Teach All Nations: The Use Of The Heidelberg Catechism In North America And Throughout The Non-European World

By Joel R. Beeke and Eric D. Bristley

The Heidelberg Catechism has become widely used and greatly loved outside of its birthplace. Several factors have contributed to its appeal. The first is the catechism’s summary of biblical truth, which captures both the simplicity and profundity of Bible doctrine. The catechism crystallizes the Christian faith of the Reformers of the sixteenth century, especially John Calvin. It also maintains continuity with the early church in its threefold structure of the creed, the law, and the Lord’s Prayer.

A second reason for the catechism’s widespread influence is its design for training young people and adults in Reformed doctrine and practice. Though its lengthiness is sometimes faulted, the catechism offers a comprehensive treatment of Christian doctrine. Its formulations and question-and-answer format endeared the catechism to those who sought the articulation of a consistent biblical-theological worldview. Its division into fifty-two Lord’s Days also provided an orderly method of instruction.

Third, the Elector Frederick’s (1515–1576) wisdom in devising the catechism as a means of instruction enabled the Reformed movement to spread a unified theology. The catechism’s endorsement by consistories and synods in Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Switzerland established it as a defining document of the Calvinistic Reformation. The approval of the Synod of Dordrecht (1618–1619) further confirmed the catechism’s function as a standard of faith and life for the Reformed movement throughout the world.

Fourth, congregations and schools diligently used the catechism as an essential part of Christian training. It is unlikely that the catechism would have had lasting significance had not pastors and schoolmasters implemented its use in the educational ministry of their churches and schools.

The transmission, reception, use, and influence of the catechism can be documented by the number of editions in print, ecclesiastical decisions, subscription to the catechism by church officers and seminary professors, publications explaining its doctrine, and translations and redactions such as the Compendium (Kort Begrip). Still, it is far easier to trace the bibliographical history of the catechism’s text and supporting literature than to evaluate its personal impact on people’s lives.

I. The Catechism Planted In The New World

Henry Hudson, a British sea captain, was hired by the Dutch East India Company in 1609 to search for a northwest passage through the New World to the Pacific Ocean. When Hudson sailed up the Hudson River later that year, less than fifty years after the writing of the Heidelberg Catechism, he opened the way for Dutch and German Reformed colonization in North America. The initial areas of settlement in America extended from the Hudson River to the Delaware River in “New Netherlands” as a province of the Dutch Republic (1624). These settlements comprise the present states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The catechism found fertile ground among this mixture of Dutch, German, and French Reformed colonists.

Since God works through his church as the pillar and ground of the truth, it was natural for the churches of the mother country to be the instrument through which the catechism was brought to colonies in the New World. The Dutch Reformed founders of “New Amsterdam” introduced the catechism to the New World, and North America eventually became the most important geographical area of the catechism’s influence outside of Europe. Here and elsewhere, the Dutch trading companies aligned themselves with this mission. Reformed historian J. I. Good writes:

The Dutch East India and West India Companies had [the catechism] translated into the different languages of their distant lands, and put their coat-of-arms on the title page. They sent chaplains to their colonies, many of them to become missionaries. This is quite in contrast with the East India Company of Great Britain, for that company, for a long time, forbade the introduction of Christianity into its colonies for fear of exciting the hostility of the heathen natives.[1]

The first minister to the Dutch Reformed in America was Jonas Johannes Michaelius (b. 1585), who arrived in 1628 to organize the Collegiate Church of New Amsterdam. Services were held above a grist mill for approximately 270 Europeans. Michaelius wrote about his efforts to teach the catechism to Native American children. The Collegiate School was founded about the same time. Gideon Schaets, a minister at nearby Rensselaerswyck, was required “to use all Christian zeal there to bring up both the heathens and their children in the Christian religion [and] to teach also the Catechism there, and instruct the people in the Holy Scriptures, and to pay attention to the office of schoolmaster for old and young.”[2]

Dutch rule gave way to the English in 1664, who renamed the city New York and sought to impose Anglicanism on the Reformed churches. However, the tenacious commitment of the Dutch congregations to the liturgy and doctrinal standards of the church of their forebears helped them retain their Reformed character and the use of the catechism.

