I grew up thinking that catechism was for Roman Catholics and maybe Lutherans. Kids I knew went to CCD or Catechism, which sounded a lot like Sunday School to me. Then there was Confirmation in 8th Grade. Both Catechism and Confirmation seemed weird and a bit suspicious to me. Today, I know a little bit more than I did as a kid, and I am far more sympathetic to the idea of catechesis (literally “instruction”) generally, and specific catechisms which set out to teach a set of basic and somewhat comprehensive truths about Christianity. In fact, when my kids were younger, I thought seriously about creating a catechism at several points. Looking back, I wish I did, and comparing my own upbringing to my children’s has reinforced the idea.
As a Baptist kid growing up in the 70s and 80s, I went to Sunday School, children’s church, and regular church (I don’t remember exactly when one ended and the other began). I went to Sunday night service and Wednesday night prayer meeting as well, not to mention Vacation Bible School, Good News Clubs, Awana, and no doubt other things that I can’t remember, alongside Christian stories for kids on radio and on tape and books and, well, you can see where I am going. The reality is, I was being catechized, just not with a formal Catechism. Today, for most kids (not to mention adults) in most churches, very little of that remains. And we are reaping the harvest of what we have sown.
For these reasons alone, I wanted to love The Gospel Way Catechism. Really, really wanted to. While I was not familiar with Thomas West when I got the book from Harvest House for review, I am both familiar with and a fan of Trevin Wax. I appreciate his approach to the church and the culture in which we live. I appreciate that he is willing to dive deep, to recognize the difficulties and the tensions in life and remain faithful, orthodox, and hopeful. I appreciate the fact that he is willing to look to the past as well as the present, that he engages both the faithful and even the faithless to wrestle with the issues of both today and tomorrow. And while I am no longer a Baptist (strictly speaking), I appreciate that he does all of this as a Baptist. I have read many of his articles, some of his books, and am a regular listener to his podcast. He has appeared several times on the Apollos Watered podcast (of which I am a small part), which is why I almost don’t want to write this next sentence. I don’t love this book. I like it, but I don’t love it.
I was primed to love it. I love where it is coming from. I love what it is trying to achieve. Quite literally, the first words in the introduction are “Lesslie Newbigin was,” which is a surefire way to get me to sit up and pay attention. They quote Tim Keller within the first three pages, not once but twice. The shibboleths have been fulfilled—these are my people. I agree with 98+% of the book, and the things on which I might disagree are quibbles and instances where my response is something like “maybe, but I wouldn’t put it that way because of these implications . . .”.
So why don’t I love it? But it falls short of my expectations in a few key ways. I don’t know if that’s a “me” thing because my expectations were off, if it’s a reaction to the fact that this is a collaborative book (it is really, really hard for two people to write one book and it won’t end up entirely sounding like either), or something else.
Let’s start, though, with the goals and structure of The Gospel Way Catechism. Wax and West aren’t trying to replace The Heidelberg Catechism or Westminster, or any other Catechism you may be thinking of. They hold no illusions that it is some kind of magic fix or the ultimate resource in catechesis. Rather, they see it as a compliment (see the recent interview with them on Apollos Watered’s Ministry Deep Dive podcast). As they state in the introduction, they “want to expound the Christian faith in response to new challenges, fresh questions, and the perceived contradictions in this cultural moment” (p. 8). They go on to state:
In The Gospel Way Catechism, we offer the old truths of Christianity in a way that identifies cultural narratives so they can be seen and considered, affirmed for the ways that they rightly embody some aspect of the biblical story, subverted and critiqued for not going far enough in delivering our deep desires of joy and fulfillment, and finally shown only to be fulfilled in and through Jesus Christ. (p.9).
