Duty Toward God in the 1928 BCP Catechism
Duty Toward God in the 1928 BCP Catechism is the first of two duties the Catechism draws from the Ten Commandments. Its answer describes a life of belief, reverence, love, worship, trust, prayer, and service. The second duty, toward one's neighbour, follows immediately; together they give concrete shape to the obedience promised in Baptism.
The Catechism's answer
After reciting the commandments, the candidate is asked what they chiefly teach:
I learn two things; my duty towards God, and my duty towards my Neighbour.
The next answer gives the duty toward God in full:
My duty towards God is To believe in him, to fear him, And to love him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength: To worship him, to give him thanks: To put my whole trust in him, to call upon him: To honour his holy Name and his Word: And to serve him truly all the days of my life.
The answer begins with belief and reverent fear, but it does not stop with an inward attitude. Love engages heart, mind, soul, and strength; worship and thanksgiving give that love expression. Trust and calling upon God belong together: dependence is enacted in prayer. Honouring God's Name and Word concerns both speech about God and attention to what God has made known. The final clause makes true service a lifelong calling.
The commandments and the love of God
The Catechism introduces the commandments with God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt (Exodus 20:1–17). Its language of wholehearted love also recalls Deuteronomy 6:4–5 and Jesus' answer in Mark 12:29–31. The Communion service sets the two duties side by side in the Summary of the Law:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
Love of God is thus paired with love of neighbour, not treated as permission to disregard others. The first commandments concerning other gods, images, God's Name, and holy time also give the positive answer practical content. In an earlier American confirmation manual, James DeKoven summarized their scope as follows:
Q. What duty towards GOD does the First Commandment enjoin? A. Inward affection.
Q. The Second? A. Outward Worship.
Q. The Third? A. To honor Him with the tongue.
Q. The Fourth? A. To honor Him with our time.
DeKoven's scheme is a nineteenth-century Anglican interpretation, not a rubric added to the 1928 Catechism. It helps a teacher connect inward devotion with worship, speech, and the use of time, while the Prayer Book's own answer gathers those particulars into lifelong service.
Grace and prayer
The Catechism places this duty within the baptismal promise to keep God's will and commandments; the candidate accepts it “by God's help.” After the answers concerning God and neighbour, the catechist makes that dependence explicit:
My good Child, know this; that thou art not able to do these things of thyself, nor to walk in the Commandments of God, and to serve him, without his special grace; which thou must learn at all times to call for by diligent prayer.
The Lord's Prayer follows: its petitions for God's name to be hallowed and God's will to be done give words to the duty just learned, while the petitions for forgiveness and deliverance acknowledge need. Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, turned the inherited catechetical answer into a prayer for grace:
O my God, give me grace to believe in thee, and to love thee with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength; to worship thee, to give thee thanks, to put my whole trust in thee, to call upon thee, to honor thy holy Name and thy Word, and to serve thee truly all the days of my life, for the sake of Jesus thy Beloved. Amen.
Ken's prayer illustrates his pastoral method of turning catechetical instruction into devotion. It is an earlier witness to the shared tradition, not the wording of the 1928 answer: in his prayer the duties are addressed to God as requests for grace.
Worship and teaching
In Holy Communion, the congregation prays after each of the first nine commandments:
Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
This response brings mercy and obedience together in public worship. The Communion prayer for the Church likewise asks grace for the congregation to hear and receive God's Word and to serve him in holiness and righteousness throughout life. The Catechism's closing rubric directs that children who can say the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments, and answer its other questions, be brought to the bishop. Thus Confirmation preparation joins learning these words to participation in the Church's prayer and continuing service.[8]
See Also
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
- Catechism (1928 BCP)
- Offices of Instruction (1928 BCP)
- Confirmation (1928 BCP)
- Ten Commandments in the 1928 BCP Catechism
External Links
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), A Catechism, question following the Ten Commandments, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), A Catechism, “What is thy duty towards God?”, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Holy Communion, Summary of the Law (Matthew 22:37–40), Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
- ↑ James DeKoven, “A Catechism on Confirmation,” in Morgan Dix, A Manual of Instruction for Confirmation Classes (New York: E. & J. B. Young, 1867), section IV, “The Vows of Confirmation,” subsection “The Vow of Obedience,” Project Canterbury transcription.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), A Catechism, instruction immediately before the Lord's Prayer, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription. The transcription's line-break hyphen in “Commandments” is removed.
- ↑ Thomas Ken, An Exposition on the Church-Catechism, or, The Practice of Divine Love, Composed for the Diocese of Bath & Wells (London: Charles Brome and William Clarke, 1685), “Prayer at Noon,” Project Canterbury transcription.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Holy Communion, people's response to the commandments, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Holy Communion, prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church; A Catechism, closing rubric on presentation to the bishop, Holy Communion and Catechism, Society of Archbishop Justus transcriptions.