Entering the Orthodox Church · Lesson 3 of 20
What Is Catechism For?
Catechism is the Church’s way of leading a person into the innermost parts of Orthodox theology and initiating him into the Orthodox faith. It is absolutely necessary, writes Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, because through it revealed truth is set before the catechumen — and the catechumen is urged not merely to learn that truth but to live it.
The order matters. At the beginning, a person acquires faith by hearing — “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” [Romans 10:17]. But hearing is only the beginning. With personal effort and struggle, and above all with God’s grace, the believer is called onward to a deeper faith: the faith that comes from beholding — personal knowledge of God, not merely correct information about Him. Orthodox catechism aims at that whole journey, not just its first step.
Is This a New Practice?
Not at all — catechism has a golden pedigree in the Tradition. The Catechetical Homilies of Saint John Chrysostom, the great baptismal Catecheses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the “Great Catechetical Oration” of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, the Catechisms of Saint Symeon the New Theologian — the Church’s greatest teachers poured their best labor into instructing those entering the Church. Saint Gregory of Nyssa said plainly that the word of catechism is necessary so that the Church may grow “with the accumulation of the saved.”
Why Must Catechism Be Adapted to Each Person?
Because people arrive from different places — and, as Saint Gregory of Nyssa taught, the teaching must be adjusted “according to the differences between religions.” A Jew thinks differently from a pagan; one heretic differs from another; an atheist who denies that God exists at all needs a different answer than a polytheist who believes in many gods. Gregory’s principle is medical: erroneous convictions are spiritual sicknesses, and “the manner of therapy is adapted according to the kind of illness.”
So the wise catechist first learns the seeker’s way of thinking — his ideas of God, the belief he was raised in — and only then applies the medicine suitably. The catechumen may have the best intentions in the world; the teacher’s task is to meet him exactly where he stands and help him see the differences clearly. This is why Orthodox catechism can never be a one-size-fits-all curriculum. It is personal, as healing always is.
How Is the Teaching Organized?
Metropolitan Hierotheos proposes a framework the catechist can adapt freely — dividing the instruction into large units, each of which can fill one meeting or be spread over several. Its two great pillars are striking in their simplicity:
First, the Parable of the Prodigal Son [Luke 15:11–32] — the Lord’s own story of departure and return, in which the whole of Orthodox teaching can be seen: who God is, what man is, what the fall is, what the Church is, and how the soul comes home. The parable gives the catechumen not a syllabus but a map.
Second, the Symbol of Faith — the Nicene Creed — read and explained article by article, so that the catechumen learns exactly what he will confess with his own mouth at his Baptism.
The articles that follow in this series walk through both pillars, as the book presents them: first the parable, then the Creed.
What Should a Catechumen Expect?
Not a course to be passed, but a life to be entered. The lessons stand together with prayer, worship in the parish, the exorcism prayers, and the catechumen’s own struggle against the passions — because theology in the Orthodox understanding is not ideology but true life, linked to man’s rebirth. As Saint Gregory Palamas said, when Christ became man, “being the pre-eternal God, He also became a theologian for us”: the greatest Theologian is the incarnate Word Himself, who revealed truths the greatest philosophers could never discover — and revealed them so that we might live.
This article is drawn from Entering the Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos, a guide to the catechism and baptism of adults, and is part of a series presenting its teaching.
