Histoire du catéchuménat dans l'église ancienne (review)

It is a good many years since an extensive and detailed study of the catechumenate in the early Church appeared, and for that reason this volume is greatly to be welcomed. Inspired by the renaissance of Christianity in post Soviet Russia and the consequent rise in requests for adult baptism, the author (who is associate professor of historical theology at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota) published it first in Russian in 2001 and now in this greatly revised French translation. It concentrates in particular both on the pagan context and on the content of the catechetical instruction received by the early converts to the faith and in general provides a very satisfactory account of both. Of special interest is the suggestion that two basic types of catechetical syllabus can be detected in the materials that have been preserved: one that focused primarily on the biblical history of salvation and another that centered on a detailed commentary on the creed (see pp. 234–39). It seems likely that these represent two successive stages in the formation of new Christians in the faith.

While the author shows awareness of a number of recent significant studies of early catechetical and baptismal practice, there are some obvious gaps in his familiarity with the literature, especially with regard to the initiatory rites themselves, which give it a slightly old-fashioned appearance in places. Nevertheless, it deserves to be made available to an even wider readership, and so one hopes that a version in English may not be too long in coming. This would give the opportunity to correct some apparent errors and to incorporate the findings of such scholars as Maxwell Johnson and Bryan Spinks on early baptismal rites, and even the relevant essays on the subject by this reviewer, so as to improve its quality still further.

For example, the ecclesiastical historian Socrates' evidence for Lent at Rome is interpreted as implying that fasting took place only in alternate weeks over a six-week period (p. 191; see also p. 295), but this is not the conclusion of Maxwell Johnson (who is referenced in a note on that page), nor how other scholars would interpret the passage. Similarly, the author appears to claim that in fourth-century Jerusalem the renunciation of Satan was not counterbalanced by an act of union with God, but that the triple immersion followed immediately (p. 212), and yet this is not what the Mystagogical Catecheses attributed to Cyril attest. There is also a seeming contradiction between page 98, where a two-stage catechumenate is described as anachronistic for the second century, and page 184, where such an arrangement is said to have existed at Rome at this period. Finally, the suggestion that the nativity of Christ was already being celebrated at the end of the second century (p. 189) locates it much earlier than scholars today would generally do.