The fifth of my ten-part series on a basic systematic theology deriving from the Nicene Creed.

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In previous articles I have set out some introductory ideas, cautions, contexts and sources. This article gets to the root statement of my theology and faith, using as a primary framework the Nicene Creed.

Why the Creed?

In many traditions, basic statements of faith have been formulated as creeds. These creeds have a basis in Scripture, tradition and reason, not always in easily definable and separable aspects. ‘A creed is a concise, formal, and authorised statement of important points of Christian doctrine.’ (ODCC, p. 43) The Nicene Creed (more accurately described as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, not to be confused with an earlier Nicene Creed which was shorter, and contained also anathemas directed against heresies) has been used (together with the Apostle’s Creed) as a baptismal and eucharistic statement of faith for much of the Christian world, East and West, and ‘has been widely accepted in modern times as a proposed basis for Christian unity.’ (ODCC, p. 1146) This is the statement of faith which I make each week; ‘the creed is suited to liturgy and may have largely developed in the liturgy of the church.’ (Leith, p. 32)

The Nicene Creed, with its multiple bases of authority, has been ‘widely accepted as an authoritative summary of the apostolic tradition in the third century.... It is interesting to note that these "rules of faith" or creeds, predate the final and official agreement regarding the canon of Christian scriptures.’ (Olson, p. 130) The Nicene Creed, like other creeds, is however not an explanation of faith, nor does it contain within itself a basis for interpretation. While the Nicene Creed has a basic framework and a basic unity, it leaves some questions unanswered, and allows for a multiplicity of consistent theological interpretations (which makes using the creed as a basis of Christian unity problematic--it is itself subject to different readings). What these creeds made explicit for their contemporaries left succeeding generations with interpretive problems. While the Nicene Creed, for instance, affirms both the divinity of Jesus Christ (being of one substance--homoousios--with the Father) and the humanity of Jesus Christ (became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made human), it does not explain how these two natures are to coexist. ‘There is wisdom in not trying further to define creedally this together, this union,’ Jones states, and this wisdom may likewise be applied to many issues in Christology. (Jones II, p. 17) ‘As Karl Rahner states--with the two-natures Christology of the Creed of Chalcedon in mind--the church’s creeds are not the final word for our theological reflection but points of departure.’ (Migliore, p. 144)

Creeds are statements of faith, but they are not explanations of faith. Nor do they pretend to give a complete picture. Creedal statements should not be removed from the historical context and community in which they arose and first had their being (any more than the historical developmental context of Scripture should be ignored). In Christology, the limitations of creedal statements is made very clear. ‘The living Jesus Christ is greater than all our confessions and creeds and surpasses all of our theological reflection on him.’ (Migliore, p. 144) It should be apparent, then, that his limitation makes faith all the more important, but that faith should be an open faith with recognition that the final word about Jesus Christ has not yet been spoken. ‘We are to trust and obey Christ in life and in death, but that is something very different from absolutising a particular doctrine of Christ, whether ancient or modern.’ (Migliore, p. 145) Through theological reflection, we begin to make sense of our faith, of ‘God’s interactive history with the world in incarnation, in historic redemption, and in ultimate redemption.’ (Jones II, p. 66) However, theological reflection and creedal affirmations will only take us part way, without out accepting certain things on faith, in a way that is self-involving and faithful.

However, as the basic statement of faith which I have proclaimed on a regular basis for at leas the majority of my adult life, this seems most appropriate for use in explaining where my faith is found.

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God,
the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made;
who for us and for our salvation
came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried;
and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
and he shall come again, with glory,
to judge both the quick and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Life,
who proceedeth from the Father and the Son;
who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified;
who spake by the Prophets.
And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic church;
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins;
and I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
- Book of Common Prayer

This is the form in which I have recited the creed. While I shall address the sections of the creed individually, there are a few brief observations which can be made at the outset.

First, the creed is, particularly in its layout in this form as found in the Book of Common Prayer, obviously trinitarian in formulation. The Trinity is not specifically formulated in the scripture, but rather ‘is the product of reflection of the church on the gospel message over many centuries.’ (Migliore, p. 59) It is a second-order reflection that developed out of an attempt to reconcile the mystery of God with the actual events in salvation history (scripture and tradition) with the continuing presence of God in the world. ‘...In reality the Scriptures do not explicitly present a doctrine of the "immanent" Trinity.’ (Rahner II, p. 22) This was one of the concerns that creeds addressed.

Second, the largest part of the creed involves the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, as the self-revelation both most accessible and most removed and confusing. On this point many heresies arose, that the creed was designed to combat.

Of course, a statement of faith such as the Nicene Creed can lead to any number of misinterpretations. It is all too easy to fall into modalistic or tritheistic ways of thinking. We must be careful here, not to break the one God into three separate beings. ‘The Western theology of the Trinity tended to begin with the divine unity of substance and move from there to explication of the threeness. The emphasis was placed on the one being of God behind and within the persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.’ (Olson, p. 309) However, here we must also be careful, not to look for the ‘God-behind-the-God’, as if there is something somehow more ‘real’ than God’s self-revelation to us. Our lens may be cracked and imperfect in our human condition, but what we are seeing is the real self-revelation of God.

The following several sections shall take a deeper look at the specific statements in the Creed.


References for this section:

Book of Common Prayer. 1979. Seabury Press: New York.

Cross, R.L. & Livingstone, E.A. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 1997. Oxford University Press: New York.

Jones, Joe. Manuscript for A Grammar of Christian Faith, Volumes I & II. 1999-2000. Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.

Leith, John. Creeds of the Churches. 1973. John Knox Press: Richmond, Virginia.

Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology. 1991. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Olson, Roger E. The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform. 1999. Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove, Illinois.

Rahner, Karl. The Trinity. 1997. Crossroad Publishing: New York.

Rahner, Karl. Edited by Geffrey B. Kelly. Karl Rahner. 1992. Augsburg Fortress Press: Minneapolis, Minnesota.