46 - Restructuring Confirmation

Restructuring Confirmation
By Richard Robert Osmer

"Revivalism's erosion of the norms traditionally associated with Reformation commitment to catechetical instruction was a gradual process.... By the end of the nineteenth century, the Sunday School had become the dominant form of Christian education.... Slowly but surely, confirmation has come to be seen as a time when individuals explore their faith and decide for themselves whether or not they will continue to participate in the church.... A new series of liturgical-teaching practices must be formulated, harking back to traditional forms of catechetical instruction for children or the adult catechumenate of the ancient church."

From the beginning, confirmation has been a practice whose purpose has been uncertain. Nonexistent in the first centuries of the church's life, confirmation emerged only gradually as a rite clearly distinguishable from baptism. Across the centuries, there has been little agreement on its role in the Christian life. In the past decade alone, the Presbyterian, Lutheran, and United Methodist churches have published denominational material for confirmation that claims to offer new understandings of the meaning or conduct of this practice.

This essay will examine confirmation from the perspective of practical theology. It will begin by taking a brief detour from our main task to set forth a definition of practical theology. It, then, will proceed to a historical examination of confirmation viewed as a practice and will conclude with an assessment of the recent attempt by one denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), to reconstruct this practice.

I

Practical theology is that mode of discourse that seeks to make thematic, assess critically, and shape pragmatically the norms operative in the language and practices of contemporary Christian communities and the various nonreligious communities in which Christians live out their vocations. It pursues two basic tasks: First, practical theology

Richard Robert Osmer is Associate Professor of Christian Education, Princeton Theological Seminary. A graduate of Yale Divinity School and Emory University, he is the author of A Teachable Spirit.- Recovering the Teaching Office in the Church (1990) and Teaching for Faith (forthcoming).

47 - Restructuring Confirmation

helps Christians become aware of norms that are often hidden from sight, and to assess critically these norms in the light of those of theology, projecting possible alternatives¹ The need for this sort of ongoing critical reflection on the norms of communities and their pragmatic reconstruction is grounded in the recognition that all communities, including the church, live on the near side of the Kingdom of God and, inevitably, reflect the continuing power of sin and evil in their language and practices.

It is exceedingly difficult for persons simultaneously to inhabit the symbolic-practical "world" of the communities in which they live and work and to be aware of the norms that are embedded in this "world." A framework that is not entirely a part of the community's life is needed to provide a vantage point on its taken-for-granted ways of speaking and doing and to project possible alternatives.² This is something that practical theology attempts to provide. It is important to note that practical theology does not focus solely on Christian communities in carrying out this task. It examines and assesses critically all those communities in which Christians live out their vocations before God. Its purview is the social and even global context, in addition to specific communities which form and sustain the Christian life.

Second, this critical theological assessment of operative norms opens out another important task pursued by practical theology: the attempt to shape the language and practices of a given community toward those ends that are viewed as desirable theologically. At this point, practical theology is more explicitly pragmatic, and its distinctive epistemological orientation becomes apparent.³ It moves from higher-level theory-construction to modes of reflection that can guide the formation and transformation of the language and practices of concrete communities and persons.

Perhaps the best way of grasping what is involved in this task is to describe it in terms of the special relationship that practical theology has to practical knowing.⁴ Practical knowing is the knowledge of how to perform an action or practice in the face of a contingent, unfolding context of experience. In its more rudimentary forms, it is codified as a

¹ There are descriptive, interpretive, and normative dimensions to this task and to carry it out adequately, practical theology must draw on a wide range of theological and non-theological disciplines which use different methodologies.
² See Clifford Geertz's discussion of "experience-near" and "experience-distant" concepts in Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology (New York: Basic Books, 1983), pp. 56-58. The contribution of the social sciences and ideology-critique in the construction of both of these is apparent.
³ Aristotle was the first to articulate the distinctive epistemological orientation of praxis. See The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. David Ross (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980).
⁴ See Rodney Hunter's seminal discussion of the concept of practical knowing in "The Future of Pastoral Theology," Pastoral Psychology Vol. 29, No. 1, Fall 1980. My discussion of this concept is indebted to Hunter's insights in this article, although I am developing it in ways that are closer to neo-Aristotelianism.

48 - Restructuring Confirmation

series of steps that are to be followed: first do this, then do that, then do this. In baking bread, for example, practical knowing involves such things as knowing when and how to combine the flour and water, how hot the water should be in order not to kill the yeast, and how long the dough should rise.

Complex actions and practices, however, inevitably involve a high degree of contingency. In ministering to dying persons, for example, it is inadequate to "apply" Kubler-Ross' stages of grief in a straightforward manner to every person. Denial may be particularly strong in some persons, but hardly present at all in others. In each case, elements of contingency are present that must be taken into account. The kind of practical knowing involved in the performance of this sort of action does not take the form of a sequence of steps like a recipe.⁵ It involves such things as a sense of timing and proportion, a capacity to determine the skills and knowledge learned in the past that are relevant to the present, an adeptness at improvisation, and an ability to discern the limits and possibilities of the situation at hand. In its highest and purest forms, practical knowing is the kind of knowledge appropriate to the performance of an art.

Practical theology is closely related to this sort of practical knowing. It offers knowledge, not only of the norms which ought to be pursued by a community or individual, but also, of how they might be enacted in the face of the concrete circumstances and contingencies that confront that community or individual. Perhaps, Schleiermacher saw most clearly the distinctive kind of knowledge that practical theology develops as it carries out this task in his understanding of "rules of art."⁶ These are generalizations, formed on the basis of past experience and reflection, that provide an initial orientation to how one should perform an action or practice. They are not "applied" in a straightforward manner but function as heuristic devices that provide insight into how a person or community might proceed as it attempts to live out some aspect of its life before God.⁷

Practical theology, as it makes thematic and assesses critically the norms embedded in the language and practices of various communities, carries out two important tasks: (a) it helps Christians become aware of norms that, often, are hidden from sight and to assess

⁵ This is closer to the kind of knowing Aristotle called poiesis, that of the artisan or worker. It makes use of techniques that can be repeated again and again to produce the same results.
⁶ Friedrich Schleiermacher, Christian Caring: Selections from Practical Theology, edited by James Duke and Howard Stone (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), pp. 92-3. Brief Outline on the Study of Theology. translated by Terrence Tice (Richmond: John Knox, 1966),pp.93-94.
⁷ Perhaps, rules of art are best understood as comparable to what Gadamer calls "legitimate prejudices" and Bernstein, "enabling prejudices," providing an initial orientation, based on the cumulative wisdom of the past, which "enables" a person's or community's ability to enter into a process of interpretation that embraces the particularity of the situation at hand. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method (New York: Continuum, 1975), pp. 246-247. Richard Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1983), p. 128.

