From The Living Church via TitusOneNine:
Posted on: January 13, 2010
“Packer’s last crusade in this world,” the Rev. Dr. J.I. Packer affirms, is recovering catechesis — systematic instruction in the Christian fundamentals — to meet the challenges of an increasingly pagan age.
The evangelical theologian said at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas on Jan. 9 that he yearns for the return of catechesis, “Bible-based, Christ-centered, declarative in style,” at a time when “the Christian value system is virtually disappearing from schools.”
“We are drifting back into paganism, that’s the truth,” said Dr. Packer, the second featured speaker in the James M. Stanton Lecture Series.
“Ongoing learning is part of the calling of the Church,” he said. “It has to be taught in all churches at all times.”
Dr. Packer, 83, is completing a book on catechesis. He called it “ridiculous to think that no more learning of the faith is necessary after confirmation has taken place.”
Recovering the traditional emphasis on careful, lifelong instruction in Christian faith “will be totally uphill all the way,” he said. “We shall be challenging the dominant trends in our culture, and it won’t be easy.”
All the more reason to begin quickly: “It’s a matter of time till this current Western [secularist] infection spreads its tentacles in the rest of the world.”
Dr. Packer said a recovered catechetical enterprise need not resemble the “schoolroom method or question and answer” format set during the Reformation and enshrined in The Book of Common Prayer. A likelier pattern for modern times, he said, is that of the Alpha course, which involves sharing meals, forming new friendships, listening to brief presentations and discussing the content in small groups.
“You get much further, much faster” that way, he said, than with relying on a fixed set of questions and answers.
Teaching the catechism should be a regular, continuing project for churches, Dr. Packer said. He said crucial topics include the authorship of Scripture; the reality of God’s being; the holiness of God’s law; the centrality of Jesus Christ; the graciousness of salvation; the power of the Holy Spirit; and the praiseworthiness of God.
Dr. Packer urged Christians to “pray for your clergy, stand behind them as they seek to adjust” congregational patterns to the need for intensive grounding in the Christian essentials. “Every parish priest,” he said, should be — among other things — a catechist.”
“I am calling for a change in the life of most, if not all, Episcopal churches,” Dr. Packer said.
In a subsequent lecture, “Knowing God” — the title of his best-known book, he emphasized the urgency of Christian worship, which he called “rehearsal for heaven.”
“God comes first, and worship should come first also,” said Dr. Packer, who waggled a rhetorical finger at his fellow evangelicals for “going light on worship” while engaged in “doing things for God.”
“Our Catholic friends,” he said, “have been right to say that worship comes first.”
The Bishop James M. Stanton Lecture, named in honor of the sixth Bishop of Dallas, commenced last year with presentations by the Most Rev. George L. Carey, the 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Rt. Rev. Dr. N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar and bishop of Durham, England, will be the featured lecturer in the autumn.
“I thank God for the wisdom that still prevails somewhere,” Dr. Packer said, paying tribute to Bishop Stanton’s diocese.
William Murchison
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