Then Opened He Their Understanding

This is a reference book designed to serve as a review for teenage confirmands in the Episcopal Church who have completed the companion classroom confirmation course titled, Did Not Our Heart Burn Within Us? However, even if your confirmation course was different, or you have yet to take a confirmation course, you should find this book to be enriching.  

The course is targeted at teenagers, though equally applicable to adults, preparing for confirmation. Unlike many other courses, however, this course teaches fundamental concepts through Scripture so that confirmands understand the basis of their belief. Our Catechism asks and answers an important question:

Q. Where may we find what Christians believe about Christ?

A. What Christians believe about Christ is found in the Scriptures and summed up in the creeds.

Therefore, this course and reference book take the confirmands through the Scriptures and the creeds to help them find out more about Jesus.  In so doing, the course also covers the most important parts of the Catechism, the Episcopal Church's Outline of the Faith.

Like the Catechism, the course uses a series of questions and answers to draw understanding out of the confirmands, similar to the Socratic Method used in teaching. This reference book shows both the classroom questions and answers written out to provide a clear pathway to the end objective in each session.

The course and this reference book are both packed with material that allows the reader to move through numerous subtopics under each heading in a clear, logical manner. Most importantly, this course is the heartfelt compilation of a decade of teaching, and the numerous prayers that went along with that teaching.