49 - Restructuring Confirmation

critically these norms in light of those of theology, projecting possible alternatives; and (b) it provides rules of art that can help Christians shape the language and practices of a given community toward those ends that are viewed as desirable theologically. It is the combination of these two tasks that supports that emergence of practical wisdom, or phronesis, in the Christian community. This is the kind of wisdom that conjoins a rich awareness of the ethical and theological norms that should inform the Christian life to the practical knowledge of how these ends might be pursued in diverse contexts. It is a combination of "why to" and "how to."

In light of our focus on confirmation, only one of the assumptions implicit in this definition will be spelled out: what is meant by the term "practice." As it is used here, "practice" is dependent on the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre, Jeffrey Stout, and others who view it as a socially-shared activity of such richness and depth that it shapes the character of its participants and engenders goods that are ends in themselves and not means to other ends.⁸

Not everything that goes on in a community is a practice in this sense. Only those activities of sufficient richness and depth to shape the character of the participants count as practices. Worship, for instance, is a practice, while the coffee hour following it is not. Moreover, practices generate certain goods that are "internal," ends in themselves, not means to other ends. Worship primarily is undertaken, for example, to glorify and enjoy God, not to provide a psychic "lift" for the coming week. It is the depth and power of practices to generate internal goods that makes their role unique in a community and, as such, a crucial focus of practical theological reflection.

The fact that practices are "socially-shared" is especially important, for here we see their special role in forming the norms of a community.⁹ Practices are established forms of life, based on reciprocal patterns of action and meaning built up over time. Indeed, practices are inherently tradition-bearing in the sense of being based on and extending into the present forms of life that were established in the past. Therefore, to understand and evaluate a practice in the present, one must know its past. This means that practical theology must work closely with historical forms of inquiry. It may well be that a practice has "degenerated" as it has evolved, losing touch with the original norms that it embodied. Conversely, a practice may come to embody new and richer norms as it develops in different cultural and historical contexts.

⁸ Alasdair Maclntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981). Jeffrey Stout, Ethics After Babel: The Languages of Morals and Their Discontents (Boston: Beacon, 1988). Robert Bellah et al., Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).
⁹ Craig Dykstra offers an excellent discussion of this aspect of practice in his chapter, "Reconceiving Practice," found in Shifting Boundaries, ed. Edward Farley (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1991).

50 - Restructuring Confirmation

Confirmation can be viewed as a practice and examined from the perspective of practical theology, as described above. A grasp of the communal norms served by this practice across history and critical assessment of the norms it currently serves are offered to those responsible for administering this practice in the contemporary church. In large measure, the formation of rules of art is left to one side in an attempt to develop greater clarity about the theological ends that this practice should serve today.

II

Confirmation was not a distinct practice in the ancient church. Rather, it was an integral part of the rite of baptism. One of the earliest accounts of this rite is found in Tertullian's homily on baptism, describing it as including four basic parts: washing with water, anointing with oil, making the sign of the cross, and laying on of hands.¹⁰ In the The Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus portrays the rite as consisting of the same parts, only now the washing is administered by a presbyter and the other parts by a priest.¹¹

It was the gradual separation of the washing with water from the anointing, laying on of hands, and signing that gave rise to confirmation as an independent rite.¹² As the church grew, it became impossible for the bishop to administer baptism to every new member. Local priests were granted the right to baptize members under their care, while anointing, laying on of hands, and signing were reserved for the bishop at a later point. The time between baptism and the bishop's anointing gradually grew longer, eventuating in the establishment of confirmation as an independent liturgical rite. From the outset, however, there was great uncertainty as to confirmation's meaning. Did it signify the reception of the Holy Spirit or was this something given fully at baptism? Was it a strengthening rite or a completing rite?

Ironically, many of the forces that led to the gradual emergence of confirmation as a distinct liturgical rite simultaneously undercut the spiritual formation and catechetical instruction surrounding the baptism of adult converts in the ancient church. This is important to note, for the Reformers harked back to the catechumenate and not to the rite of confirmation that gradually emerged.

The catechumenate frequently lasted several years and involved an intensive process of instruction, moral examination, and exorcism. It constituted a genuine practice in the sense described above. An attempt was made to shape the character of those who were participants,

¹⁰ Tertullian's Homily on Baptism, edited and translated by Ernest Evans (London: SPCK, 1964).
¹¹ Geoffrey Cumming, Hippolytus: A Text for Students, Grove Liturgical Study No. 8 (Long Eaton, England: Hassall & Lucking Ltd., 1976).
¹² A brief account of this process can be found in A Faithful Church: Issues in the History of Catechesis, edited by Westerhoff and Edwards (Wilton, Connecticut: Morehouse-Barlow, 1981), chps. 3-4. A more extensive account is found in J.D.C. Fisher's Christian Initiation: Baptism in the Medieval West: A Study in the Disintegration of the Primitive Rite of Initiation, Alcuin Club Collections, 47 (London: SPCK, 1965).

51 - Restructuring Confirmation

inviting them to internalize new self-understandings and new habits of thought and action. Joy, peace, and other "gifts" associated with faith in a loving God were thought to result from this practice, a marked departure from those ideals held up by the surrounding pagan world.

Abandonment of this practice was the result of several factors. Constantine's establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire and the gradual closing of pagan temples resulted in a large influx of persons into the church. Pressure was exerted to make church affiliation quicker and easier. Initially, the catechumenate was shortened to the period of lent. As infant baptism became widespread, the instruction period gradually declined and, finally, disappeared altogether. While confirmation gradually became an accepted liturgical rite in the church, it was not linked to a systematic process of instruction.

This does not mean that no instruction in the basic elements of the faith was offered at all. The Carolingian renaissance of the eighth century under the sponsorship of Charlemagne and his leading educational reformer, Alcuin, set in motion a number of reforms in this regard.¹³ Missionaries were encouraged to instruct adult converts, and special catechisms were written for this purpose. Parents and godparents were required to give evidence that they could recite the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer by heart, something that they had to do on the infant's behalf at baptism. Priests were encouraged to offer classes periodically to instruct parents in the meaning of these symbols and to preach catechetical sermons on a regular basis so that parents and godparents could teach the Creed and Lord's Prayer to their children.

