A Faith Worth Teaching is a volume that I heartily recommend. Payne and Heck have served the church well with this addition. I expect that most of you will find this book, devour it, and enjoy it as much as this reviewer did. Even more importantly, with the contributors to this book, my overriding hope is that reading this work will encourage the church to celebrate the Heidelberg Catechism on its 450th anniversary by getting to know it, love it, and use it. This Presbyterian is doing just that.

 
Jon D. Payne and Sebastian Heck, eds., A Faith Worth Teaching: The Heidelberg Catechism’s Enduring Heritage (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2013), 360pp

If you can keep a secret, I will share it with you: I am falling in love with the Heidelberg Catechism. As a Presbyterian pastor, the Westminster Standards hold a special place in my heart (I don’t want my fellow presbyters overreacting here), but the Heidelberg has been encroaching upon that Westminster-dominated region over the past year. A year ago, I took a call to labor “out of bounds” at a Reformed Church located squarely in the Dutch Tradition. This sent me scurrying in every direction to find resources that would help this newbie in learning the Three Forms of Unity. To my shame, I hadn’t spent much time with these confessional documents and this new call came with an immediate desire to know the Belgic Confession, Canons of Dordt, and Heidelberg Catechism. As I have begun to study them, the Heidelberg Catechism has quickly become a favorite.

As I have searched for good resources on the Heidelberg Catechism, there have been some helpful additions to my library. Early commentaries on the Catechism like William Ames’ A Sketch of the Christian’s Catechism and Zacharius Ursinus’ Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism have been invaluable. More recent commentaries on the Catechism such as Fred Klooserter’s Our Only Comfort and Kevin DeYoung’s The Good News We Almost Forgot have been beneficial in preparing to preach through the Catechism for the first time. They both are written in a pastorally sensitive and theologically rich way. Two recent books, both of which are collections of essays, have offered insight into the Catechism. The first is Willem Van’T Spijker’s The Church’s Book of Comfort, and the second is Lyle Bierma’s An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism. And yet, the availability of helpful resources in the English language on this 450 year old confessional standard is still quite insignificant. That is why I was excited to see this new volume on the Heidelberg Catechism, A Faith Worth Teaching, edited by Jon Payne and Sebastian Heck.

A Faith Worth Teaching rightly brings to our attention the importance of this catechism on its 450th anniversary. The contributing authors demonstrate the monumental effect this catechism has had upon the church in the past, with a hopeful outlook for its effect upon the church going forward. In this way, the book is a well-ordered plea divided into four parts. The first part addresses the history of the Heidelberg with regard to its formation, as well as its use, in the United States. This section is followed by four chapters that highlight the Heidelberg Catechism in its relationship to the means of grace: preaching, baptism, and the Lord’s Table. Part three considers Christian doctrine and the Heidelberg Catechism with chapters on the Church, Justification and Sanctification, Christology, and the Holy Spirit. The final portion of the book ends with three chapters on the Heidelberg Catechism as an actual catechetical tool. Each of the fourteen chapters of the book are written by well-respected scholars and pastors of significant ability. Each of the contributors demonstrates thorough knowledge about the subjects on which they write. The editors are also to be commended for selecting men from various Reformed communities and a number of countries (Germany, Netherlands, and the United States).

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