The Christian's ABC. Catechisms and Catechizing in England c. 1530-1740 by Ian Green (review)

BOOK REVIEWS769 to the Confutatio, and that the long-neglected octavo edition that appeared in September of that year must be considered the definitive form of Melanchthon's Apology,especially with respect to the doctrines ofjustification,penance,and the Mass. As Peters makes clear here and in his fuller study,Apologia Confessionis Augustanae (Stuttgart, 1997), Melanchthon revised these articles, and especially the fourth article, on justification, carefully between May and August, 1531. Not all of the papers focus on the events of 1530 or their aftermath; indeed the "shadow" of the title extends far, to remind us that the Diet was but one episode in a long course of development. In this spirit Reinhard Schwarz contributed two studies, one of Eck's doctrine of concupiscence in a series of theses for disputation from 1519, and the other of the degree of agreement on theological anthropology that can be found between Eck and Melanchthon. Schwarz finds the origins of Eck's position both in 1530 and at Regensburg in 1541 in these early theses, and also sees that differences between Eck and Melanchthon which had begun as semantic disagreements became substantive differences after 1530. In his introductory essay Herbert Immenkötter makes note ofthe complexity of the documentary evidence that needs to be assessed before we can have a clear understanding of the Diet of Augsburg. The diversity of approaches employed in these essays on such a wide range of texts demonstrates that intensive research into even the most familiar events continues to yield rich historical and ecumenical benefits. Ralph Keen University ofIowa The Christian's ABC. Catechisms and Catechizing in England c. 1530-1740. By Ian Green. (NewYork: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press. 1996. Pp. xiv, 767. $125.00.) It has been two decades since Jean Delumeau drew attention to the parallel efforts made by Protestants and Catholics in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to raise the level of religious knowledge and spiritual awareness among their co-religionists. Although he does not endorse all of the Frenchman's sweeping generalizations, Ian Green, reader in modern history at Queen's University in Belfast, has compiled and collated an enormous amount of data that support Delumeau's principal argument. He draws on Prayer Book rubrics, royal injunctions, visitation articles, episcopal circulars, sermons, pamphlets, and a variety of treatises of the time. Green's principal source, however, is "the several hundred" Protestant catechisms composed between the Reformation and the early eighteenth century that come in a "bewildering variety" from 770BOOK REVIEWS multi-volume works to booklets of a few pages, from question-and-answer-form to lengthy treatises. Green divides his study into three parts. The five chapters in Part One describe the "medium," that is, the catechetical tradition(s) and theory, the tasks and techniques as they were practiced in church, school, and home. Green argues convincingly that catechizing "was not one but a series of activities and was not set in tablets of stone but forever adjusting to new situations and ideas." The Book of Common Prayer, metrical psalms, hymns, and preaching are some of the means that reinforced the memorization and retention of catechetical formulae. Part Two concentrates on the "message" found in a selection of"best-selling or influential catechisms." Most focus on the four "staples" of catechesis—the Apostles' Creed, the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, and the Sacraments (baptism, holy communion). While some offer tell-tale clues to the theological leanings of their authors, for the most part the catechisms eschew polemics and deal cautiously with controversial points or simply omit them as in the cases of church government and forms of worship. In chapters 8 ("Predestination") and 9 ("Assurance ,Justification, and the Covenant of Grace"), Green explores the most divisive issues of the time, and notes that the conformists and "godly" authors parted ways when it came to the role ofthe visible church vis-à-vis a theoretical ordo salutis. Despite the acrimony they displayed in their theological treatises, most authors muted their differences in the catechisms. Part Three presents "A Finding List of English Catechisms." The list will be of special interest to librarians who must catalogue old and rare books because it offers detailed information...