The final question related to God the Son acts as a kind of pivot point for the Catechism. The rest of the Catechism serves as a kind of exposition of this answer, with it taking the position that the Christian life inaugurated at Baptism is indeed participation in, rather than merely anticipation or an earning of, Christ’s victory.

The Apostles’ and Athanasian Creeds both affirm that after being crucified Christ descended to the dead—or even into Hell if you go with older translations. While such an affirmation can seem an easy one to gloss over, this article of faith actually offers us that hope that there is truly no place that is too far gone to receive the power of God’s love and the possibility of redemption.

Along with the death of Jesus, the resurrection forms the core of the Gospel proclamation from the earliest days of the Church. This post explores the contours of the Christian claim about Jesus’ resurrection and conquering of death—as well as its implications for the rest of creation—while affirming the limits of our capacity to provide a detailed positive description of resurrection life.

The most universally recognized sign of the Christian faith—the cross—has also been, since its inception, one of the greatest sources of scandal. However, the centrality of the cross and the scandal it generates is unavoidable, emblematic of the scandal of Grace, of a perfectly just God unwilling to abandon God’s creation. Through the cross, God both takes on the penalty of all of humanity’s turning away from God all while condemning those humans who will wield the forces of Death to oppress and harm.

The Ascension is both elevated a central tenet of the faith, central in the Creeds, Catechism, and commemorations of the Church, while also seemingly being one of the more eyebrow-raising, seemingly mythic events described in the New Testament. This post looks into the underlying significance of Jesus departing to fully inhabit the New Creation after his resurrection as well as how we may, even while remaining adherents to a modern cosmology, affirm the possibility of a historical Ascension as described in the Bible.

Explore the reason why the Catechism looks at the incarnation primarily through the lens of facilitating our adoption as children of God, a premise with much richer and more expansive connotations in the first-century mediterranean vision of adoption.

The Catechism moves from Christ as Icon of God to talking about his being born of a virgin. It is necessary to look at this doctrine often neglected and uncomfortable for many modern Christians to see the importance of the Virgin Birth not to indicate disgust at sexuality, but to see the radicality of the new humanity pioneered by Christ.

The section on God the Son begins with an explanation of how Jesus is the perfect icon or image of God and how this reveals God’s character as above all love. This post turns to how this is profoundly true and deceptively simple in its explanation.

Affirmation of Jesus as the Messiah or anointed one of Israel was central to the faith of early Christians, but the rendering of this title using the Greek word Christ or christos (rather than a translation) may prevent modern Christians from seeing how all pervasive that ascription was. This installment in commentary on the 1979 Catechism offers background and insight in the significance of understanding Jesus as the Messiah.

Turning from the problem of Sin, the Catechism begins to look at the solution of redemption. This next reflection and explanation of the Catechism looks at why the term “redemption” may have been chosen and why it may need some filling out in order to reflect the larger set of images for God’s help to us in the New Testament and in other parts of the Book of Common Prayer.

The Commandments themselves are considered along with their connection to Jesus’ exposition of the Greatest Commandment. Rather than being the basis of a universal ethic that can be gleaned from any of the major religions or philosophies, the particularity inherent in the prologue to these Commandments brings our focus to the God who specifically acted in history to bring Israel out of bondage.

The 1979 Catechism’s section on the Old Covenant concludes with where this covenant is found and how to best know God’s will. This post turns to why language of the Old Testament is still appropriate for the location of the Old Covenant and why the Ten Commandments are the clearest explanation of God’s will to us.

The questions and answers in the 1979 Catechism about the Old Covenant continue with a discussion of what God has promised and what is expected of people. This post looks at the particular way of construing the Old Covenant from the Catechism makes use of a distinctly prophetic interpretation and how that connects to Jesus for Christians.

The last question from the 1979 Catechism dealing with God the Father explores where revelation takes place. In this post, the focus is on the covenant communities that stand behind the Bible and the Bible's emerging from the experiences of God in history by these communities.

John 12:8 and Matthew 26:11 are often deployed to argue for Christian inaction on poverty, but I think the more faithful reading is to see these as instances where the exception proves the rule that Christians should be hyper-vigilant about prioritizing care for the poor.