Shorter Catechism

American  

noun

1. one of the two catechisms established by the Westminster Assembly in 1647, used chiefly in Presbyterian churches.

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Shorter Catechism British  

noun

1. Presbyterian Church the more widely used and influential of two catechisms of religious instruction drawn up in 1647

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Example Sentences

Without batting an eye I quoted from the Shorter Catechism in my best Sunday school voice: “‘God is a Spirit, Infinite, Eternal and Unchangeable.’”

From Literature

Isannah had wandered off because a passing clergyman had seen the sunlight on her hair and was asking her to say the shorter catechism as proof that she was as pious as she was beautiful.

From Literature

Back once more in Goblin’s saddle, he turned to watch them, Cilia bent under the heavy load, Isannah skipping about and for no particular reason chanting the shorter catechism once more.

From Literature

I was going to say, however, that the shopkeepers and middle classes of Scotland are anything but what you mean by superstitious—the class to whom Brown and Robertson belong, is the most hardheaded, argumentative, and matter of fact in the kingdom; and their religion, which is eminently unimaginative, so far from inducing a belief in ghosts, would have a precisely opposite tendency, because ghosts do not form an article of belief in either the longer or shorter catechism.

From Project Gutenberg

It is as rare to find a Scotchman unacquainted with the leading events in the Bible, the gist of the shorter catechism, and the whole of the Psalms of David, including the cxix, word for word, as it is difficult to enter a city all the world over, and not find the sons of the old land filling the leading positions in the place.

From Project Gutenberg