Secular Catechisms
In the past, catechisms were written to rehearse the basic knowledge of a non-religious subject. Examples include numerous political catechisms published from the 18th to the 20th century in Europe as well as in North and South America. See also the Catechism of the History of Newfoundland (c1856), the Coal Catechism (1898), and A Catechism of the Steam Engine (1856).
Some literary works have also taken the form of a catechism. The 17th episode of James Joyce's novel Ulysses, known as "Ithaca", is written in the form of a catechism, as is Ted Hughes' poem Examination at the Womb Door, from the collection Crow. In Henry IV, Part 1: Act V, Scene I, Line 141 Falstaff refers to his monologue as a catechism, explaining his view of the virtue of honor.
Read more about this topic: Catechism
Famous quotes containing the word secular:
“but as an Eagle
His cloudless thunderbolted on thir heads.
So vertue givn for lost,
Deprest, and overthrown, as seemd,
Like that self-begottn bird
In the Arabian woods embost,
That no second knows nor third,
And lay ere while a Holocaust,
From out her ashie womb now teemd
Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most
When most unactive deemd,
And though her body die, her fame survives,
A secular bird ages of lives.”
—John Milton (16081674)