The Small Catechism

Luther wrote this for parents, not scholars. He was appalled, visiting parishes in 1528, at how little ordinary people understood of the faith they professed. The Small Catechism is his fix: the essentials, in plain language, meant to be memorized at home.

It covers six parts: the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Holy Baptism, Confession, and Holy Communion. Each commandment and article gets the same treatment: the text, then Luther’s own question, repeated exactly every time: “What does this mean?” We host the whole text, in a public domain translation checked line by line against two editions.

That line opens the explanation of the First Commandment, and it is the key that unlocks the whole document. Luther is not asking for a list of rules. He is asking what you actually trust to save you, then walking through, commandment by commandment, what changes when the answer is God rather than money, reputation, or your own effort.

Where to start

Read it straight through in about forty-five minutes, or one part at a time. If you only have ten minutes, the First Commandment and its explanation are a complete unit on their own.