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The Westminster Shorter Catechism

Westminster Assembly

Also known as: Shorter Catechism · WSC

1647 · Renaissance Early Modern · Religious Scripture · English

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Abstract

Written: 1646–1647
Setting: English Civil War; Westminster, London
Author: Westminster Assembly of Divines
Country: England
Language: English
Genre: Catechism
Form: 107 questions and answers
Recommended: Grades 9–12 (Short questions and answers in seventeenth-century English.)

Origin. During the war between Charles I and Parliament, an assembly of clergy meeting in the Abbey at Westminster wrote a confession and two catechisms. The brief one, finished in 1647, was for children and beginners.

Opening. Its first answer says people exist to honour their Maker and delight in him eternally. Next comes Scripture as the sole guide, then a division into belief and duty.

Belief. Early answers define the divine nature, three persons, God's plans, creation, Adam's fall and humanity's ruin, then Christ's work and its benefits for those called.

Duty. A long middle section takes each commandment in turn, stating its demands and prohibitions. Faith, repentance, preaching, baptism, the Supper and the Lord's Prayer follow.

Reception. Scottish, Irish and American Presbyterians kept it after England restored bishops in 1660, and children memorized it through the New England Primer.

This edition. All questions appear in the standard wording; supporting Bible references are not part of this transcription. The Assembly's longer confession and its larger catechism for ministers are separate documents and are not included. Readers can finish the whole text in under an hour, though it was designed to be learned slowly, a few answers at a time.

Key figures

Westminster Assembly: Body of divines that composed it
Long Parliament: Commissioned the Assembly
Church of Scotland: Approved the catechism in 1648

Summary

The Westminster Shorter Catechism is a set of 107 questions and answers completed in 1647 by the Westminster Assembly, a body of English and Scottish divines summoned by Parliament during the English Civil War. It was meant to be a simple version of the Assembly's teaching for children and those 'of weaker capacity', alongside a much longer Larger Catechism for preachers. The Church of Scotland approved it in 1648, and it became the main teaching tool of Presbyterian and many Congregational and Baptist churches in Britain and America for three centuries. The catechism opens with its most famous question: What is the chief end of man? The answer, that man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever, sets the purpose of everything that follows. The second answer names the Scriptures as the only rule for that purpose, and the third divides the rest into what people must believe about God and what duty God requires of them. Questions 4 to 38 cover belief: the nature of God, the Trinity, God's decrees, creation and providence, the covenant with Adam and the fall, sin and misery, and redemption through Christ as prophet, priest and king, including effectual calling, justification, adoption and sanctification. Questions 39 to 107 turn to duty. A long section explains each of the Ten Commandments, stating what each requires and forbids. Then come faith, repentance, the means of grace (the Word, sacraments and prayer), baptism, the Lord's Supper, and finally the Lord's Prayer, petition by petition. The answers are compact definitions designed to be memorized, and generations of children in Scotland, New England and elsewhere learned them by heart; the New England Primer printed it. Its definitions of God and of sin were often quoted, and writers from Thomas Carlyle to modern theologians commented on the opening question. The Westminster Confession of Faith, the Assembly's fuller doctrinal statement, is not reproduced in this library.

Plot or Argument

Questions 1–3: Purpose and authority
The chief end of man, the rule of Scripture, and the plan of the catechism.
Questions 4–19: God, creation and the fall
God's nature, the Trinity, decrees, creation, providence, the covenant and sin.
Questions 20–38: Redemption in Christ
The covenant of grace, Christ's offices and humiliation, and the benefits of redemption.
Questions 39–82: The moral law
The Ten Commandments explained one by one.
Questions 83–107: Faith, means of grace and prayer
Repentance and faith, the Word, sacraments and the Lord's Prayer.

Lessons

Purpose before rules
The catechism begins with life's purpose and only then explains duties.
- How does the first answer shape the meaning of the commandments that follow?
- What would you name as the chief end of a human life, and why?
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Precise definitions
Each answer compresses doctrine into a short, quotable definition.
- Choose one definition and rewrite it in modern English. What is lost or gained?
- Why might memorizing exact wording matter to the authors?
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- Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, Lesson: Christian faith and older lore side by side
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- A Clergyman's Daughter, Lesson: Education
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- The Golden Legend: Popular Saints, Lesson: A patronage is a story made portable
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Duty explained both ways
Each commandment is explained by what it requires and what it forbids.
- Why does the catechism state both the positive and negative side of each commandment?
- Choose one commandment and explain how its 'required' and 'forbidden' sides relate.
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For the Christian reader
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- Choose one definition from the catechism and explain each of its parts.
- How does memorizing a catechism shape the way a person thinks and prays?
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Context

The English Civil War divided king and Parliament. In 1643 Parliament called the Westminster Assembly and, in alliance with Scotland, aimed at a reformed church common to both kingdoms.

Composition

The Assembly finished the Confession of Faith in 1646 and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms in 1647. Parliament ordered them printed with Scripture proofs, and the Scottish General Assembly approved the Shorter Catechism in 1648.

Reception

After the Restoration in 1660, England returned to episcopacy and the Book of Common Prayer, but Presbyterians in Scotland, Ireland and America kept the Westminster standards. The catechism was printed in the New England Primer and used in schools and homes for generations.

