This is the first common catechism or Joins statement of religious faith to be produced by Catholics and protestants since the separation of the churches in the sixteenth century. It is an epoch-making attempt to state with one voice the common basis of Christian belief. Protestants and Catholics no longer ask primarily what divides their churches but rather what they are to believe and put forward as their belief in the face of a world which finds the divisions of the Christian body particularly scandalous and even derisible.
The COMMON CATECHISM shows conclusively that the possibility of presenting a joint faith to the churches and to the world in general is no mere dream. But it dots not shirk the questions that still separate the churches of the Reformation from the Church of Rome. This is a book which points out the road of ecumenism in the future. It seizes on the fundamentals of Christian faith and the urgent questions asked in the modern world. It is written in a theologically responsible yet comprehensible style. It will form a basis for discussions and study groups in and between various denominations. among and between clergy and laity, among and between priests and ministers.