These forms of instruction continued throughout the Middle Ages. The home bore primary responsibility for teaching children the basics of the faith. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a large number of manuals were written to assist parents in this task, and some were even written for children.¹⁴ During this same period, both Latin and vernacular schools began to offer rudimentary instruction in the faith. Important texts written for home and school use were John Colet's Catechyzon (1510) and John Gerson's A B C des simples gens (1429). Priests also began to take more active responsibility for teaching children the faith. The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 had required all children from the age of seven to attend confession at least once a year, and priests began to use confession as an occasion to assess the quality of instruction being received at home, supplementing it when necessary with their own teaching.

¹³ Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms, 789-895 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1977). Andrew West, Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892).
¹⁴ J.M. Reu Catechetics or Theory and Practice of Religious Instruction (Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House, 1927), p. 74.

52 - Restructuring Confirmation

None of this teaching, however, was formally integrated into the rite of confirmation. Indeed, a debate about the theological meaning of this rite continued throughout the Middle Ages. Such teaching as did occur was sporadic. Confirmation had not yet developed into a full-fledged liturgical-educational practice.

With the advent of the Reformation, all of this changed.¹⁵ Virtually all of the Reformers placed great emphasis on catechetical instruction, writing catechisms to be used for instruction in homes, schools, and ministers' classes. Along with catechetical instruction, the Reformers also supported the revival of didactic preaching and the emergence of secondary schools and universities. Virtually everywhere, the Reformation made inroads; new educational institutions and practices began to appear.

Postbaptismal catechetical instruction was one of the most important of these practices. As soon as children were old enough, they began receiving instruction in the catechism from their parents. When they reached the "age of discretion," they typically were encouraged (or even required) to participate in special classes offered by the minister to help them memorize the catechism and to make sure that they understood what they were memorizing. When the catechism was sufficiently mastered, young persons made a personal profession of faith on the basis of its teaching, making it clear that they now understood and accepted for themselves the faith confessed on their behalf at baptism.

These are the broad contours of catechetical instruction during this period. It was designed to shape the character of its participants at the profoundest level, inviting them "to find their only comfort in life and in death in their faithful Savior, Jesus Christ," to recall the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism. Surely, all secondary, external goods, which were supposed to result from this practice, were subordinate to this primary, internal one.¹⁶

It would be inaccurate, however, to claim that a unified confirmation practice emerged from the Reformation. For one thing, the very term, " confirmation," is problematic. The Reformers vociferously rejected the theological understanding of confirmation that emerged during the Middle Ages and was given official definition in the Council of Trent.

¹⁵ An excellent overview of catechetical instruction is found in Reu's book, cited above. See also, J.D.C. Fisher, Christian Initiation: The Reformation Period, Alcuin Club Collections, 51 (London: SPCK, 1970). Leonel Mitchell's "Christian Initiation: The Reformation Period" in Made, Not Born: New Perspectives on Christian Initiation and the Catechumenate (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1976), ch. 4. For an excellent discussion of the Lutheran tradition, see Arthur Repp, Confirmation in the Lutheran Church (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1964). For a discussion of Calvin's understanding of this practice, see Richard Osmer, A Teachable Spirit.-Recovering the Teaching Office in the Church (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1990), pp. 128-134.
¹⁶ The Westminster Shorter Catechism also begins by making clear the primary internal good that is to result from its mastery: the chief end of humanity is "to glorify God and to enjoy him forever."

53 - Restructuring Confirmation

Catechetical instruction, they believed, should not be viewed as a sacrament that adds something to baptism, be it the Holy Spirit or a " strengthening" infusion of grace. Luther referred to this understanding of confirmation as "monkey business" and "mumbo jumbo," going so far as to quip sarcastically that he would be glad to permit confirmation "as long as it is understood that God knows nothing of it, has said nothing about it, and that what the bishops claim for it is untrue."¹⁷ As such, it is anachronistic to speak of a Reformation practice of confirmation.

Moreover, a wide variety of practices focusing on postbaptismal catechetical instruction emerged in the century following the Reformation. There were major theological differences surrounding this instruction, both why it should take place and what it should teach. Luther and Calvin, for example, placed the Law in different places in their catechisms, reflecting important theological differences.¹⁸ In some of the Reformation churches, catechetical instruction was closely linked with a liturgical rite and first communion. The rite proposed by Martin Bucer went so far as to include the laying on of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit. In other churches, the practice was strictly limited to instruction that allowed young persons to make a personal profession of faith. A culminating liturgical rite was eschewed altogether.

Repp's extensive study of the Lutheran tradition reveals no less than six different trajectories of postbaptismal catechetical instruction in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.¹⁹ The same sort of variety can also be found in the Reformed tradition. It is inaccurate, therefore, to claim that a practice of catechetical instruction emerged in the century immediately following the Reformation. A number of somewhat different practices emerged. In spite of real differences in patterns of organization and theological definition, however, these various practices all embodied four common, communal norms. It is largely a departure from these norms that has led to such a radical transformation of catechetical instruction in twentieth-century, mainline Protestantism. Our discussion of these norms will be followed by an

¹⁷ Quoted in Repp, Confirmation, 15, 17. Similarly, Calvin wrote the following as early as the 1536 edition of the Institutes: "Now I wish that we might have kept the custom which ... existed among the ancient Christians before this misborn wraith of a sacrament came to birth! Not that it would be such a confirmation as they fancy, which cannot be named without doing injustice to baptism; but a catechizing, in which children or those near adolescence would give an account of their faith before the church" Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 2, edited by John McNeill (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 1460-1. Because of their grave reservations about the theology associated with confirmation, Luther and Calvin avoided the term, preferring ¹⁸ catechetical instruction" or "catechizing," as in this quote. Only Bucer of the early reformers unabashedly was willing to use the term "confirmation."
¹⁸ Calvin shifted the place of the Law in the second catechism he wrote, The Genevan Catechism. In the first one, Instruction in the Faith, written while in Strasbourg, he placed the Law in a position similar to that of Luther.
¹⁹ Repp's study is cited above.

54 - Restructuring Confirmation

examination of the way that this transformation has taken place in American Presbyterianism.

III

First, catechetical instruction was viewed as allowing persons who were baptized as infants to appropriate personally the vows made on their behalf at baptism. The norm served here is paradoxical: an increased emphasis on the individuality and existentiality of faith, balanced by an equally strong affirmation of God's electing grace.

