Calvin's Catechism

Here is Randall C. Zachman’s take on Calvin’s Catechism of the Church of Geneva 1545, which can be found at Reformed.org:

Calvin’s 1545 Catechism begins with the question: “What is the chief end of human life?”

The child answers that the purpose of knowing God is to honour or worship God and is asked what the right way of honouring God would be.

The fourfold answer is that God is to be trusted, obeyed, invoked and acknowledged as the source of all good things.

These four provide the framework for the catechism which expounds the Creed (trust), the law (obey), the Lord’s Prayer (invoke) and the sacraments (acknowledge).

The catechism thus focuses on the right worship of God, which is the chief end of human life, rather than mastery of all the rudiments of pious doctrine.

John Calvin as Teacher, Pastor and Theologian: The Shape of his Writings and Thought (Baker Academic, 2006) p141