such issues as abortion and homosexuality that have divided the denomination in recent years. As with earlier catechisms, the 14-page Study Catechism and the five-page First Catechism--a simpler document intended for ages 10 and up--focus on traditional teachings.

The documents rely heavily on the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments, and affirm such core teachings as the belief that Jesus rose from the dead and that he was both divine and human.

But the catechisms do not stop there. While upholding traditional teachings, they affirm modern scholarship as a tool for interpreting the Bible.

Among other contemporary concerns, the environment is not forgotten. Human beings made in God’s image, the catechism states, have a responsibility to care for the planet so “that future generations may continue to enjoy the abundance and goodness of the Earth in praise to God.”

The Study Catechism also recognizes concerns about biblical language, asking outright whether “God the Father” means that God is male.

The answer? “No. Only creatures having bodies can be either male or female. But God has no body, since by nature God is Spirit. Holy Scripture reveals God as a living God beyond all sexual distinctions.”