On the one hand, infant baptism was viewed as a sign of God's electing grace, proffered to adults and their children.²⁰ Even before children were able to acknowledge God's love toward them, they were seen as legitimate members of the covenant community on the basis of the divine election. On the other hand, great emphasis was placed on the individual's appropriation of this covenant relationship. To have faith in God's electing grace was to trust that God's gratuitous mercy in Christ was extended to the individual personally. Catechetical instruction was one of the key means by which this personal appropriation of the faith was made possible.

A second, closely related communal norm that catechetical instruction in its various forms served during this period was the importance of the laity. The Reformers constantly railed against the Roman Catholic church for keeping lay persons ignorant of the Bible and basic doctrine, allowing it to hold them captive to burdensome human traditions and the deceits of the church hierarchy. Catechetical instruction was viewed as an important way of helping lay persons become active participants in church life, providing them with the basic knowledge necessary to read Scripture themselves, to judge preaching and teaching, and to help conduct the affairs of the congregation.

A third norm was the valuing of a cognitive mastery of the basic teachings of the church. Later generations have frequently charged catechetical instruction with overemphasizing the mastery of cognitive content through rote memorization at the expense of individual understanding and creativity. This is based on a misunderstanding of the educational purposes this emphasis originally served.

It is important to remember that both Luther and Calvin were deeply influenced by Renaissance humanism in their understandings of education.²¹ Renaissance humanism harked back to the educational patterns of Greek and Roman antiquity which focused on a mastery of

²⁰ See Hughes Old's discussion of baptism in the Reformed tradition in this regard. Worship that Is Reforrmed According to Scripture (Atlanta: John Knox, 1984), ch. 2.
²¹ For a discussion of humanism's influence on Luther's educational program, see Harold Grimm's contribution to Forell, Grimm, and Hoelty-Nickel, Luther and Culture, (Decorah, Iowa: Luther College Press, 1960), pp. 73ff. For its influence on Calvin, see Quirinus Breen, John Calvin: A Study in French Humanism (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1931).

55 - Restructuring Confirmation

the classics as the key to learning how read, write, and speak properly.²² Emphasis was placed on the imitation of classic models, especially cognitive content, during the early phases of education as a way of laying a foundation for mature participation in public life and individual expression at later points.

To a large extent, catechisms were viewed along these lines. They represented authoritative summaries of the Christian faith, which were to be internalized during the early phases of education in order to facilitate the exercise of individual conscience, the personal study of Scripture, and mature participation in the covenant community at later points. What is striking about the Reformers' appropriation of Renaissance education was their implicit confidence that the Christian classic (i.e., the catechism) could be democratized. Their classic was not to be reserved for the upper classes, but was actively made available to all church members, male and female alike. The mastery of cognitive content was viewed as laying a foundation for freedom and responsibility in the Christian life. All church members were to have access to this knowledge because all church members were expected to be active participants in the covenant community.

A fourth communal norm that catechetical instruction embodied was the promotion of unity both within and among congregations. Calvin, for example, described the effect of catechetical instruction as facilitating "greater agreement in faith among Christian people."²³ Elsewhere, he argues that one of the advantages of using a set formulary like the catechism is that it teaches "the specific points which should be common and familiar to all Christians."²⁴

There are several impulses at work here. Initially, the writing of confessions and catechisms was ecumenical in intent.²⁵ Melanchthon, Calvin, and others conferred several times in the attempt to draft a common statement of faith that would unite the newly emerging Reformation churches. Even when this became impossible, "to confess" the faith meant to give expression to the one, catholic faith. A confession or catechism was never written merely to perpetuate a church's own theological position. It was written in the attempt to articulate the one, true faith that all Christian communities should confess. This, and this alone, was the basis of Christian unity.

This is precisely the understanding of confession that lies behind catechetical instruction during this period. Through their participation in this practice, individuals were invited to confess the faith that was proleptically confessed on their behalf at baptism. As such, it was not a faith of their own devising. It was the one, true faith given expression in

²² See G.H. Bantock's excellent discussion of this in Studies in the History of Educational Theory: Volume I, Artifice & Nature, 1350-1765, pp. 1-52.
²³ Calvin, Institutes, p. 1461.
²⁴ Calvin: Theological Treatises, edited by J.K.S. Reid (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954), p. 88.
²⁵ See John McNeil's excellent discussion of this in Unitive Protestantism: The Ecumenical Spirit and Its Persistent Expression (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1964).

56 - Restructuring Confirmation

a particular time and place under the auspices of a representative body of the church.²⁶ It was the faith that individuals learned as they were instructed in the catechism.²⁷

IV

While postbaptismal catechetical instruction developed along a variety of lines in the century following the Reformation, it is possible to identify four underlying norms that were operative in virtually every trajectory emerging during this period. What holds these four norms together is a theological vision of the church that places great emphasis on congregational life.²⁸ No longer was the church primarily identified with the priesthood or church hierarchy. Rather, it found concrete expression in congregations gathered around the Word, attempting to embody the life of freedom and discipline which a response to the Word entailed. An important part of this vision was a new emphasis on the role of the laity in church life. Likewise, the individual, supported by the congregation, was granted a more clearly defined sphere of freedom and responsibility in living out his or her vocation in the world.

Neither the laity nor the individual could assume their new roles, however, unless the Word was truly opened to them in the congregation. Catechetical instruction was one of a variety of ways that the Reformation churches attempted to make the Word accessible to the ordinary Christian. Along with such things as the translation of the Bible into the vernacular and the emergence of simple, expository preaching, catechetical instruction is indicative of a deep commitment to the congregation as the all-important locus of preaching and teaching of the Word. This commitment is apparent in the institutions that were charged with carrying it out. It was not the sole prerogative of the minister or representative leader like a bishop. Institutions that had been looked to only sporadically during the Middle Ages to teach the faith were now organized into a self-conscious program of instruction.