II. The Catechism Among The Dutch Reformed In America

Early works on the Heidelberg Catechism in Dutch were penned by Gualtherus Du Bois (1671–1751) and Anthonius Van Driessen (1682–1748). It was not until the 1760s that the Dutch Reformed Church (RCA; known as the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church prior to 1867) began to use English. Lambertus De Ronde’s (1720–1795) A System of the Christian Religion Suitable to the Heidelberg Catechism (1763) was the first English work of its kind published in America. New York’s Collegiate Church sponsored the first English translation of the catechism on American soil. At the request of his consistory, Archibald Laidlie in 1765 provided a version of the catechism based on earlier English translations. His work became the basis of most American editions. At least eight editions of the catechism in English were published by the RCA in the eighteenth century, usually along with the book of praise currently in use. These works were primarily published in New York, Albany, Hudson, New Brunswick, and Philadelphia.

Still, the enthusiasm to teach the catechism had to be fostered among the pastors. That was done largely by the published works of various preachers and teachers. For example, the Dutch sermons of Johannes VanderKemp (1664–1718) on the catechism were translated into English and published in two volumes in 1810, then reprinted in 1997. John H. Livingston (1746–1825), the first professor at the seminary at New Brunswick, New Jersey, lectured on the catechism during his tenure there (1810–1825). The seminary still holds those manuscripts. George W. Bethune (1805–1862) published Expository Lectures on the Heidelberg Catechism in two volumes, which were reprinted as recently as 2001. Joseph F. Berg contributed a translation of Von Alpen’s History and Literature of the Heidelberg Catechism and lectured at New Brunswick on Ursinus. Others, such as David Demarest (1819–1898), left similar manuscripts documenting the ongoing teaching of the catechism. The Expository Sermons on the Heidelberg Catechism of New Brunswick’s professor of practical theology, Ferdinand S. Schenck (1790–1860), were published in 1920.[3]

In the colonies’ transition to a republic, Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691–1747) exemplified the convergence of Dutch, German, and British Reformed traditions as well as the church’s increasing emphasis on personal conversion and experimental godliness. By training and conviction, Frelinghuysen blended the finest teachings of British Puritanism and Continental Reformed pietism. He was a proponent of the Great Awakening, yet his theology and preaching were steeped in the spirit and teaching of the catechism.[4]

The prevailing attitude toward the catechism in the Dutch Reformed church can be seen in the calling of a pastor to First Reformed Church of Schenectady, New York. The typical call to ministers during the eighteenth century, like that given to John H. Meier in 1802, required that “you also explain a portion of the Heidelberg Catechism on the Lord’s days, or Lord’s day evenings, either in the Dutch or English language, as you and the consistory may judge most beneficial for the Congregation, agreeable to the established order of the Reformed Dutch Church.”[5]

However, in some congregations of the RCA, the catechism’s influence began waning in the nineteenth century. Between 1816 and 1833, the general synod of the RCA repeatedly emphasized the duty of weekly preaching from the catechism on the Lord’s Day. After 1865, however, the synod became more permissive, allowing ministers the freedom to determine their own procedure in the exposition and instruction of the catechism.[6]

III. The Catechism Among The German Reformed In America

In the early eighteenth century, thousands of German refugees from the Palatinate escaped the decimation of their homeland by the French. These Reformed German immigrants carried Bibles, the catechism, and hymnbooks into the farmlands of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, New York’s Schoharie Valley, and Pennsylvania, where they settled. The German Reformed Church (RCUS) was founded by German and Swiss Reformed settlers who met together for worship throughout the region. In this environment the catechism provided a common doctrinal bond.

Because of the ecclesiastical oversight of Classis Amsterdam, the catechism remained an integral part of the German Reformed Church in America from its earliest days. The first American edition of the catechism in German appeared in Philadelphia, specifically Germantown, in 1752, as part of Ambrose Lobwasser’s Psalter, also known as the Marburg Hymn-Book.[7] This book became standard for the German Reformed churches during the colonial period. The first English version of the catechism for use among the German Reformed was published in 1820 in Philadelphia.

The confessional subscription of early German Reformed ministers included a hearty commitment to the catechism, with few exceptions. When John Philip Boehm began to organize the first congregations in Pennsylvania in 1725, the constitution he drew up declared, “The office and duty of the minister shall be to preach the pure doctrine of the Reformed Church, according to the Word of God … regularly to expound the Heidelberg Catechism … to catechize.”8 When Classis Amsterdam sent Swiss pastor Michael Schlatter to gather the scattered German Reformed people into churches and to organize a coetus, or union of churches and ministers, he was charged “that the members of the Coetus should sign the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of the National Synod of Dort of 1618 and 1619; declaring that they with heart and soul are devoted to the same and will hold to them unalterably.”9 The Coetus was organized in 1747, marking the beginning of the self-governing German Reformed Church. At its second meeting, the Coetus secured a firm footing for the catechism in the church through the constitutional requirements for its ministry candidates and professors.

