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- Teaching by question and answer on the
- Socratic method, but chiefly as a means of
- instructing children in the basics of the
- Christian creed. A person being instructed in
- this way in preparation for baptism or
- confirmation is called a catechumen. A form
- of catechism was used for the catechumens in
- the early Christian church. Little books of
- catechism became numerous at the Reformation.
- Luther published simple catechisms for
- children and uneducated people, and a larger
- catechism for the use of teachers. The
- popular Roman Catholic catechism was that of
- Peter Canisius 1555; that with the widest
- circulation now is the `Explanatory Catechism
- of Christian Doctrine'. Protestant catechisms
- include Calvin's Geneva Catechism 1537; that
- composed by Cranmer and Ridley with additions
- by Overall 1549-1661, incorporated in the
- Book of Common Prayer; the Presbyterian
- Catechism 1647-48; and the Evangelical Free
- Church Catechism 1898.
-