Typically, parents bore primary responsibility for teaching the catechism to their children, something that was underscored by the questions asked them during their child's baptism. During home visitation by church officers or the minister, the progress of children in

²⁶ In Reformed communities alone, more than fifty creedal statements of import were written in the years prior to the Westminster Assembly. Confessions were written to create unity, not uniformity. John Leith, Assembly at Westminster.- Reformed Theology in the Making (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1973), p. 19.
²⁷ The very question/answer structure of the catechism had the effect of pointing individuals beyond themselves to the faith confessed by the whole church, offering them assistance in discerning the questions that needed to be asked as well as the answers that should be given. See Thomas Torrance's comments in this regard in The School of Faith: The Catechisms of the Reformed Church (London: James Clarke & Co. 1959), p. xxvi.
²⁸ This is not to say that the Reformation churches naively viewed the congregation as the sole sphere of church life. Magisterial Protestantism, especially, was quite aware of the important role of representative bodies and leaders. See my discussion of this in A Teachable Spirit, chps. 6-7.

57 - Restructuring Confirmation

learning the catechism regularly was checked, and parents were held accountable if their children seemed to be neglecting this duty.

Schools also played a part in catechetical instruction. As early as the Academy of Geneva, catechisms were a normal part of the curriculum.²⁹ In areas dominated by the Lutheran church, Luther's Small Catechism was taught on a regular basis. The English Puritans recognized the important influence that the schoolmaster could have on theology, and they made a concerted effort to get persons of their own theological persuasion in these positions.

In order to make sure that parents had sufficient understanding to carry out their teaching role, ministers were to preach and teach regularly on the material covered in the catechism: the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and so forth. Catechizing was a normal expectation of the minister when visiting the home. In The Reformed Pastor Richard Baxter describes in great detail how he instructed each member of a family individually when making a pastoral visit.³⁰ Moreover, certain worship services (often Sunday or Wednesday evening) were set aside for catechetical sermons. In some congregations, portions of the catechism were read on a regular basis immediately prior to the sermon. Many ministers lectured to youth and adults on the catechism at set times during the week.

In addition to general teaching of congregations, ministers also offered special classes designed for young persons preparing to make a personal confession of faith. In large measure, these classes represented the culmination of teaching that went on in the home and school. They were designed to make sure that young persons not only had memorized the catechism but truly understood what it taught. Many special manuals were written to assist the minister in this task, giving advice on how this sort of teaching should take place and explaining the meaning of the different parts of the catechism.

A general pattern of confirmation emerged in the century following the Reformation. The emphasis placed on catechetical instruction by the Reformers led to a wide variety of practices during this period. In spite of their differences, however, these practices served four norms that reflected an emphasis on the congregation as the crucial sphere in which the Word was opened to the laity and to individuals. An ecology of educational institutions emerged that worked in concert to carry out catechetical instruction.

It is illuminating to trace the history of one concrete trajectory of catechetical instruction that emerged at the end of this period, that flowing from the Westminster Assembly. This throws light on the

²⁹ In the Academy, Calvin's French and Latin catechisms were used initially to teach proper grammar and expression, as W. Stanford Reid points out in "Calvin and the Founding of the Academy of Geneva," Westminster Theological Journal vol. 18 (Nov. 1955), pp. 1-33. See, also, Grimm's discussion of catechisms as textbooks in Luther and Culture, pp. 119ff.
³⁰ Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1974), chp. 3, section 2.

58 - Restructuring Confirmation

major alterations that have taken place in this practice in the Presbyterian Church in the United States, particularly in this century.

V

The English Puritans made catechizing a regular feature of their religious program.³¹ In the fifty years immediately prior to the Westminster Assembly, a large number of catechisms were written by Puritan ministers. Moreover, manuals that provided commentary on these catechisms or offered advice on how they were best used in the home were legion. Ministerial associations were formed to encourage catechizing. The home, the school, general congregational catechizing, and special classes offered by ministers were all used by the Puritans to carry out catechetical instruction.

Both the Larger and Shorter catechisms produced by the Westminster Assembly drew on this tradition of Puritan catechizing. As Alexander Mitchell has shown, many of the questions and answers of the Shorter Catechism are taken almost directly from preexistent catechisms.³² At least seventeen members of the Assembly had written catechisms themselves or were well-known for their catechetical instruction.³³ The theology of the catechisms, moreover, reflects that of the confessional statements written by the Assembly. It is in the form of a modified scholasticism in which clarity and precision of definition take precedence over biblical imagery and personal involvement.³⁴

As might be expected, the Westminster standards reflected the trajectory of catechetical instruction that flowed from Geneva. In their discussion of the sacraments, they reaffirm the legitimacy of infant baptism and forbid communion to "ignorant and ungodly persons."³⁵ In the Directory for Worship, produced by the Assembly, the directives for baptism included a charge to parents to "bring up the child in the knowledge of the grounds of the Christian Religion."³⁶ When young persons desired admission to the Lord's Supper, they were examined by the minister and given additional instruction when necessary, and they made a personal profession of faith on the basis of the catechism.

These standards were adopted by the American Presbyterian church at its first General Assembly in 1789, and they functioned as the sole

³¹ An excellent overview of this is found in Leonard Grant's "Puritan Catechizing," Journal of Presbyterian History 46,1968, pp. 107-127. For a more detailed study, see John Morgan's Godly Learning: Puritan Attitudes towards Reason, Learning and Education, 1560-1640 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
³² Alexander Mitchell, Catechisms of the Second Reformation (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1886).
³³ Ibid., p. 118.
³⁴ See John Leith's discussion of what is meant by "modified scholasticism" in Assembly at Westminster, pp. 65-74. Torrance's School of Faith has an excellent discussion of the way that the Westminster catechisms differed from other Reformation catechisms.
³⁵ Creeds of the Churches, edited by John Leith (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1973), p. 226.
³⁶ A Directory for the Publique Worship of God, Throughout the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Grove Liturgical Study no. 21 (Long Eaton, England: Hassall & Locking Ltd., 1980), p. 20.

59 - Restructuring Confirmation

standards of the Presbyterian Church until the reunited church adopted a wider range of confessional documents during the past decade.³⁷ It is not surprising then that the practice of catechetical instruction in early American Presbyterianism closely followed that of the English Puritans, focusing exclusively on teaching the Westminster Shorter Catechism.³⁸

Parents continued to play a crucial role in catechizing their children. They were equipped for this task in a variety of ways in early Presbyterianism: through didactic preaching, instruction during home visitation, public lectures by ministers, and special catechetical sessions among families that lived near one another.³⁹ As in Puritan England, the schools continued to play an important role in catechetical instruction. The most important elementary textbook during the colonial and early American periods was The New-England Primer, which included the entire Westminster Shorter Catechism. Mastery of its contents was a normal expectation of the curriculum.