The constant use of the catechism in the instruction of the youth made it necessary for congregations to call a minister with particular skill as a catechist. J. H. A. Bomberger wrote:

This continued rehearsal and explanation of its questions and answers would weave its doctrine, in all their shades of expression and peculiarities of statement, into the very web of their being. The familiar forms in which the truths of the Catechism are stated would thus not only become their habitual mode of expressing their view, but would … fashion and mould their thoughts and belief. In this way the hand-book of instruction would become a more dominant norm of their own faith than any system of theology in other form could well be.… A good catechism constantly used not only gives us words in which to avow our faith, but exerts a mighty moulding influence upon the character of that faith itself.[10]

Although these practices were primary in the founding of the church, the congregations exhibited an ebb and flow of interest in the use of the catechism.

Any system is only as good as those who implement it; thus, there was a continual need for revival of devotion to the truths taught in the catechism. The Great Awakening and later revivals of religion rekindled this endeavor.

In 1863, enthusiasm was fueled by a great anniversary celebration of the catechism. The Tercentenary Anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism was held at the historic Race Street (First Reformed) Church in Philadelphia. More than five hundred delegates were present. Essays on the history and theology of the catechism by scholars from Europe and the United States were read at the convention and distributed in print.[11]

For this celebration, a critical edition of the catechism was prepared by a committee of synod and published by Charles Scribner. Following a historical introduction, this volume presented the original German and Latin texts of the catechism as well as a modern German version and a new English translation in parallel columns.[12] The new translation, however, showed the influence of the “Mercersburg Theology” of John W. Nevin and Philip Schaff.

Hinke points out that, ironically, after the Tercentenary, the catechism was less emphasized in the RCUS. Nevertheless, many in the RCUS continued to love the catechism and its truths. As new German immigrants streamed into the Midwest, congregations without pastors used such sermon collections as Reformirte Heilslehre vom einigen Trost im Leben und im Sterben: Predigten über den heidelberger Katechismus (1882). Catawba College in North Carolina, Heidelberg College and Seminary in Ohio, and Ursinus College and School of Theology in Pennsylvania continued to support the older Reformed tradition. A return to the theology of Ursinus was evident in a new translation of his lectures on the catechism by the president of Heidelberg College, George W. Willard (1852). A translation of Otto Thelemann’s Aid to the Heidelberg Catechism appeared in 1892 as the work of faculty at Ursinus School of Theology. J. H. A. Bomberger and James I. Good stood at the front of the Ursinus movement to restore the catechism to its place of honor in the RCUS. Good published a landmark study, The Heidelberg Catechism in Its Newest Light, in 1914.

Mercersburg Theology brought a non-Reformed influence into the RCUS, which led to early modernism and culminated in 1934 in its union with the Evangelical Synod of North America, the North American branch of the Evangelical Union of Prussia, dating from 1817.[13] In this merger the catechism was placed on the same level as Luther’s Small Catechism. Not everyone was happy with the 1934 merger, however; Eureka Classis in the Dakotas elected to stay out of the union. It retained the name Reformed Church in the US, and continued to require subscription to the catechism. It may be the only Reformed denomination that still requires would-be church members to memorize and recite the whole catechism. To further this goal, Norman Jones produced Study

Helps on the Heidelberg Catechism (1981). The continued zeal of RCUS for the catechism is expressed by Paul Treick:

Love for the Heidelberg Catechism has characterized the 250-year history of the Reformed Church in the United States and continues. It is not a love for a book or a document as such, but a love for the faith it expresses so well.… The continuing history of the Reformed Church in the United States is due in large part to the use of “the Heidelberger.” The defining word here is “use.” What benefit is a creed for us if it is not used? What good is a creed carefully preserved on our “beloved historical document” shelf, if it is not also in our hearts and heads? How can a creed benefit the church if it is not taught to believers and to their children?[14]

In the middle of the twentieth century, the continuing Reformed Church in the U.S. (Eureka Classis) prepared a revision of the Tercentenary Edition of the catechism published in 1950. In 2011 this revision added all Scripture references in the New King James Version of 1990.

