Why Creeds and Confessions are Less Important (than Scripture) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Hermeneutics of creeds and confessions: The question of continuity and change
STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal, 2015
Modern culture has not really rendered creeds and confessions untrue; far less has it rendered them unbiblical. But it has rendered them implausible and distasteful. They are implausible because they are built on old-fashioned notions of truth and language. They make the claim that a linguistic formulation of a state of affairs can have a binding authority beyond the mere text on the page that creeds actually refer to something and that that something has significance for all of humanity.
This paper looks at the historic use and importance of creeds and confessions. It serves as a call to return to confessionalism, in an age where the only heresy is defining what you believe.
Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds
In 1876, this three volume collection of cross-denominational creeds was deemed by its publisher a "symbolical library" well worth visiting. In Volume I, Schaff introduces the creeds by providing general information regarding their origin, value, authority, and classification. First, Schaff presents the Ecumenical Creeds, which contain the most basic doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. These fundamental creeds are the Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Creed of Chalcedon, and the Athanasian Creed. Next, Schaff considers the Greek and Roman Creeds, which differ significantly from Protestantism and from each other. Schaff then explores the Evangelical Protestant Creeds, which emerged around the time of the Reformation and are divided into two camps, Reformed and Lutheran. Schaff concludes by giving some attention to the Creeds of Modern Evangelical Denominations. Through Creeds of Christendom, Schaff aims to bring understanding to those who adhere to different creeds. Schaff wisely reminds us that despite varying Christian denominations, Christ always remains at the center of the creeds. Emmalon Davis CCEL Staff Writer
Confessions XI & XII: How God made the Heaven and the Earth: Embracing Knowledge and Ignorance. Book X is the sine qua non of the advance of the soul in its itinerarium towards the peace the Confesssions sought from the beginning and attains in the Sabbath rest of Genesis at the end of Book XIII. The point of the search, which is Book X, was to not to find what is looked for in the way the quest established its elements, but rather, travelling through, and thus extending, his knowledge of his unplumbable mysterious memory or mind, and how it contains and does not contain God, thus how God and the self are known and not known, he overthrows and transcends the terms of the search, and in Book XI sets up a new structure which appreciates the need for and joys of ignorance. It belongs to meditation on Scripture. Books VII, X, and XI conclude with Jesus Christ, both God and human, who, as human, is mediator. Scripture is mediator, addressed to the human foris (outside) and recognizing revelation and understanding it require that a middle be found between the divine immutable eternity and the changing human mind. Thus mediation between the superior and the inferior is the centre of Book XI. This comes out strongly in its conclusion at Conf. 11.29.38 (pp. 243-44): “‘Your right hand upheld me’ (Ps. 17: 36; 62: 9) in my Lord, the Son of man who is mediator between you the One and us the many mediatore filio hominis inter te unum et nos multos, who live in a multiplicity of distractions by many things in multis per multa; so ‘I might apprehend him in whom also I am apprehended’ ut per eum adprehendam, in quo et adprehensus sum (Phil. 3: 12–14), [which takes us back to knowing as we are known] and leaving behind the old days I might be gathered to follow the One, ‘forgetting the past’ and moving not towards those future things which are transitory but to ‘the things which are before’ me, not stretched out in distraction but extended in reach, not by being pulled apart but by concentration. et a veteribus diebus colligar sequens unum, praeterita oblitus, non in ea quae futura et transitura sunt, sed in ea quae ante sunt non distentus, sed extentus, non secundum distentionem, sed secundum intentionem.” The aim comes out again in the next paragraph. Conf. 11.30.40 (p. 244): “Then shall I find stability and solidity in you, in your truth which imparts form to me. Et stabo atque solidabor in te, in forma mea, veritate tua.” Knowledge of God and the human is always in the interplay between them. In this the difference and unity of eternity and time is privileged. That difference and unity become the means of understanding how God can know what we say to him and how we can know what he says to us. Moving to the superiora as Scripture in Genesis occurs in Book XI where the problems of the way up and the way down are both raised and dealt with together. First comes the way down. Why does what is in time address the eternal ... Scripture is a blow, a knock, from pulsare, to which we respond by knocking to demand that the mystery be opened. It is light from outside. Conf.12.1.1 (p. 246): “my heart is much exercised under the impact made by the words of your holy scripture. pulsatum verbis sanctae scripturae tuae … it takes longer to state a request than to have it granted, and the hand which knocks has more work to do than the hand which receives operosior est manus pulsans quam sumens. We hold on to the promise, which none can make null and void. ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ (Rom. 8: 31). ‘Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you. pulsate, et aperietur vobis For everyone who asks receives and the door is opened to the one who knocks’ pulsanti aperietur (Matt. 7: 7–8).”
JEBS, 2022
This article is about what creed as such was taken to be in early Christianity. It was believed to be what Romans 9:28 terms as verbum breviatum [Dei]. As a summary of Scripture and Christian faith, it rested on the apostolic authority. Yet, in time, there came to be many different 'summaries of Scripture' and, consequently, a need for certain hermeneutical criteria became evident. Various problems which became apparent with the proliferation of different creeds contributed to the reasons why confessing creed(s) was later discontinued altogether in some churches. The aim of this article is to revive the early Christian perception of creeds and encourage the use of the universally accepted ancient creeds (i.e. the Apostles' Creed and the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) in the worship services of those churches which for one or another reason no longer confess them.
Confessing the Faith: Reasoning from the Nicene Creed
The Creed is the principal pattern for the Christian apprenticeship of signs. To say the Creed is to rehearse and trace out the shape of Christian reasoning in the interpretation of God’s signs. It is also a witness to the world in which Christians become such signs for others to interpret. The Creed sets criteria for reasoning about, and patterns for describing, the one God whom Christians worship. Such description is, again, strange and unlike other forms of description. To repeat: its strangeness resides in its Trinitarian and prayerful character. It is worth considering this double strangeness in some detail, with the help of two contemporary theologians: Nicholas Lash and Rowan Williams.
Christian Confession of Faith, Then and Now
SIAP: Jurnal Teologi dan Pendidikan Kristen, 2021
Confession of faith is part of the tradition in the ecclesial life of believers. We now know The Apostle Creeds which are predominately used in Protestant Church in Indonesia has gone through long stories and journey until it reaches what we have now in Indonesian language. Confession of faith is slightly different because they were made in the different times and different challenges compared with Apostle Creed. This writing will explore the foundational understanding of why confession of faith is necessary in the time of reformation only-the reason will be explained later. How it was and how it is now in the life of believers? We will see the biblical basis, and how it influenced the formulation of the Confession of Faith. Finally we will see the ever present relevance for all of us now.