Special classes offered to young people by ministers also were important. The American Directory of Worship of 1789 stated that all children who had reached the "age of discretion" should "be taught to read and repeat the Catechism, the Apostles' Creed, and the Lord's Prayer" and that each young person should be examined by the session " as to their knowledge and piety" before being admitted to the Lord's Supper.⁴⁰ However, the Directory did not prescribe a set liturgical form to mark the completion of catechetical instruction and participation in first communion.

In short, the practice of catechetical instruction in American Presbyterianism during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries followed that of the English Puritans and the way that they refracted the trajectory emerging out of Geneva. Even throughout this period, however, and certainly in the nineteenth century, major pressures were being placed on this practice. Perhaps the earliest and most long-lasting was revivalism and its "conversionist" theological framework.

VI

As early as the Great Awakening, the popular piety of almost all denominations, including Presbyterianism, was influenced by revivalism's strong emphasis on individual conversion. This stood in stark

³⁷ It is noteworthy that one of the few points at which the founding General Assembly of American Presbyterianism added to these standards had to do with a discussion of admission to the Lord's Supper. The minister and elders of the church were charged with the task of examining those who had reached the "years of discretion" and determining whether they were ready for participation in terms of their knowledge and piety. It also strengthened the charge to parents in the baptismal rite. See The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: Thomas Bradford, 1789), p. 199.
³⁸ The best discussion of the use of the Shorter Catechism in this country is Eric Haden's The History of the Use of the Shorter Catechism in the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Kansas City: Central Seminary Press, 1941).
³⁹ See Haden's description of these processes, ibid., pp. 21ff.
⁴⁰ Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, p. 200.

60 - Restructuring Confirmation

opposition to the norms that were traditionally associated with catechetical instruction. A voluntaristic view of faith replaced one which emphasized God's gracious election, signified by infant baptism. An individualistic view of salvation threatened the traditional emphasis on the covenant community as the means of grace and witness to the Word. A dramatic, emotionalistic view of conversion threatened an emphasis on the intellectual mastery of the foundational teachings that enabled individual confession and Christian unity.

Revivalism's erosion of the norms traditionally associated with Reformation commitment to catechetical instruction was a gradual process. This process was reinforced by the one major educational force that appeared during the early nineteenth century: the Sunday School movement. Almost from its inception in this country, this movement reflected the theology and commitments of revivalistic forms of evangelicalism. Driven by organizations that were set up outside of official denominational structures, the Sunday School movement made major inroads in most denominations during the nineteenth century, including the Presbyterian church. As early as 1835, the General Assembly issued a warning that the Sunday Schools should not supplant catechetical instruction of children.⁴¹

It was a losing battle. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Sunday School had become the dominant form of Christian education in most Presbyterian churches. Attempts were made to co-opt it as a means of catechetical instruction. When the International Sunday School Lessons were first issued in 1873, for example, they were quickly followed by The Westminster Question Book: International Series that integrated a question and answer from the Shorter Catechism into each lesson. These attempts did not really alter the influence of popular, revivalistic theology, which dominated the Sunday School through activities like "decision days" and non-denominational Sunday School literature. While ministers continued to offer special classes for catechetical instruction, this mode of teaching no longer held a position of special importance in laying the foundations of theological understanding in the lives of most church members.

Catechetical instruction was in a period of decline. Printings of the Shorter Catechism reached an all-time high of 80,000 in 1888, when church membership was approximately 720,000 and Sunday School enrollment, 794,000. By 1908, printings had declined to around 46,000, even though church membership had risen to 1,300,000 and Sunday School enrollment to 1,027,000. By 1938, printings had declined to 22 ,000.⁴² A major change was taking place in catechetical instruction. The Westminster Shorter Catechism was being replaced by confirmation

⁴¹ Haden, The Shorter Catechism, p. 66.
⁴² Ibid., pp. 92ff. In his research, Haden found that as late as 1939 the Shorter Catechism continued to be used by many Presbyterian ministers to instruct young people. They viewed it, however, as a summary of the church's traditional doctrines, not as a definitive statement of the faith of the contemporary church. See pp. 98ff.

61 - Restructuring Confirmation

material. Some of this material was produced under the auspices of denominational publishing houses and other material by independent authors.

Even more important was the educational philosophy that this new curricula began to adopt. It was deeply influenced by the Religious Education Movement, which emerged during the first three decades of the twentieth century. With roots in theological liberalism and progressive education, this movement frequently presented its program of educational reform as standing explicitly over against traditional catechetical instruction.

Representative of the critique of catechetical instruction offered by this movement is Harrison Elliott's characterization of this practice as an " authoritarian tradition which developed in the Reformation and which was prominent in the colonial period in the United States."⁴³ In contrast, he offers the following summary of the essential tenets of religious education:

Religious education therefore is not an education with a fixed and predetermined content. There is no one true interpretation of the Christian religion which it is its function to transmit. Rather, religious education is an enterprise in which historical experiences and conceptions are utilized in a process by which individuals and groups come to experiences and convictions which are meaningful for them today.⁴⁴

The Religious Education Movement viewed education as a process by which social and personal values are reconstructed on an ongoing basis. Catechetical instruction epitomized what was wrong with older approaches to education. It merely handed on beliefs formed at some point in the past without engaging persons in a process by which these beliefs are made meaningful and even reconstructed in light of their experience today. Three key assumptions operative here were reflected in the confirmation material that emerged to take the place of the Shorter Catechism

(1) Transmission of a "fixed and predetermined content" is inherently authoritarian. Educational process is more important than content, for it determines whether or not individuals and groups will actively engage material.

(2) Present experience is the primary norm by which inherited beliefs and practices are judged, accentuating the importance of contemporary relevance and meaning.

(3) The primary goals of religious education are personal growth and social transformation.

It is not difficult to see how different these assumptions are from those of traditional catechetical instruction. What we see here is a major shift beginning to take place in the way that this practice is conceived. One of the important indications of this shift is the

⁴³ Harrison Elliott, Can Religious Education Be Christian? (New York: Macmillan Co., 1940), p. 23.
⁴⁴ Ibid., p. 310.

62 - Restructuring Confirmation

substitution of confirmation material, influenced by the Religious Education Movement, for the Shorter Catechism. A second indication is the change in nomenclature that took place around the first part of this century.

