The Westminster Shorter Catechism

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• Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9783849620318
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

The Westminster Shorter Catechism (also known simply as the Shorter Catechism, hereinafter referred to as the WSC) was written in the 1640s by English and Scottish divines. The assembly also produced the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger Catechism. The three documents are considered by many Protestants to be the grandest doctrinal statements to come out of the English Reformation. Completed in 1647, it was presented to the Long Parliament on 14 April 1648.The purpose of the Shorter Catechism is to educate lay persons in matters of doctrine and belief. The WSC is in a simple question and answer format to facilitate memorization. Typically, parents and the church would use the shorter catechism to train their children in the ways of the Lord. New converts are also given the WSC as well as the Confession of Faith and Holy Scripture to study. Various denominations have used the Westminster Confession and Catechism to instruct their members. (courtesy of wikipedia.com)

Westminster Shorter Catechism (1674)

Contents:

The Reformation In England And Scotland

Westminster Shorter Catechism (1674)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Germany

ISBN: 9783849620318

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

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The Reformation In England And Scotland

By Johann Peter Kirsch

The Reformation received its final form in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). On the basis of the liturgy established in the "Book of Common Prayer" under Edward VI (1547-53) and the confession of Forty-two Articles composed by Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley in 1552, and after Queen Mary (1553-58) had failed to restore her country to union with Rome and the Catholic Faith, the ascendancy of Anglicanism was established in England by Elizabeth. The Forty-two Articles were revised, and, as the Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church, became in 1562 the norm of its religious creed. The ecclesiastical supremacy of the queen was recognized, an oath to this effect (Oath of Supremacy) being required under penalty of removal from office and loss of property. Several prelates and the universities offered resistance, which was overcome by force. The majority of the lower clergy took the oath, which was demanded with ever-increasing severity from all members of the House of Commons, all ecclesiastics, barristers, and teachers. In externals much of the old Catholic form of worship was retained. After the failure of the movement in favour of Mary Stuart of Scotland, who had fled to England in 1568, the oppression of the English Catholics was continued with increasing violence. Besides the Anglican Established Church there were in England the Calvinistic Nonconformists, who opposed a presbyterian popular organization to the episcopal hierarchy; like the Catholics, they were much oppressed by the rulers of England.

In Scotland the social and political situation gave a great impetus to the Reformation, aided by the ignorance and rudeness of the clergy (to a great extent the result of the constant feuds). The nobility used the Reformation as a weapon in their war against the royal house, which was supported by the higher clergy. Already under James V (1524-42) supporters of the Lutheran doctrines e.g. Patrick Hamilton, Henry Forest, and Alexander Seton, the king's confessor, came forward as Reformers. The first two were executed, while the last fled to the Continent. However, the heretical doctrines continued to find fresh adherents. On the death of James V his daughter and heiress was only eight days old. The office of regent fell to James Hamilton, who, though previously of Protestant sentiments, returned to the Catholic Church and supported Archbishop David Beaton in his energetic measures against the innovators. After the execution of the Reformer George Wishart, the Protestants formed a conspiracy against the archbishop, attacked him in his castle in 1545, and put him to death. The rebels (among them John Knox), joined by 140 nobles, then fortified themselves in the castle. Knox went to Geneva in 1546, there embraced Calvinism, and from 1555 was the leader of the Reformation in Scotland, where it won the ascendancy in the form of Calvinism. The political confusion prevailing in Scotland from the death of James V facilitated the introduction of the Reformation.

The fundamental forms of the Reformation were Lutheranism, Zwinglianism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism. Within each of these branches, however, conflicts arose in consequence of the diverse views of individual representatives. By negotiations, compromises, and formulae of union it was sought, usually without lasting success, to establish unity. The whole Reformation, resting on human authority, presented from the beginning, in the face of Catholic unity of faith, an aspect of dreary dissension. Besides these chief branches appeared numerous other forms, which deviated from them in essential points, and gradually rise to the countless divisions of Protestantism. The chief of these forms may be shortly reviewed.

• The Anabaptists, who appeared in Germany and German Switzerland shortly after the appearance of Luther and Zwingli, wished to trace back their conception of the Church to Apostolic times. They denied the validity of the baptism of children, saw in the Blessed Eucharist merely a memorial ceremony, and wished to restore the Kingdom of God according to their own heretical and mystical views. Though attacked by the other Reformers, they won supporters in many lands. From them also issued the Mennonites, founded by Menno Simonis (d. 1561).

• The Schwenkfeldians were founded by Kaspar of Schwenkfeld, aulic councillor of Duke Frederick of Liegnitz and canon. At first he associated himself with Luther, but from 1525 he opposed the latter in his Christology, as well as in his conception of the Eucharist, and his doctrine of justification. Attacked by the German reformers, his followers were able to form but a few communities. The Schwenkfeldians still maintain themselves in North America.

• Sebastian Franck (1499-1542), a pure spiritualist, rejected every external form of ecclesiastical organization, and favoured a spiritual, invisible Church. He thus abstained from founding a separate community, and sought only to disseminate his ideas.

• The Socinians and other Anti-Trinitarians. Some individual members of the early Reformers attacked the fundamental doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, especially the Spaniard Miguel Servede (Servetus), whose writing, "De Trinitatis erroribus", printed in 1531, was burned by Calvin in Geneva in 1553. The chief founders of Anti-Trinitarianism were Laelius Socinus, teacher of jurisprudence at Siena, and his nephew, Faustus Socinus. Compelled to fly from their home, they maintained themselves in various parts, and founded special Socinian communities. Faustus disseminated his doctrine especially in Poland and Transylvania.

• Valentine Weigel (1533-1588) and Jacob Böhme (d. 1624), a shoemaker from Gorlitz, represented a mystical pantheism, teaching that the external revelation of God in the Bible could be recognized only through an internal light. Both found numerous disciples. Böhme's followers later received ther name of Rosenkreuzer, because it was widely supposed that they stood under the direction of a hidden guide named Rozenkreuz.

• The Pietists in Germany had as their leader Philip Jacob Spener (1635-1705). Pi...

Table of contents

• The Reformation In England And Scotland