The Westminster Shorter Catechism

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.

Top Lessons

• Purpose before rules

  The catechism begins with life's purpose and only then explains duties.

• Precise definitions

  Each answer compresses doctrine into a short, quotable definition.

• Duty explained both ways

  Each commandment is explained by what it requires and what it forbids.

• For the Christian reader

  For more than three centuries Presbyterian families and many others have taught children this catechism by heart. Its first answer, on the chief end of man, summarizes a whole view of life (1 Corinthians 10:31; Psalm 73:25–26). Its precise definitions make it a model of the clear thinking classical schools prize.

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