After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life. — Evelyn Underhill

It was on this day in 1529 that Martin Luther published his “Small Catechism“.    Luther explains his reason for writing this brilliant theological treatise in its opening paragraph:

The deplorable, miserable condition which I discovered lately when I, too, was a visitor, has forced and urged me to prepare [publish] this Catechism, or Christian doctrine, in this small, plain, simple form. Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach [so much so, that one is ashamed to speak of it]. Nevertheless, all maintain that they are Christians, have been baptized and receive the [common] holy Sacraments. Yet they [do not understand and] cannot [even] recite either the Lord’s Prayer, or the Creed, or the Ten Commandments; they live like dumb brutes and irrational hogs; and yet, now that the Gospel has come, they have nicely learned to abuse all liberty like experts.

Nothing much has changed since then.  Many Christians still have no idea what they believe or why.