The Uncatechism

To generations of Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists, a catechism was a manual of questions and answers on doctrine that youngsters were expected to memorize. In a book billed as the first "ecumenical catechism" since the Reformation, the Q.-and-A. format and many of the old answers are missing. Adults, not children, have been its readers since it was published in West Germany and Switzerland two years ago.

Now translated into English, The Common Catechism (The Seabury Press; $10.95) is timed for Easter release in the U.S. Unlike traditional catechisms, the new book has a meek tone. For example, it notes that Christ's Resurrection has been a "permanent problem" for modern man. At one point it defends belief in the Trinity by remarking diffidently that it "may not have been such a bad idea after all."

The book is the joint product of 36 respected Protestant and Catholic theologians, most of them German and German-Swiss, who were commissioned to write it by Europe's Herder publishing house. The Catechism grew out of conversations at Vatican Council II between the Rev. Lukas Vischer, the top theologian at the World Council of Churches, and his friend Father Johannes Feiner, who was later appointed to the Pope's theological commission. Although Vischer and Feiner edited the book, it lacks official Protestant status, and the Vatican has made no comment.

Continuing Disputes. Much of the Catechism covers themes that have always united Protestants and Catholics: the reality of God, the work of Christ, the importance of prayer. Building on years of ecumenical discussion, the book also claims substantial current Protestant-Catholic agreement on previous points of division like Christ's presence in the Eucharist. As for the Reformation's belief in salvation through "grace alone," as against man's good works, the Catechism professes to see little left to argue about. In fact, it contends that "it would certainly have been possible" to unite Protestants and Catholics except for continuing disputes on two topics: 1) the status of Mary in doctrine and worship, and 2) the structure and authority of the church, including the papacy.

The Catechism rejects a number of ideas that Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists have traditionally affirmed. For instance, the orthodox formulation of original sin is discarded. Because of it, old Catholic catechisms taught that it was a mortal sin not to baptize infants. The new Catechism says that "there can be no fundamental objections" if parents let children decide on their own whether to seek baptism, as Baptists do.

Following the trend of German scholarship, the book puts considerable limitations on the Bible. It says that "we can learn virtually nothing" from Scripture on specific questions of sexual morality. The Ten Commandments are "to a large extent conditioned by their age." Many New Testament passages are described as interpretations that were made later on by the church instead of accounts of what Jesus said and did.

The Common Catechism rejects Pope Paul's 1968 decree against artificial birth control and makes a strong case for Christian social involvement. Overall, the book is a useful survey of the kind of European liberalism that has guided Protestant ecumenism and that is increasingly attractive to ecumenically minded Catholics. Church Historian Martin Marty, a U.S. Lutheran, thinks that the book's "vision may be the only one open to 21st century Christians." On the other hand, it may be only the vision of an ecumenical theology, while many Protestants and Catholics cling as strongly as ever to the ideas contained in their traditional catechisms.

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