Two other often-overlooked groups in North America also adhere to the catechism. The first is the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, which united with the RCUS in 1921 as the Magyar Synod, but then reverted to independence in 1958. The second was comprised of immigrants from the East Friesian Reformed Church and the Old Reformed Church of Bentheim, Germany. These German Reformed believers loved the Heidelberg Catechism, whether they were part of the RCA, CRC, or RCUS. One such pastor, E. L. Meinders, laboring at South Holland, Illinois, issued two volumes of sermons on the catechism in Dutch (1897). A number of professors at Reformed seminaries, such as Nicolas M. Steffins and Geerhardus Vos, came from this background.[15]

IV. Modern Dutch Immigration And The Heidelberg Catechism

The Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA), formed in 1857, has its roots in the Secession movement in the Netherlands that began in 1834. Fed by substantial immigration from 1840–1920 to Western Michigan, Iowa, New Jersey, and California, the CRCNA was zealous for the promotion and use of the catechism. In CRCNA churches and their related Christian schools, the catechism has played a fundamental role in shaping the theology of those who study it. The CRCNA church order, based on that of Dort (1619), requires subscription to confessional standards, regular preaching of the catechism, and catechetical training of children and youth.

William Heyns, an early professor at Calvin Theological Seminary, wrote his Handboek voor de Catechetiek with the catechism in mind. Henry Beets promoted the catechism in its redacted form as the Compendium as part of a system of doctrinal education in his Compendium Explained (1915). Jan Karel van Baalen wrote The Heritage of the Fathers: A Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism. In the 1950s a series of sermons on the catechism edited by H. J. Kuiper appeared with contributions by both CRC and RCA ministers. In honor of the 400th anniversary celebration of the catechism, two books were published: William Masselink’s The Heidelberg Story and Thea Van Halsema’s Three Men Came to Heidelberg.

In recent years, Calvin Seminary professors Fred Klooster and Lyle Bierma have made important contributions to catechism scholarship. Klooster produced a study guide, A Mighty Comfort (1990), and his substantive Our Only Comfort: A Comprehensive Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism in two volumes (2001). His extensive primary research resulted in “The Heidelberg Catechism: Origin and History,” a work of 451 pages. He also served on a study committee which produced a new CRC-adopted translation (1975) based on the original German text.

Bierma focused on the historical background of the catechism, especially the work of Caspar Olevianus. He translated Olevianus’s A Firm Foundation: An Aid to Interpreting the Heidelberg Catechism (1995) and also wrote three more books: The Covenant Theology of Caspar Olevianus (1996), The Doctrine of the Sacraments in the Heidelberg Catechism (1999), and An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism (2005).

Other, smaller Reformed denominations of Dutch background that adhere to the catechism include the Protestant Reformed Churches in America, formed in 1926 under the leadership of Herman Hoeksema (1886–1965), who wrote a massive three-volume exposition of the catechism titled The Triple Knowledge. The Netherlands Reformed Congregations (1907), the Free Reformed Churches of North America (1920s), and the Heritage Reformed Congregations (1993) also subscribe to, preach from, and teach the catechism. From them have come works on the catechism by G. Van Reenen (1955), G. H. Kersten (1968), Cees Sonnevelt (1988), Martin Heerschap (1994), Arie M. Den Boer (2001), and Joel R. Beeke (2001).

In recent years a group of congregations departed from the CRCNA to become the United Reformed Churches of North America (1996). This denomination holds to the older positions of the CRC and continues to teach the catechism. In 2006, Ronald Scheuers produced a coordinated curriculum that extensively uses the catechism. The websites of these smaller Reformed denominations promote the study and use of the catechism.

After World War II, another group of immigrants from the Netherlands planted new churches in Canada. Some of them became part of the CRC, while others formed the Canadian Reformed Churches (CanRC), linked to the Liberated Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. These churches have a strong view of confessional subscription and are known for their commitment to teach the catechism. The CanRCs produced a new English translation of the catechism printed in their Book of Praise: Anglo-Genevan Psalter in 1984. Studies on the catechism have been written by Clarence Stam and James Visscher.

Other church groups in North America have also recognized or adopted the catechism as a doctrinal standard. For example, the United Presbyterian Church in the USA, a denomination with significant Dutch, German, and Hungarian Reformed elements, included the Heidelberg Catechism in its Book of Confessions published in 1967.

In summary, next to Europe, North America has shown the most extensive reception and use of the catechism. Today seventeen denominations in the United States and six in Canada maintain the catechism as a confessional standard. In the United States, a resurgence of the Reformed faith among young adults, the so-called New Calvinists, is most promising for the future of the catechism, as evidenced in Kevin DeYoung’s The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism (2010). American publishers are still printing books on the catechism, both old and new, such as G. I. Williamson’s The Heidelberg Catechism: A Study Guide (1993) and William Ames’s A Sketch of the Christian’s Catechism (2008).

