Nothing drives me to be more careful or thorough in my study of doctrine than teaching children--my own or other children that I love. Recently, I've been so helped by a couple of works in a genre of catechesis with which I was previously unfamiliar: fictional dialog. I don't even know if that is the official name of this genre of literature, but the idea is that the author teaches doctrine through an imaginary conversation between two people--one is usually a naive but interested young person or seeker and the other is a wise and learned saint. The dialog is not meant to be realistic, but rather is intentionally contrived to bring about all of the key aspects of a given doctrine. The two works in the genre that have helped me lately are The Child's Book on Repentance by Thomas Gallaudet and a A Primer on the Atonement, by John Gerstner. The Child's Book of Repentance is an old puritan book that imagines a dialog between a Christian mother and her children, who crave to know what true repentance is. A Primer on the Atonement comes from a larger book of compiled primers by Gerstner, portions of which Ligonier Ministries has been posting as a series (now on Part 5). Both of these are wonderful and have sharpened me to teach more faithfully and thoroughly.

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