The historic Christian faith, learned properly.
Know what you believe, and why.
A self-paced course in the fundamentals of the Christian faith, written for readers in the four creedal traditions: Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican. Choose your tradition and the material speaks from inside it.
Which tradition do you belong to?
This decides which voice the material speaks in. You can change it at any time, or read all four side by side.
Start here
God, creation and the fall
- The TrinityOne God in three Persons - the ground on which everything else in this course stands.
- Creation and the image of GodWhy there is something rather than nothing, why it is good, and what it means that you bear His likeness.
- The fall, sin, and why we need savingWhat went wrong, how deep the damage goes, and why no amount of effort repairs it.
Jesus Christ
- Jesus Christ, true God and true manThe incarnation, the virgin birth, and the one Person who is both God and a particular Jewish man.
- The ministry and the crossWhat Jesus did, why He had to die, and the several true things the Church says about the cross.
- The resurrection and the ascensionThe bodily rising of Christ, the evidence for it, and what it means that a man now sits at the right hand of God.
The Spirit, the Scriptures and the Creeds
- The Holy SpiritThe third Person of the Trinity - who He is, what He does, and why He is not an impersonal force.
- Scripture and authorityHow God's word comes to us, where the Bible came from, and the real disagreement about who reads it.
- The Apostles' Creed, line by lineThe baptismal creed of the West, taken one clause at a time.
- The Nicene Creed, line by lineThe Church's conciliar confession, clause by clause, with the arguments each phrase was written to settle.
The Church and the sacraments
- The Church and the ordained ministryWhy the Church is visible, what bishops and priests are for, and the one question that divides the four.
- BaptismWhat God does in the water, and the full case for baptising infants.
- The EucharistWhy the bread and wine are never merely a reminder, and how the four traditions explain what they will not deny.
- Repentance, confession and forgivenessHow sin after baptism is dealt with, and why the Church has always had a ministry of absolution.
- The other sacraments and mysteriesConfirmation, marriage, ordination and anointing - and why the four traditions count differently.
Grace, salvation and the saints
- Grace, faith and justificationHow a sinner is put right with God - the argument that split the West, and how much of it still stands.
- AssuranceCan a Christian know he is saved? The four traditions answer differently, and the difference is pastoral before it is theological.
- Calvinism examinedThe five points, stated fairly, and how each of the four traditions answers them.
- The communion of saintsThe Church across death - honouring the holy, asking their prayers, and where the four divide.
Prayer and worship
- Prayer and worshipWhat prayer is, the kinds of it, and why Christian worship has a given shape rather than an invented one.
- The Lord's Prayer, petition by petitionThe prayer Christ gave, taken one clause at a time - the shortest complete summary of the Christian life.
- LiturgyThe shape of Christian public worship, where it came from, and why it is not an optional style preference.
- Daily prayerA rule of prayer you can actually keep - the hours, the psalms, and what to do when it goes cold.
The Christian life
- The Ten CommandmentsThe commandments one by one, why the traditions number them differently, and what each requires as well as forbids.
- Marriage and familyWhat marriage is in Christian teaching, what the home is for, and where the four traditions differ on divorce and remarriage.
- Vocation and workWhy ordinary work is a calling, and why God does not need your good works but your neighbour does.
- Charity and care for one's neighbourWhat love actually is, who counts as a neighbour, and why almsgiving was never optional.
- Divine healingWhat the Church prays for the sick, what she has never promised, and how to answer both the sceptic and the faith healer.