VII

In 1905, the Presbyterian Church adopted for the first time the rubric, " confirmation," in an official denominational document." The Book of Common Worship, written to supplement the Directory for Worship, contained an order for the "Confirmation of Baptismal Vows." While this rubric was temporarily dropped in the 1932 Book of Common Worship, it reappears in the 1946 version of this book. Clearly, this shift in nomenclature is no accident. Whereas the rubrics "catechetical instruction" or "catechizing" inherently emphasize the church's teaching of foundational beliefs, confirmation accents the individual's profession of faith. When linked with the new educational approach, confirmation literature is a harbinger of individualizing trends that have become more pronounced over the course of this century.

More recently, another significant change took place in this practice: a sundering of the link between what was now called confirmation and first communion. In 1971, for the first time, United Presbyterians permitted children to take communion prior to confirmation at the discretion of their parents and under the supervision of their sessions. In 1980, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.) followed suit. The reunited Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has continued this practice.

In large measure, this change is laudable, reflecting an increased sensitivity to the importance of childhood and the nonintellectualistic modes of faith development during this period of life. The gains of this change have not been without a cost, however. In the traditional pattern of catechetical instruction, the two sacraments of the church, baptism and the Lord's Supper, were closely linked. Participation in the latter was dependent on an understanding of the vows made on an individual's behalf at the former. Catechetical instruction ensured a proper understanding of the Word given visible expression in the Lord's Supper. While some Presbyterian congregations today provide instruction for children prior to their participation in this sacrament, many do not. The overall effect has been to diminish the importance of a cognitive understanding of the faith and to loosen further patterns of church participation. Moreover, it has indirectly contributed to the further diminishing of confirmation. These are not necessary consequences, but they have, in fact, occurred.

Taken together, the three changes that have taken place in catechetical instruction in this century reflect a major shift in the communal norms that this practice is seen as serving. The norms on which the

⁴⁵ For an overview of this process, see William Kosanovich's "Confirmation and American Presbyterians," Affirmation, 2, no. I (Spring 1989), pp. 55-57.

63 - Restructuring Confirmation

older practice was based have been discarded: the authority of the Word, the unique role of the church as the authoritative teacher of the Word, the paradoxical balancing of God's sovereign, electing will and individual profession of faith, and the importance of handing on foundational church teaching to enable confession of the one, catholic faith, creating church unity.

In their place, norms are served that emphasize the individual's quest for personal meaning. Slowly but surely, confirmation has come to be seen as a time when individuals explore their faith and decide for themselves whether or not they will continue to participate in the church. How should we assess this shift? This is the question that practical theology must ask. It must ask this question especially of the current practice of confirmation in the Presbyterian Church and of the new confirmation material that the denomination has just produced, Journeys of Faith: A Guide to Confirmation-Commissioning.⁴⁶

VIII

Where does Journeys of Faith stand in relation to the history that has just been recounted? The authors of this material argue that it represents a new stage in the development of this practice. In contrast, I believe that it represents a culmination and, even, intensification of trends that began at earlier points in this century. In large measure, it continues the individualizing of this practice that began under revivalism and was transformed under the influence of the Religious Education Movement.

A twofold rubric is used to identify this practice. "Confirmation" is used to refer to the educational process by which individuals are given the opportunity to clarify their own beliefs and decide whether or not they accept the Christian faith themselves. The addition of the term "commissioning" is to ensure that this practice is seen as facilitating a new level of participation and responsibility in the church's life and mission.

In the various ways that it describes both of these purposes, Journeys of Faith explicitly locates itself over against catechetical instruction as practiced in the past, harking back to perceptions that were widespread in the Religious Education Movement. The short pamphlet describing the purpose of confirmation-commissioning makes this point repeatedly:⁴⁷

The Church does not teach faith solely to ensure that young persons are properly indoctrinated and can talk accurately about faith.

The work of confirmation-commissioning should not be visualized as filling containers that will hold or preserve a set of facts or truths.

⁴⁶ This material is produced by the Presbyterian Publishing House, Louisville, Kentucky, and first appeared in 1990.
⁴⁷ Journeys of Faith: Confirming and Commissioning Young Members of the Church, pp. 3, 7 respectively. Similar comments are also found on pp. 6, 8, and 18.

64 - Restructuring Confirmation

If personal profession of faith does not focus on the internalization of foundational church teaching, then what is its focus? The material views it as the outgrowth of a process of personal exploration. This is, perhaps, the key theological, educational, and psychological assumption of this material. It is described as follows:

Exploration is a key word for young people in the church. There is much to see, experience, and discover in the journey of faith.... Confirmation-commissioning programs need to encourage exploration. Leaders should develop well-balanced programs that have time and space for personal discovery, personal decisions, and personal professions.⁴⁸

The accent on exploration and personal appropriation informs the entire program. To underscore this, the confirmands are referred to as cc seekers." Leaders are encouraged to design a program that is tailored to the unique needs and interests of their particular group. Indeed, the entire program is set up on this basis, offering a wide range of sessions that can be linked together in many different ways. Leaders are encouraged to pick and choose sessions on the basis of an initial "Faith Review Event" that is designed to enable them to gain better insight into the background, interests, and needs of their seekers.

Public profession of faith is viewed as emerging out of a process of personal exploration. The motif that undergirds the understanding of faith being used here is that of journey. Faith is viewed as a journey, as a dynamic, unfolding process. It is dangerous to identify it too closely with any one set of beliefs, for these may be discarded or reconstructed at a later point. The goal of confirmation-commissioning, therefore, is not to help individuals confess the one, catholic faith as given expression by a representative body of the church, but to clarify what they believe themselves at a particular point on their faith journey. As such, the material places great emphasis on helping each individual clarify his or her own beliefs. The Bible and denominational confessions function less as authoritative guides than as resources in the search for beliefs that are personally meaningful and relevant.

This view of confirmation-commissioning as focusing on personal exploration in an unfolding faith journey is used to justify the authors' recommendation that this practice be offered primarily to middle adolescents. They argue that fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds are likely to be engaged in the kind of psychological process that is consistent with personal exploration. This is described as a process of identity formation, a process in which individuals struggle to establish their own values, beliefs, and personal identity. Such a process is viewed as an ideal time for the kind of personal exploration that is at the heart of this program.

The fact that the Presbyterian Church has spent so much time, energy, and money in writing and publishing Journeys of Faith makes it highly likely that this material will define the practice of confirmation-

⁴⁸ Ibid., p. 8.

