Top-heavy Teaching
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Is Orthodox catechesis too brainy? Erica worries that it’s too top-heavy. I know I have some readers who refuse to read my posts on Orthodoxy for that very reason. “What do you do, just sit around and think this stuff up?”
I think Erica hits on a practical, pastoral problem for priests and catechists: How much theology is too much? At St. Athanasius, we used to use a catechism developed by a former priest at our mother church that was heavy on un-doing bad evangelical theology, because that was the background of many people coming into their parish (and ours). We kept getting told by other Orthodox priests that it was fine, but it was not at all necessary.
It seems to me that what is necessary is not to learn all of the Church’s teaching before being baptized or chrismated — that would be impossible — but to learn to submit to the Church’s teaching in everything. That can be daunting for many people who are used to coming to their own conclusions. Part of the point of the content of catechesis is to give catechumens a sense of just what they are assenting to when they are baptized and chrismated.
That said, I hope that there is a deeper pastoral process that happens with Erica, for the sake of her salvation. God knows we all need it. I think most adult converts to Orthodoxy who have experienced a catechumenate can agree with me. The hardest thing is not learning all the data of the Church’s teaching but putting on the catholic mindset of submission and humility.