V. Missions And The Worldwide Circulation Of The Catechism

The Heidelberg Catechism has become one of the most widely disseminated faith statements of Reformed Christianity. In the first century after its publication in 1563, the catechism was translated into all the major European and several non-European languages. The history of these translations is a testimony to the missionary zeal of Reformed churches to bring the catechism to those previously unreached by the gospel. The modern mission movement has subsequently reenergized ongoing translations of the catechism. As the Reformed churches in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States have become more deeply involved in the spread of the gospel, they have continued the work of translating the catechism as a valuable tool for discipling the nations.

In missionary contexts, the existence of an appropriate translation of the catechism did not guarantee its widespread acceptance unless the people were convinced that its use was essential to the life and stability of the church. Due to changing attitudes in the sending churches, the implementation of the catechism in some nineteenth-century mission fields has not been nearly as widespread as in eighteenth-century North America. The following provides a list of some countries in which Reformed churches have adopted the Heidelberg Catechism as a confessional document and teaching tool.[16]

In Central America, the Bahamas, Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica, and Nicaragua each have a Reformed denomination that endorses the catechism. Mexico and Honduras each have three Reformed denominations, and the Netherlands Antilles has two. Mexico has several Reformed seminaries, which have produced study materials such as Gerald Nyenhuis’s Comentario del Catecismo de Heidelberg (1990).

In South America, the Dutch translated the catechism into the Tapuyan language for people in Brazil, while the Dutch catechism was used in Guyana and Suriname. The Dutch East India Company produced early Portuguese and Spanish translations of the catechism. Today modern versions of the catechism are used in nine South American countries by nineteen denominations. The greatest interest in the catechism is in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, which each have at least four denominations that use the catechism. Colombia and Venezuela each have two denominations, while Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru each have one.

In the Far East, the catechism has been translated into Chinese by the RCA for its mission at Amoy. It has also been translated into Japanese. Presently Japan has only one denomination that teaches the catechism, while Taiwan has seven. At present, in the People’s Republic of China no denomination is known to subscribe to the catechism as a doctrinal standard, though it is used by some individual churches.

In Southeast Asia, churches in four countries teach the catechism: Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Singapore. Of these, Indonesia is the most heavily influenced by the catechism due to the presence of the Dutch since the seventeenth century. Older and more modern translations of the catechism have appeared in Malay and Java. On the island of New Caledonia, a Reformed church affirms the catechism.

In Southwest Asia, churches in four countries promote the catechism: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Reunion Island. In the eighteenth century the catechism was translated into Tamil and used in Southern India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, and Mauritius. Another eighteenth-century translation was produced in Sinhala, the mother tongue of the largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka. It was translated by William Konyn and published by the Dutch Reformed in Sri Lanka.

Reformed missionaries have worked in Arab-speaking countries of the Middle East for about two hundred years. Samuel Zwemer was a pioneer missionary of the RCA among the Arabs. Presently, Middle East Reformed Fellowship (MERF), headquartered in Cyprus, has shown interest in using the catechism. The first translation of the catechism into Arabic was produced by the RCA in 1913. Victor Atallah, an Egyptian minister connected with the GKNV (“Liberated”), works in the Middle East and has produced a modern Arabic version of the catechism. It was published in 2011 by MERF.

Africa has many fast-growing Reformed churches; it has forty-two church organizations in twenty countries that teach the catechism. North and Northeast Africa share much with the Middle East because of Islam. Among these nations, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Tunisia each have one Reformed church group adhering to the catechism. The first translation into Amharic was made by Charles Isenberg in 1842; a recent version by Hailu Mekonnen has been published through MERF.

In West Africa, due mostly to the mission work of the CRCNA, Nigeria has four or five denominations that adhere to the catechism. Other countries with churches that teach the catechism in West and Central Africa include Cameroon, Congo, and Burkina Faso. There are also translations of the catechism into Swahili, Tschiluba, Kiluba, and Lingala. In East Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and Malawi have churches that teach the catechism.

In Southern Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Namibia each have three Reformed denominations with the catechism. Angola has two Reformed groups while Botswana, Zambia, Swaziland, and Lesotho each have one. The Republic of South Africa has eight Afrikaans-speaking denominations that subscribe to the catechism; it serves as a primary source book of South African Calvinism. Several versions of the catechism were published in Afrikaans and English.[17]

Australia and New Zealand each have at least five denominations that consider the catechism as one of their confessional standards. Several of these churches have roots in the Dutch Reformed tradition and support the Reformed Theological College at Geelong.

