Cyprian of Carthage believed that Christian thought and practice must be formed by scripture. To this end, he compiled testimonia collections like Ad Quirinum, organising knowledge in culturally intelligible ways to assist its transmission by common cultural means—the memorisation of texts. Much of this training took place through the institution of the catechumenate, in which converts also began the process of embodying that knowledge, imitating Christ and other exemplary believers. Along with scripture, the other fundamental element of Christian life, according to Cyprian, is prayer, which cannot be separated from a life of harmony and generosity. Through these disciplines, the one in whom God dwells will be perfected.

Ambrose of Milan’s pastoral project of ‘building up the faith’ (adstruere fidem), evident in his preaching, is exemplified best in his hymns. Relating this project to his suspicions about dialectic, I argue that the hymns aim less to ‘destroy’ through analysis than to ‘construct’ through compelling imagery and a programme of sensitisation. By comparing the presentation of Christ’s miracles in his Expositio on Luke and in his hymn for the Epiphany, ‘Illuminans Altissimus’, I show how Ambrose renders abstract, narrative, and conceptual claims by means of personal, concrete, and actualising exempla that present his congregation with objects for ‘real assent’ (in the words of John Henry Newman). Such an approach distinguishes Ambrose’s hymns from the verse compositions of his Latin-speaking contemporaries, Hilary of Poitiers and Augustine of Hippo.

The Introduction lays out the primary questions underlying the book: What is the relationship between knowledge of God and the practices of teaching surrounding baptism? What is the role of historical study in understanding Christian epistemology? What role do theological commitments play in the forms of catechetical instruction? It also explains the use of the language of epistemology and catechetical literature, and it contains a chapter outline.

This chapter outlines the Laudian view of preaching and its role in the life of the church. Preaching was placed in a secondary role relative to prayer, prayer being the end to which preaching was the enabling means. In a settled church, such as the church of England, the role of preaching was limited to providing the relatively few doctrines necessary to salvation. Not that sermons were necessarily the best means to discharge that task. Consequently, the Laudians redefined preaching to include the reading of homilies, the reading of scripture and catechesis. In this way a justification was provided for unpreaching ministers. The other role for preaching was to provide top-up lessons and exhortations in which the reigning sins and errors of the times were denounced; hence the prevalence of printed Laudian sermons denouncing puritanism. The puritan cult of the sermon and addiction to extempore sermons was also called out.