Reviewed Book: Johnson, Donald W. Praying the catechism. Winnipeg: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, 1995

Riegert, Eduard R.

Riegert, Ladona

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 23Issue 1 Essays in the History of Interpretation Article 235-1-1997Praying the catechismEduard R. RiegertLadona RiegertFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationRiegert, Eduard R. and Riegert, Ladona (1997) "Praying the catechism," Consensus: Vol. 23 : Iss. 1 , Article 23.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol23/iss1/23104 Consensusin the Holy Week liturgies. It provides a window on another tradition muchlike our own, and gives background, theology, and pastoral suggestions forenriching the parish celebration of these events.Donald NevileHighwood Lutheran ChurchCalgary, AlbertaPraying the CatechismDonald W. JohnsonWinnipeg: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, 1995211 pp.The occasion for the preparation of this book is the development of anAdult Catechumenate in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. The“reintroduction” of this ancient rite acknowledges that “Christendom” hasended and that Christians are once more a minority—in influence if notin number. The process of the Adult Catechumenate is intended both forthose who have not been baptized and for those who have and are now,as adults, awakening to the call of Christ. This book is intended to begiven to such persons at the time in the process when they are acceptedin the congregation as “Candidates for Baptism”; the most advantageoustime for this is the beginning of Lent. It provides them with a discipline“to put off the old” and “to put on Christ”, which climaxes in Baptism orthe Affirmation of Baptism during the Easter Vigil.The book provides 90 occasions of meditation, reflection, and prayer:40 days before and 50 days after Baptism. Thus if Baptism occurs at theEaster Vigil, the 90 days cover the seasons of Lent and Easter. Basedessentially on Luther’s Small Catechism^ Johnson’s intent is to pray theCatechism rather than memorize it or discuss it—though these are not ruledout. Accordingly, we made it our daily devotion during Lent and Easter.To emphasize prayer and meditation, and to extend the discipline over 90days, Johnson augments the Catechism by drawing texts from Scriptureand appropriate liturgies (from the Lutheran Book of Worship) especiallyin the sacramental sections. After the section on Baptism he includes asection on “Gifts”.The book is a breakthrough, not only in its use of the Small Catechismas the basis for meditation and prayer, but also in its incorporation of theCatechism, the liturgy, the flow of the Church Year, and the fellowshipof the congregation into the process of “making disciples”. Each devotionbegins with a text from the Small Catechism (or Scripture of liturgy),enjoins a time of reflection, offers several paragraphs of pointed commentarywhich push the pray-er to probe her/his own life in society and church, andBook Reviews 105provides directions for prayer. When used for family or household devotionsthe commentary is highly productive of discussion, as we can attest.It goes without saying that a book of this nature and for these purposeswill evolve, and one hopes the church will provide structures and means forcontinuing work on it even as the process of the Adult Catechumenateundergoes refinement and change. It may be noted, for example, that of-ten the language is formulaic (e.g., in the commentary on the benefits ofBaptism, p. Ill), or difficult conceptually (just what does “dominion ofGod” mean? p. 65), or experientially limited (e.g., the farm conservationefforts in one of the commentaries on the First Article of the Creed, pp.52-53). And Jesus did not say “Today, salvation has come to this house”to Lazarus, but to Zacchaeus (p. 111). After all, the world view, images,and metaphors of the Bible and the Small Catechism are increasingly re-mote from our secularized and technologized population. It is appropriate,therefore, that Praying the Catechism is set in a total discipling process.Don Johnson is pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in North Van-couver, and served as chair of the task force on the Adult Catechumenatefor the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. We owe him huge thanksfor creative and innovative work.Eduard and Ladona RiegertWaterloo, OntarioPreaching as Weeping, Confession, and Resistance:Radical Responses to Radical EvilChristine M. SmithLouisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993191 pp.Christine Smith, Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at theUnited Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in Minneapolis, has writtenthis odd book, which claims to be on the subject of homiletics, but is nosuch thing. Instead, it is a personal testimony of the author’s discovery ofwhat she calls “radical evil” in the world, and her suggestions of “radicalresponses” to this evil by the preacher. Her responses to evil are expressedin the three words of the book’s title: Weeping, Confession, and Resistance.She calls her study a reflection on the “third world of preaching” (p.1), and focuses on “the particular issues, social systems, pervasive values,and theological understandings that dominate and structure the world inwhich we preach” (p. 1). Her response to evil, then, is to preach againstit, and to focus on preaching as the act of naming evil, and a commitmentto change. By this, she wishes to “help preachers become more politicallyand socially aware and more theologically responsible in a world caught ina web of radical evil” (p. 7).

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