The Westminster Standards
Other Confessional Statements & Catechisms:
- Augustine, On Catechizing and On faith and the Creed
- Calvin’s Genevan Catechism
- Ursinus’ Large and Small Catechisms
- The Catechism of John Hamilton
- Abraham Hellenbroek, A Specimen of Divine Truths
- Henry Hammond, A Practical Catechism
- William Twisse, A Brief Catechetical Exposition of Christian Truth
- Watts’ First Catechism | Second Catechism | Teacher’s manual for Watts’ catechism | A Preservative from the Sins & Follies of Childhood & Youth | The Catechism of Scriptural Names OT NT | The Historical Catechism | Watts’ Notes on the Shorter Catechism | See also Isaac Watts’ extensive writing on catechizing.
- Jean Ostervald, A Catechism for Youth
- Joseph Emerson, The Evangelical Primer
- Alexander Nowell, A Catechism
- Schaff’s Catechism
- Peter Anstadt, A Christian Catechism
- Thomas Smyth, An Ecclesiastical Catechism of the Presbyterian Church
- Stewart Salmond, An Exposition of the Shorter Catechism
- Samuel Fisher, Exercises on the Heidelberg Catechism
- Charles Jones, A Catechism, of Scripture Doctrine and Practice
- The Junior Catechism of the Methodist Episcopal Church
- The Catechism of the Methodist Episcopal church
- The Church Catechism Broke Into Short Questions
- The Great Catechism of the Holy Catholic, Apostolic, and Orthodox Church
- A Catechism against Popery
- Henry Schuh, Catechisations on Luther’s Small Catechism
- William Nast, The Larger Catechism
- George Bethune, Expository Lectures on the Heidelberg Catechism, vol 1, vol 2
- John Nevin, The History & Genius of the Heidelberg Catechism
- James Harper, An Exposition in the Form of Question and Answer of the Westminster Assembly’s Shorter Catechism
- Benjamin Laing, A Catechism on the History of the Church of Scotland
- William Creagh, A Scripture Catechism
Books on the Heidelberg Catechism
- Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism
- Lyle Bierma, An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism
- George Richards, The Heidelberg Catechism
- James Good, The Heidelberg Vatechism in its Newest Light
- James Good, Aid to the Heidelberg Catechism
- A. S. Thelwall, The Heidelberg Catechism of the Reformed Christian Religion
- J. W. Nevin, History & Genius of the Heidelberg Catechism
- James Good & Henry Harbaugh, The Heidelberg Catechism
- Henry Harbaugh, The Heidelberg Catechism
- J. F. Berg, The History & Literature of the Heidelberg Catechism
- Samuel Fisher, Exercises on the Heidelberg Catechism Adapted to the Use of Sabbath Schools
- H. Mosser, The Heidelberg Catechism & the Catechist’s Assistant
- Lambertus De Ronde, A System Containing the Principles of the Christian Religion Suitable to the Heidelberg Catechism
For Children:
For Young People:
This book contains the story of both the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession
Sermons on the Catechism:
Books on the Westminster Assembly
History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, William Maxwell Hetherington
A Short History of the Westminster Assembly, William Beveridge
The Westminster Assembly, Robert Letham
The Confession: The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century vol 1, 2, 3; Ligon Duncan
The Westminster Confession: A Commentary, A. A. Hodge (print | epub | kindle | pdf)
Faith of Our Fathers, Spears, Wayne R.
The Westminster Confession of Faith Study Book, Pipa, Joseph A., Jr.
The Westminster Confession of Faith for Study Classes, Williamson, G.I.
Grounded in God’s Word, Hustedt, Dennnis
Truth’s Victory Over Error, David Dickson
The Reformed Faith, Robert Shaw (online | print)
The Larger Catechism: The Westminster Larger Catechism, Vos, J.G.
The Shorter Catechism:
The Shorter Catechism Project
The Westminster Shorter Catechism for Study Classes, Williamson, G.I.
The System of Theology Contained in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Hodge, A.A. and J.A. Hodge
The Shorter Catechism Activity Book: Learning The Truth Through Puzzles, Marianne Ross
§4. Value and Use of Creeds source
Confessions, in due subordination to the Bible, are of great value and use. They are summaries of the doctrines of the Bible, aids to its sound understanding, bonds of union among their professors, public standards and guards against false doctrine and practice. In the form of Catechisms they are of especial use in the instruction of children, and facilitate a solid and substantial religious education, in distinction from spasmodic and superficial excitement.
The first object of creeds was to distinguish the Church from the world, from Jews and heathen, afterwards orthodoxy from heresy, and finally denomination from denomination. In all these respects they are still valuable and indispensable in the present order of things. Every well regulated society, secular or religious, needs an organization and constitution, and can not prosper without discipline. Catechisms, liturgies, hymn-books are creeds also as far as they embody doctrine.
There has been much controversy about the degree of the binding force of creeds, and the quia or quatenus in the form of subscription. The whole authority and use of symbolical books has been opposed and denied, especially by Socinians, Quakers, Unitarians, and Rationalists. It is objected that they obstruct the free interpretation of the Bible and the progress of theology; that they interfere with the liberty of conscience and the right of private judgment; that they engender hypocrisy, intolerance, and bigotry; that they produce division and distraction; that they perpetuate religious animosity and the curse of sectarianism; that, by the law of reaction, they produce dogmatic indifferentism, skepticism, and infidelity; that the symbololatry of the Lutheran and Calvinistic State Churches in the seventeenth century is responsible for the apostasy of the eighteenth.
The objections have some force in those State Churches which allow no liberty for dissenting organizations, or when the creeds are virtually put above the Scriptures instead of being subordinated to them. But the creeds, as such, are no more responsible for abuses than the Scriptures themselves, of which they profess to be merely a summary or an exposition. Experience teaches that those sects which reject all creeds are as much under the authority of a traditional system or of certain favorite writers, and as much exposed to controversy, division, and change, as churches with formal creeds. Neither creed nor “no creed” can be an absolute protection of the purity of faith and practice. The best churches have declined or degenerated; and corrupt churches may be revived and regenerated by the Spirit of God, and the Word of God, which abides forever.