VI. Conclusion

In God’s providence, the Heidelberg Catechism is being rediscovered today.[18] Its availability is not limited to printed form. Internet websites have also made the catechism accessible to people of many language groups. Denominational sites and dedicated websites such as heidelberger-katechismus.net also include many study resources and teaching aids. Many new believers in a variety of countries are discovering or rediscovering the catechism as a fresh means of articulating the Reformed understanding of the Christian faith.

It is wonderful to see how the Heidelberg Catechism has, by God’s providence, spread to the ends of the earth. Nothing can explain this expansion but its inherent biblical faithfulness and the blessing of Christ as head of the church. The catechism presents us with a rare combination of the simplicity of an experimental personal faith and the profundity of intellectual belief. For this reason and others, it has become the most widely used and beloved catechism of churches that are Reformed.[19]

Notes

1. James I. Good, The Heidelberg Catechism in Its Newest Light (Philadelphia: Publication and Sunday School Board of the Reformed Church in the United States, 1914), 11. For a shortened version of this article, see Joel R. Beeke and Eric Bristley, “De receptive van de Heidelbergse Catechismus buiten Europa,” in Handboek Heidelbergse Catechismus, ed. Arnold Huijgen, John V. Fesko, and Aleida Sillen (Utrecht: Kok, 2013), 135-46.
2. Henry Webb Dunshee, History of the School of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church in the City of New York from 1633 to 1883 (New York: Aldine Press, 1883), 13.
3. Cf. Eric D. Bristley, “Bibliographica Catechismus Heidelbergensis: A Historical Bibliography of Editions, Translations, Commentaries, Sermons, and Historical Studies of the Heidelberg Catechism” (unpublished paper, Westminster Theological Seminary, 1983).
4. Cf. James Tanis, Dutch Calvinistic Pietism in the Middle Colonies: A Study in the Life and Theology of Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1967); Joel R. Beeke, ed., Forerunner of the Great Awakening: Sermons by Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691-1747) (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000).
5. Jonathan Pearson, Three Centuries: The History of the First Reformed Church of Schenectady, New York, 1680-1980 (Schenectady: The Church, 1980), 131.
6. Thomas De Witt, “The Heidelberg Catechism in the Reformed Church of Holland and America,” in The Tercentenary Monument: In Commemoration of the Three Hundredth Anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism (Chambersburg, PA: M. Kieffer & Co., 1863), 413-22.
7. Cf. Felix Reichmann, Christopher Sower Sr., 1694-1758, Printer in Germantown (Philadelphia: Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation, 1943), 91.
8. W. J. Hinke, “Early Catechisms of the Reformed Church in the United States,” Reformed Church Review, 4th ser., vol. 12 (1908): 477.
9. Daniel Miller, Early History of the Reformed Church in Pennsylvania (Reading: Daniel Miller, 1906), 64-65.
10. J. H. A. Bomberger, “The Fortunes of the Heidelberg Catechism in the United States,” in The Tercentenary Monument, 570.
11. These essays were collected in The Tercentenary Monument.
12. The Heidelberg Catechism, in German, Latin and English: With an Historical Introduction, Tercentenary Edition (New York: Charles Scribner, 1863).
13. Arthur C. Piepkorn, Profiles in Belief (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 2:668.
14. Paul H. Treick, “Our Heidelberg Heritage,” in You Shall Be My People: A Continuing Heritage Celebrating the 250th Synod of the Reformed Church in the United States, ed. Robert E. Grossmann and Norman C. Hoeflinger (Freeman, SD: Pine Hill Press, Synod of the Reformed Church in the United States, 1996), 171.
15. Cf. George Schnucker and Kenneth De Wall, The East Friesens in America: An Illustrated History of Their Colonies to the Present Time (Bethalto, IL: Ostfriesen Ancestral Research Association, 1986).
16. Cf. Jean-Jacques Bauswein and Lukas Vischer, The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999).
17. Douwe Nauta, “Die Verbreitung des Katechismus, Übersetzung in andere Sprachen, moderne Bearbeitungen,” in Handbuch zum Heidelberger Katechismus, ed. Lothar Coenen (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1963), 57.
18. Cf. Donald Van Dyken, Rediscovering Catechism: The Art of Equipping Covenant Children (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2000).
19. James I. Good, The Heidelberg Catechism in Picture and Story (Philadelphia: Publication and Sunday School Board of the Reformed Church in the U.S., 1913), 39.