The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

The genre of the catechism has an important role in the tradition of the Christian church. However, upon closer examination, it turns out that under the heading “catechism” sometimes there are very different texts. In addition, the name “catechism” did not immediately become traditional, and, therefore, not all catechisms include this word in their title. Having appeared as a guide for those entering the church through the early Christian tradition of catechism, catechetical texts, after the cease of the regular catechism in history, more frequently became theological encyclopedias, often of a polemical character. 
The characteristics of this genre of Christian literature are considered in this article, making it possible to propose a certain typology and divide the catechisms into “catechization catechisms” and “dogmatic catechisms”, based on the structure, content and addressee of the text. Although historically catechization catechisms were replaced by dogmatic catechisms, in the 19th century catechisms of both the first and the second type were created. As an example of the revived genre of catechization catechisms written in the 20th century are cited the following: “Christian Faith” by priest. Konstantin Aggeev, “Catechization conversations with the baptized” by archim. Boris (Kholchev), and “In the beginning was the Word: Catechism for the candidates” by priest. Georgy Kochetkov.