65 - Restructuring Confirmation

commissioning in the foreseeable future. Ministers and Christian educators have been calling for this sort of material for quite some time and are pleased, at last, to have something that they can use. The material contains many good educational ideas that makes it accessible and usable. Questions remain, however. It is fair to ask whether the practice as portrayed in this material serves communal norms that are warranted theologically and pragmatically.

Of particular importance in this regard is whether this material will assist the contemporary Presbyterian church in resisting the kinds of voluntarism and individualism that are so prevalent in American culture today. As numerous sociological studies have made clear, patterns of religious participation have become increasingly individualistic since the 1960s.⁴⁹ Individuals and families shop around for churches as if they were in a kind of spiritual supermarket, picking and choosing congregations on the basis of how well they meet their needs.

Many churches have responded to this situation with marketing approaches to evangelism and educational programs organized around the special interests of their current or prospective members. The problem with this sort of response is that it completely reverses the pattern of the gospel, which is based on a view of human sin as diminishing persons' capacities to discern what their real needs are. The role of the church is to invite persons to come and follow Jesus Christ and, thereby, to enter into a process of repentance and conversion by which they reorient their lives around the values of God's Kingdom.

It is difficult not to see Journeys of Faith as embodying a communal norm that reinforces the kinds of individualism and voluntarism that are so prevalent today. By casting confirmation-commissioning as a process of personal exploration in an ongoing journey of faith, it makes the individual the primary arbiter of matters of faith, not the Bible, church tradition, or representative bodies of the church. In so doing, it intensifies the individualizing trends that began at an earlier point in this century.

A second question has to do with the curriculum's emphasis on educational process over theological and biblical content. The material repeatedly states that the purpose of confirmation-commissioning is not to ensure that young persons are "properly indoctrinated." Rather, its purpose is to invite them to enter into a process of faith exploration. This emphasis on process over content reflects an educational commitment of the Religious Education Movement and its caricature of traditional catechetical instruction, How shall we judge the success of this commitment as we approach the end of the twentieth century? In my view, it has largely proved to be a failure.

It is highly likely that there is less biblical and theological knowledge

⁴⁹ Habits of the Heart was cited above. See also, Wade Clark Roof and William McKinney, American Mainline Religion: Its Changing Shape and Future (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987).

66 - Restructuring Confirmation

among the laity and church officers today than there was at the end of the nineteenth century. The forces in contemporary society that work against the formation of a biblically and theologically literate laity are powerful. Many families move repeatedly, undercutting the opportunity to build a base of theological knowledge in a cumulative fashion at a congregational level. Television deeply shapes the consciousness of most young people, exposing them to a steady stream of materialistic and hedonistic values and habituating them to visually-oriented, simplistic modes of thinking that are dominated by the present. The increased reality of religious pluralism and the decline of religious instruction in the schools means that religious values and beliefs are not taught or reinforced in non-church institutions. Little moral and religious instruction goes on in the home.

It is little wonder that biblical and theological illiteracy is so widespread. By repeatedly caricaturing the role of theological and biblical content in traditional catechetical instruction and by overvaluing educational process, Journeys of Faith does little to address this problem. If anything, a practice that is closer to traditional catechetical instruction seems to be is what is needed today. It might serve as a safety net that catches all young persons at some point and helps them gain a solid biblical and theological foundation as the basis of their personal faith.

A third question can also be raised: Will the practice of confirmation-commissioning as set forth in Journeys of Faith do anything to reverse the current hemorrhage of young people from the Presbyterian Church? Over the past three decades, a pattern of departure from church participation during adolescence and young adulthood has become extremely widespread in most mainline Protestant churches, including the Presbyterian church.⁵⁰ As sociologists Roof and McKinney document, the vast majority of these young people are not leaving for more conservative churches or parachurch groups but are drifting into the secular, unaffilated sector of the population.⁵¹ They are doing so just at a time when they are dealing with issues that put them at risk emotionally and physically.

Providing a response to this pattern seems to be the strongest point in favor of confirmation-commissioning as described in Journeys of Faith. At an age when many young people are just beginning to drift away from participation in church life, this practice would invite them to take a new look at the Christian faith and challenge them to accept a deeper level of responsibility for the church's life and mission.

Two considerations, however, raise doubts about this. First, recent research by the Search Institute has revealed that participation in confirmation alone is not enough to ensure continued involvement in

⁵⁰ This pattern is described in my article, "Evangelism and Education: Developmental Perspectives," found in Evangelism in the Reformed Tradition, ed. Arnold Lovell (Decatur, Georgia: CTS Press, 1990).
⁵¹ Roof and McKinney, Mainline Religion, p. 170.

67 - Restructuring Confirmation

the church upon its completion.⁵² The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has the highest percentage of its young people involved in the church precisely when it offers confirmation. A precipitous drop off takes place immediately after confirmation, however, as if a kind of graduation has occurred.

A second concern is the assumption made by Journeys of Faith that middle adolescents are psychologically primed for personal exploration, especially if this is viewed as a matter of "owning" the faith. Questions about the quality and depth of individuation that really takes place during adolescence have been raised by members of the structural developmental tradition of psychology.⁵³ From their perspective, middle adolescence is a time when most young people are attuned to the values and beliefs of significant others and the peer group. Individuation in faith, if it takes place at all, does not occur until late adolescence or young adulthood. Why not place confirmation-commissioning at this point, if it really is designed to give people an opportunity to explore the faith for themselves?

Questions such as these which emerge from practical theological reflection on confirmation-commissioning cannot be answered solely on the basis of an assessment of this practice alone. What is needed is a new and comprehensive theological examination of the fundamental practices of congregational life that can support the contemporary church in the pursuit of its witness. It may well be that a new series of liturgical-teaching practices must be formulated, harking back to traditional forms of catechetical instruction for children or the adult catechumenate of the ancient church. Enough legitimate questions can be raised about the changes that have taken place in the practice of confirmation in this century and about the new confirmation-commissioning curriculum to warrant such an examination. Too much is at stake for the church to accept uncritically a continuation of trends that have undercut its teaching ministry throughout this century.

⁵² This research is summarized by Peter Benson and Carolyn Eklin in Effective Christian Education: A National Study of Protestant Congregations (Minneapolis, Search institute, 1990).
⁵³ Carol Gilligan and Lawrence Kohlberg, "The Adolescent as a Philosopher: The Discovery of the Self in a Postconventional World," Daedalus 100 (1971), pp. 1051-1086. James Fowler, Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981). Sharon Parks, The Critical Years: The YoungAdult Search for a Faith to Live By (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986).