The book has a total of 50 questions, broken up into 7 sections, broken down as follows:
-
Part 1: God (6 questions)
-
Part 2: Creation and Identity (9 questions)
-
Part 3: Fall and Sin (6 questions)
-
Part 4: Story of Redemption (9 questions)
-
Part 5: Salvation by the Spirit (6 questions)
-
Part 6: The People of God (10 questions)
-
Part 7: Future Hope (4 questions)
At the beginning of each section is an overview of that section. At the end of the book is an appendix which includes the 10 Commandments, The Lord’s Prayer, The Apostle’s Creed, and several definitions of the Gospel. The format of each question is consistent: Question (e.g., Question 1 What Is the Center and Point of Everything?), short answer (e.g., God is the center and point of everything. In him, all things come to be and are held together. He has no rival.), approximately 1.5 pages of teaching which explores the question further, a series of 3 reflection questions, and a set of Scripture references.
So far, so good. The structure is solid, the Parts are good (the one-page introductions to each part are very well done), and the appendix is more than an afterthought—it’s useful. So why do I like, but not love this book?
First, there are only 50 questions (fewer than half of the questions of historic catechisms). This means a lot of territory is covered in any given entry, all of which are less than 2 pages of text. This means that there are necessarily a lot of assertions made with little explanation given (or possible). There is a lot of true and good stuff here, but the small number of questions combined with the small amount of space dedicated to unpacking the question and answer makes it difficult to engage either the biblical text or the current culture’s issues beyond a surface level. Only having 50 questions makes sense for a one-year sort of curriculum for students, perhaps, but it left lots of unasked and unanswered questions in my mind.
Second, the entries are hit or miss—some are really good, but others are just ok. I will say that I felt like the overall quality got better the farther into the book I got. Relatedly, while the questions and answers are all in the current language and are framed to reflect the current cultural moment, they are not really memorable from the standpoint of memorization. To put it another way, I love the NLT and the CSB because they are easily understandable and sound the way that we speak. But I have a really hard time memorizing them because they are so familiar. The KJV may be archaic and sometimes hard to understand, but it has a cadence, and it is eminently memorizable. I don’t have a solution to this conundrum, but it is a real thing.
Third, while I appreciate the inclusion of Scripture references (a lot!), I wish they were integrated into the explanatory text instead of being presented in list form after the reflection questions. I found it far too easy to glance at the list or ignore it and go on to the next question. Integrating the references into the text would at least start the process of connecting specific ideas to specific passages in the reader’s mind. Perhaps even better would be to include quotations of those verses or passages. I know that this would make the project longer, but I think it would be worthwhile.
Finally, while this may seem trivial, I would have loved each question to end with a prayer that incorporates both the question and the answer. Yes, there is a question about prayer (#42), but for many, prayer is often difficult. Additionally, the inclusion of a prayer gives the reader something active to do at the end of each question. Just a thought.
Even with my concerns, I definitely recommend this book; it is a good starting place, especially for those who have had little to no formal catechesis. I think that it would be perfectly useful from 8th grade through adulthood because the kinds of questions being asked are both basic to Christianity and framed in a way that is broadly appropriate to our cultural moment. No, it is not the end-all and be-all of catechisms, but it’s not intended to be, and it offers a very solid starting place for most people.
The Apollos Watered Rating: 💧💧💧½ (3 ½ drops) Helpful If Interested
Harvest House, 2025. 192 pages.
💧 The Apollo’s Watered Review Rating System:
💧💧💧💧💧 (5 drops) Must Read:
Foundational, insightful, and transformative for ministry leaders. Everyone in your sphere should read it.💧💧💧💧½ (4 ½ drops) Nearly Essential:
Excellent and compelling. Just shy of “must read,” but still highly recommended.💧💧💧💧 (4 drops) Should Read:
Strong contribution. Valuable for most readers in your context.💧💧💧½ (3 ½ drops) Helpful if Interested:
Worthwhile for those with a specific interest or need.💧💧💧 (3 drops) Situationally Useful:
Some good insights, but not broadly applicable. It might serve a limited purpose.💧💧½ or less (2 ½ drops or less) Skim or Leave It Be:
Little lasting value. May have a point or two, but better options are available.
💧½ or 💧 — (1 ½ or 1 drop) Skip It:
Weak or misleading. Not worth your time.