As a recipient of the international Liselotte Kirchner Fellowship, Montreat College’s Dr. Peter James Yoder spent a portion of his summer in the historic archival reading room of the Francke Foundations in Halle, Germany, studying centuries-old letters and catechisms.
“It’s kind of a high-level dorkiness, but it’s fun,” said Yoder, who was able to bring along his family and explore historic sites like the town church in Wittenberg, where Martin Luther preached.
An assistant professor of honors and history at Montreat College, Yoder is focusing his research on German Pietists, a post-Reformation movement that sought to breathe new life into a stagnant church. Central to this movement was August Hermann Francke, the namesake of the Francke Foundations and one of the religious leaders central to Yoder’s research. Francke and his fellow Pietists shaped an entire generation of believers in Germany and had a huge influence on the rise of American evangelicalism and other forms of Christianity worldwide.
“They are the forerunners of the first Great Awakening,” said Yoder. “They feel like the church is dead, and they’re trying to fix it. They have a plan that’s both social and theological. They wanted to get individuals in the church reading their Bibles. They also emphasized meeting in small groups outside the church to hang out. Another major emphasis that spills into our world is that they emphasize a personal conversion experience, knowing you’ve been reborn.”
This summer, Yoder devoted much of his research to Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen, who served under Francke at the Francke Foundations. During this time, some of the first Protestant missionary efforts were launched to India. While researching at the archive, Yoder was made aware of a fascinating example of their global influence: Freylinghausen’s catechism translated into Portuguese, intended to help convert Portuguese Catholics living in India.
Originally created as a resource for the Foundation’s schools, Freylinghausen’s catechism went on to influence education well beyond Germany. Yoder traced its reach through letters and diaries from pastors across Europe, many of whom adapted the text for their congregations despite language barriers. One particularly fascinating discovery came from journals of German pastors near Savannah, Georgia, the same community John Wesley famously visited before his own conversion experience. These settlers described using Freylinghausen’s catechism to teach children, showing how the text shaped faith formation across the Atlantic.
Yoder shared his findings in a June 19 presentation titled “Freylinghausen’s ‘Ordnung des Heyls’ and the life of Pietist catechization.”
“These fellowships allow you to do your research, but also engage with an international community of scholars,” explained Yoder. “That’s a huge benefit because I’m sitting down with guys who know more than I do. It’s all about the ability to bounce things off other scholars.”
While well-known texts like the Heidelberg Catechism and Luther’s Small Catechism are familiar to many faith communities, far more catechisms circulated during the early modern period than most people realize. In the 16th and 17th centuries, pastors across Europe frequently wrote their own catechisms for local congregations, resulting in a flood of instructional guides aimed at teaching the faith.
“I was surprised that this form of instruction became so quickly standardized with the Pietists,” Yoder expressed. “Since they’re all Lutherans, you would think they would just be using Luther’s catechism, but they’re not. Instead, they’re using Freylinghausen’s catechism to teach Christianity. The challenge I ran into in my time there was figuring out why certain catechisms are more important than others.”
In the early Protestant church, catechisms served two distinct purposes. For Martin Luther, the catechism was essential because few people owned or could read the Bible. His Small Catechism functioned as a “layperson’s Bible,” offering a series of questions and answers that distilled biblical truth into an accessible format.
Later, the Pietists took a different approach. Rather than treating catechisms as a substitute for the Bible, they saw them as an introduction to it. Their focus was on helping believers not just memorize verses but understand the broader story of Scripture, core doctrines, and the foundations of faith.
“Catechization can help us speak and know the story of the Bible,” Yoder said. “It allows us to know our core beliefs, our foundational beliefs, and it helps us know the story of the Bible.”
Yoder believes that studying catechisms highlights teaching values such as curiosity, conversation, and a deeper understanding of faith, principles that Montreat College strives to incorporate into every classroom experience.
“I think the catechism represents an ideal of asking questions,” he said. “You really just want to start a conversation. Catechization wants you to have inquisitiveness. That’s really important, especially working in the Honors Program. You’re not rejecting answers; you’re working with answers to see if that fits. Maybe somebody else can jump in and add to that conversation in a certain way.”
Despite being three centuries old, these texts still hold powerful lessons for today’s church, particularly in terms of the importance of teaching children.
“We have to remember how important caring for the youth is in the life of the church,” Yoder expressed. “When you work with kids, you have to always remember how simple the gospel is. Maybe catechization helps us hear that.”