St Augustine on Catechizing

Extract

St Augustine, Bishop of Hippo 396-430, wrote the treatise De catechizandis rudibus for Deogratias, a deacon of Carthage, in about the year 400. It describes both the subject-matter and the method of catechetics but also includes most useful instruction on preaching and teaching. St Augustine continued the ‘narration’ or historical exposition of the truths of faith from the Bible down to his own day; the personal ‘exhortation’ he recommends does not seem to have been obligatory before his time. The treatise, which depends in part on St Irenaeus’ Constitutiones Apostolorum and Demonstratio Praedicationis Apostolicae, has been extraordinarily influential in the history of preaching. It has been translated into English at least seven times; the following abridgment owes much to the edition of J. P. Christopher, Augustinus, De Catechizandis Rudibus (Washington, D.C. 1926).

You have asked me, brother Deogratias, to write you something useful about instructing candidates for the catechumenate, for you tell me that at Carthage, where you are a deacon, those who receive their first instruction in the Christian faith are often brought to you, because you are supposed to have great facility in catechizing with your thorough knowledge of the faith and your charm of style.