Using this website
This website was designed to give you easy and intuitive access to all the Catechism resources in our growing collection. By clicking here and there you may well be able to find what you're looking for and perhaps make a few delightful new discoveries along the way. However, in order to help you maximize the full potential of this website, a quick reference guide is found below.
You can watch an introductory video by clicking here.
Quick Reference Guide
Home page
The colourful ribbon across the top of the website is the main menu. Clicking on any one of these coloured tiles will take you to another main section of the website, with more information and options to explore.
If you ever want to get back to the home page, just click on our main logo.
Next to the logo is the general search box. You can enter any term(s) in this area and the search engine will run a general search on the titles and authors of resources. The content of any text-based pdf will also be searched. As you type words in the search box, suggestions will appear below it, based on the website's internal topic list. If one of those suggestions captures what you're looking for, try selecting it. It may give you more focussed search results.
History
The history section provides you with various pages describing the origin and authorship of the Heidelberg Catechism. Using the navigation pane on the left-hand side of the screen you can explore the information on these pages.
Also take a moment to look at the translation page which offers the text of the Catechism in many different languages, all in downloadable pdf files. The translations are identified by flags which also give you some impression of just how broadly this catechism is used throughout the world.
There is also a photo gallery which contains organized collections of digital images related to the Catechism. Pictures of the city of Heidelberg, including its main church, the Heiliggeistkirche, are just some of the highlights you'll enjoy viewing.
Lord's Days
This page provides you with the main text of the Catechism, Lord's Day by Lord's Day. You can go to a certain Lord's Day using the navigation pane on the left or by using the links toward the bottom of the screen which take you to the next or previous Lord's Day.
Under each Q&A there are lists of the prooftexts in footnotes. If you hover over any Scripture reference, a small pop-up window will appear with the text of that particular Scripture passage. If you click on the "More" link within the pop-up window, you will be taken to a Bible website will allows you to read the passage in its context and access further online Bible tools to enhance your study (e.g., concordance searches, basic Bible dictionaries, etc.)
A small, but powerful, part of the Lord's Days page is the sidebar which is located to the right of the main text of the Catechism. The sidebar provides you with three options: sermons, articles / speeches, and teaching outlines. By clicking on any one of this options you will receive a small list of resources which are specifically connected to the particular Lord's Day you are viewing. So, if you are looking at LD 7 and you click on sermons, you will receive a list of sermons specifically on LD 7. The same applies to articles and teaching outlines. If you want more options than are initially displayed, you can simply click "View more." Once you click the title of a resource the website will take you to a window from which you can download or view the resource in which you are interested.
One more feature of this page is the list of topics which appears just below the main heading of the Lord's Day. Those topic tags represent the central ideas or issues that are covered in that particular Lord's Day. If you want to quickly find out which other Lord's Days deal with the same topic, click on the topic and the website will provide you with a list of results. From there you can go off and explore the other, pertinent Lord's Days.
Topics
In addition to the topic tagging of the Catechism itself (mentioned above), many of the Catechism resources in our collection are also tagged by topic. This applies especially to the journal articles and multimedia resources. If you want to learn more about a certain topic, first find what you are looking for in the alphabetically arranged list in the nagivation pane on the left.
Once you've found the topic you want, simply click on it and the website will give you list of resources dealing with that topic. The list is organized by resource type (e.g., sermons, journal articles, etc) to help you quickly find the kind of resource you're looking for. If the initial list does not provide enough options you can always click on "View More" to receive a more extensive list.
Resources
The resources page gives you full access to all the resources in our collection. Since the collection is large, you will need to narrow things down to your specific interest. This can be done by using the filter options in the left-hand pane. You can restrict the collection to a certain resource type (e.g., sermons or teaching outlines). If that is not specific enough, you can further restrict the list to a certain author or a certain Lord's Day. For instance, by adding filters together you can find all the teaching outlines written by Rev. J. Visscher or all the articles written by Dr. Jelle Faber.
New to the Catechism?
This section contains a series of webpages which introduce someone to catechisms in general and the Heidelberg Catechism in particular. The navigation pane on the left lists the topics. For the newcomers, it is best to read these sections in order. Also, if you are familiar with the Catechism yourself, but you want to begin sharing it with others, you could consider pointing them to this part of the website as a helpful starting point.
Social Media
On virtually every page of the website, common social media icons appear such as: Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, as well as email. This enables you to share this website, or parts of it, with friends and contacts in your social media stream. We encourage you to make others aware of this website. In the first place, they may benefit from the resources available. Secondly, other people may know of excellent Catechism resources that can be added to our collection. If this is the case, the website will be enhanced for everyone.
Comment and Contribute
If you have comments about the website, either complimentary or critical, please let us know. Feedback will help to improve this online resource for everyone. At the very bottom of the website you'll find a link to our comments page.
If you have Catechism resources that can be uploaded, or if you know where, or to whom, we can go to find quality Catechism resources, please contact us via our contribute page. We always do our utmost to respect copyrights, and customizable permission messages are displayed for every resource that can be downloaded. We can't promise that we'll post everything, but if you let us know what you have, we can let you know if it fits well within our collection.
Also if your language is not represented on this website and you would like to see a user interface and resources appear in your language, contact us via the comments page. Perhaps something can be worked out.