Comments on: Praying the catechism

By: Chris Duckworth

Chris Duckworth — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:34:50 +0000

Thank you for this post. I’ll be sharing some of these insights with our Wednesday evening Lenten gathering tomorrow night. We’ve been looking at the Daily Prayer tradition of the church for the past two weeks, and now I’m turning to devotional prayer practices. I’ve been reading Luther’s “A Simple Way to Pray,” and have fashioned for myself a prayer rite that includes the 10 Commandments, Creed, Lord’s Prayer …

Thanks again for these insights.

By: Confessing Evangelical » Blog Archive » The still centre

Confessing Evangelical » Blog Archive » The still centre — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:52:33 +0000

[...] As I’ve said before, I believe the Small Catechism is a statement, not of “Lutheranism”, but of “mere Christianity”. It’s even more basic than “Augsburg evangelicalism”. The Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, Absolution, the Lord’s Supper and prayer: that’s Christianity for you, right there. [...]

By: Derek Smith

Derek Smith — Thu, 24 May 2007 05:49:58 +0000

Thanks John and Paul.

By: John H

John H — Wed, 23 May 2007 22:03:08 +0000

Paul: thanks for that. I’d not previously come across that particular distinction, which I think is helpful. Though I notice that in the Large Catechism, even Luther conflates 9 and 10 back together again!

By: Revd Paul Landgraf

Revd Paul Landgraf — Wed, 23 May 2007 20:46:57 +0000

Very good questions. One of my ‘hobbies’ might be considered a study of the Small Catechism. And a distinction is made in the meanings of the ninth and tenth commandments. When you covet an inanimate object (9th), that object can’t return your affection. But coveting a wife, maid, animal, etc.(10th) is something different. They have a will and can turn that will against their ‘master’ and toward you. Even though it appears that they made the decision and not you, your coveting is still wrong.

By: John H

John H — Wed, 23 May 2007 07:51:17 +0000

Derek: thanks for your comment. The Lutheran church retained (with a slight tweak to 9/10) the numbering system for the commandments used the Catholic church (the Orthodox church follows a similar scheme). This reflects the approach of the "conservative Reformation" of seeking to change only what needed changing for the sake of the gospel. Lutherans would then say that the commandment against idolatry forms part of the first commandment. This can be seen more clearly if you read Luther's exposition of the first commandment in the Large Catechism. The commandments in the original text are not numbered or subdivided, so any numbering of them is merely a human interpretation rather than relating to the original text. A number of different subdivisions have been used by various churches (and by Jews, of course), but all accept the full text of the commandments regardless of how we divide them.

By: Derek Smith

Derek Smith — Wed, 23 May 2007 06:29:09 +0000

I’ve just been looking through the section on the 10 commandments. I have a couple of questions.

Whatever happened to the 2nd commandment (‘You shall not make an image… etc)?

Why has the 10th commandment been split in two to form c9 and c10?