Faith / Religion Education Virtue Ethics Guilt Sin

Comparisons

The Heidelberg Catechism
The Heidelberg Catechism, an earlier Reformed catechism, opens with comfort rather than purpose and is more personal in voice.
Institutes of the Christian Religion
Calvin's Institutes shaped the theology the Westminster divines summarized.
The Book of Common Prayer (1662): Selections
The rival form of English church life restored after 1660.
The Pilgrim's Progress
Bunyan's allegory, written by a Puritan nonconformist, dramatizes the same teaching on calling, justification and perseverance.
Paradise Lost
Milton, a contemporary of the Assembly, explores the fall and redemption that the catechism defines.
The Augsburg Confession
An earlier Protestant confession, Lutheran rather than Reformed.

Quotes

Frequently cited

“Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.”

— Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Questions 1-19: God, creation and the fall (The Westminster Shorter Catechism, standard text, via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library).Quote card

Structural Anthropology, Magic and Religion, The Structural Study of Myth
The treatment of Freud's Oedipus complex as a modern version of the Oedipus myth.
Lex, Rex, Question I
All civill power is immediately from God in its root. The second conclusion of the first question: God made man a social creature, so the power of government is planted in human nature itself.
On the Incarnation of the Word, §54. The Word Incarnate, as is the case with the Invisible God, is known to us by His works
For He was made man that we might be made God Section 54, summing up the purpose of the incarnation in a sentence often quoted in Eastern Christian teaching on theosis.
The Great Gatsby, Chapter VI
He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. Telling how James Gatz invented Jay Gatsby at seventeen, Nick borrows the words of the boy Jesus in the Temple to describe a self-made god serving a false beauty.
A Letter Concerning Toleration, Letter, first reason why the care of souls is not the magistrate's
All the Life and Power of true Religion consists in the inward and full perswasion of the mind; and Faith is not Faith without believing. The core of Locke's argument that compulsion cannot produce saving faith.

Frequently cited

“God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”

Science and the Modern World, Ch. XII, Religion and Science
Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science Whitehead distinguishes religious principles, which may be eternal, from their expression, which he thinks must develop.
A Letter Concerning Toleration, Letter, first reason why the care of souls is not the magistrate's
All the Life and Power of true Religion consists in the inward and full perswasion of the mind; and Faith is not Faith without believing. The core of Locke's argument that compulsion cannot produce saving faith.
Lex, Rex, Question I
All civill power is immediately from God in its root. The second conclusion of the first question: God made man a social creature, so the power of government is planted in human nature itself.
The Science of Right, Part II, § 49, General Remark A
And this is the meaning of the maxim, 'All Authority is from God;' which proposition does not express the historical foundation of the Civil Constitution, but an ideal Principle of the Practical Reason Kant's reading of Romans 13: the maxim means that the existing legislative power must be obeyed whatever its origin, not that rulers were historically appointed by God.
Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene III
And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey, And last eat up himself The climax of the degree speech: once order collapses, power reduces to will and will to appetite, which consumes itself.

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The first three questions that set the plan.
The definitions of God, sin and faith.
The treatment of the Ten Commandments, each as 'required' and 'forbidden'.
The closing explanation of the Lord's Prayer.

Key terms and names

Chief end: The ultimate purpose or goal of a life.
Covenant: A binding agreement; the catechism speaks of a covenant of life and a covenant of grace.
Effectual calling: God's work in persuading and enabling a person to embrace Christ.
Sanctification: The lifelong process of being made holy.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension What is the chief end of man according to Answer 1?
Comprehension How does the catechism divide what the Scriptures principally teach?
Comprehension According to Answer 3, what do the Scriptures principally teach?
Interpretation Why does the catechism give both what each commandment requires and what it forbids?
Interpretation Is 'enjoy him for ever' a surprising phrase in a Puritan document? Explain.
Big Question Can a person's purpose in life be stated in a single sentence?

Faith Connections

1 Corinthians 10:31 (Scripture)
'Do all to the glory of God': a proof text for Answer 1.
Psalm 73:25-26 (Scripture)
Delight in God, cited for enjoying God.
Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) (Great Conversation)
The fuller doctrinal standard of the same Assembly.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Human beings exist to glorify God and enjoy him for ever; Scripture teaches what to believe about God and what duty God requires, summarized in the commandments, the sacraments and prayer.

Rhetorical device: definition. Each answer is a compact definition shaped for memorization, often repeating the wording of the question.

Debate: Resolved: that teaching by memorized definitions builds real understanding.

Memory Work

Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.
Questions 1-19: God, creation and the fall. The most famous single sentence of Reformed theology.

God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
Questions 1-19: God, creation and the fall. A classic definition of God in English.

Writing Prompts

Essay: What does the Westminster Shorter Catechism teach about the purpose of human life, and how does its structure support that teaching?

Comparison with The Heidelberg Catechism: Compare the first questions of the Westminster and Heidelberg catechisms.

Creative Prompts

Classroom
Rewrite ten answers in present-day English while keeping their meaning, and note any difficulties.
Dialogue
Write an imagined dialogue between a New England child memorizing the catechism and a modern student who has never seen it.
Dialogue
Write a short dialogue in which a parent and child discuss the first question of the catechism over dinner.