RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Catechisms
to explain the smaller catechism of Luther according to the new principles (Weimar, 1800). The weak point of the Socratic method is its inseparable connection with rationalist theology. Pestalozzi criticized this method because it tried to elicit from children what is not in them. Schleiermacher pointed out that the Socratic method ignored the revelation of the Christian religion and its history. Marheinecke, Nitzsch, Kraussold, Harms, and Htiffell followed him in opposition to it. The modern method of catechizing has retained from the Socratic method its feature of development; it does not, however, consider human reason and natural religion as the basis of this development, but rather the documents of revelation and the history of the Church.
The catechisms used in the different territories of Germany are too numerous to mention. In the territories of the Evangelical Union as well as among the orthodox Lutherans the Smaller Catechism of Luther forms the basis of instruction. 6. Modern gu£ jn accorcjance with their peculiar Tii"1 n doctrines the Unionists have made Catechisms coneessi°ns to the Reformed teach- ' ings, so that their manuals represent more or less a compromise between Luther's Smaller Catechism and the Heidelberg Catechism. The chief country of the Union is Prussia, and here the consistories in agreement with their respective provincial synods have selected a number of compendiums to be used in instruction. Manuals of the same sort are found in the other Unionistic territories, Anhalt, Baden, Hesse, Waldeck, Hanau, the Rhenish Palatinate, Nassau, and Birkenfeld.
In the distinctively Lutheran territories Luther's Smaller Catechism is used everywhere, in Hesse in connection with the so-called Hessische Fragestiicke, in Wurttemberg with Brenz's catechism. The text is at present formulated after the revision proposed by the Evangelical conference held at Eisenach in 1882. In the selection of aids to be used besides the text a certain freedom exists in Saxe-Coburg, in the Lutheran Church of Alsace- Lorraine, in Hamburg, in the Lutheran Church of the province of Hanover, and in Frankfort-onthe-Main. In certain places besides the text of the Smaller Catechism are mostly Spruchbucher, that is, collections of Bible texts and hymns. The use of such books for the explanation of Luther's catechism has been made obligatory in the kingdom of Saxony, in Altenburg, Meiningen, the principalities of Reuss, in Sleswick-Holstein and Eutin, in Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe. Besides the Spruchbucher, various expositions of Luther's catechisms have been introduced, the use of which has been made obligatory in Mecklenburg- Schwerin, Liibeck,Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Brunswick, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, the former county of Schaumburg, Weimar, Bavaria, and in the Free Lutheran Church of Prussia.
As regards the Reformed territories, the Heidelberg Catechism is used in the Reformed Church of Lippe-Detmold, in the Reformed congregations of East Friesland, in the former county of Bentheim,
in the synodal district of Bovenden (near Gottingen),
and in the confederation of Reformed Churches in
Lower Saxony. In the Reformed
7. Modern territories of the consistorial district German Re- of Cassel (Lower Hesse) and in the formed Cat- synodal district of Hamburg the
echisms. Hessischer Landeskatechismus, a Reformed revision of Luther's Smaller Catechism with the Hessische Fragestiicke inserted, is used. In Bremen and in the Reformed Church of Alsace-Lorraine no special manual for religious instruction is prescribed.
In Switzerland there appeared at St. Gallen in 1527 a compilation of the Kinderfragen of the Bohemian Brethren. About the same time GEcolampadius published his Kinderbericht for Basel. In 1534 Leo Jud published his catechism for Zurich. An epitome of it followed in the next year, which in 1598 was declared obligatory to the exclusion of the catechisms of Heinrich Bullinger (1559) and Burckhardt Leemann (1583), and was introduced also in Grisons and Schaffhausen. In 1536 Kaspar Grossmann (Megander)
8. Switzer- revised Jud's catechism for Bern; as land. in the course of time it was made to
serve the views of Zwingli, it had to be revised anew, and in this form became known as the Bern Catechism. These old catechisms were either superseded or influenced by the Heidelberg Catechism. The Zurich Catechism of 1609, the work of Marcus Baumlein, originated in a combination of the Heidelberg Catechism with those used in Zurich. It was introduced in different cantons and used until 1839. Under the influence of rationalism most of the cantons adopted new catechisms between 1830 and 1850. Basel took the lead in 1832, then followed Zurich with a new catechism (1839). In French Switzerland Calvin's Catechismus Genevensis (1542) was used at the beginning. In the canton of Vaud it was replaced in 1552 by a translation of the Bern Catechism, which gave way to that of Heidelberg in the eighteenth century. In 1734 there appeared in Geneva the small catechism of Jean Frederic Osterwald, which, after revision, was also adopted in Vaud. About 1620 Stephen Gabriel, pastor at Ilanz, compiled a catechism for the Romance districts which remained in use even after a translation of Osterwald's catechism had appeared. But entire freedom exists as to the choice of religious manuals in Switzerland. In many cases the individual preachers write their own books of instruction.
Since the edict of toleration of Joseph II., the Lutheran Church in Austria has used Luther's Smaller Catechism and the Reformed Church the Heidelberg Catechism. According to the constitution of the Evangelical Church in Austria, all further guides in religious instruction have to be sanctioned by the Evangelical Supreme Church
Council in Vienna, and approved by
9. Austria- the ministry of ecclesiastical affairs Hungary, and public instruction. Some of the
approved manuals are, in German, Buchrucker's and Ernesti's editions of Luther's Smaller Catechism, in Bohemian that of Molmar. Among those approved for the Reformed Chuick
Catechisms