Read the documents for yourself

The oldest summary of the faith, taught to new Christians for eighteen hundred years. Short enough for a child to memorize, and dense enough to rule out most of the errors that have troubled the church.

Written to settle who Jesus is. The council answered the question of whether the Son is truly God, of one substance with the Father, and the church has confessed that answer ever since.

The most precise of the three on the Trinity and the incarnation. Longer than the others, and worth the patience it asks for.

Thirty-three chapters covering Scripture, God, salvation, the church, and the last things. When a Reformed church says what it believes, this is usually the document it is pointing at.

One hundred ninety-six questions and answers, written for preaching and for mature instruction. Where the Shorter Catechism is a foundation, this one builds the house.

One hundred seven questions, written so children could learn them. It opens by asking what the chief end of man is, and answers that we are made to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Thirty-seven articles written under persecution in the Low Countries. Its author, Guido de Brès, was executed six years after he wrote it.

One hundred twenty-nine questions arranged across fifty-two Lord’s Days, the warmest of the Reformation catechisms. It begins by asking what your only comfort in life and in death is.

The Synod of Dort’s answer to five objections raised against Reformed teaching on salvation. What later generations summarized as the five points of Calvinism comes from here.