Roberto Flores de Apodaca, University of South Carolina: “Watering of the Olive Plant”: Catechisms and Catechizing in Early New England

Abstract: Early New Englanders produced and used an unusually large number of catechisms. These catechisms shaped relations of faith for church membership, provided content for missions to the Indians, and empowered lay persons theologically to critique their ministers. This talk explores the content and the function of these unique, question and answer documents.