Creedal Confessions
By Lori Wilson
Last Sunday, our family stood in a row and recited the Nicene Creed together with our local congregation, in unison with other congregations around the world, and indeed down through the centuries. I find particular delight in joining my voice with that of thousands of others, acknowledging my own infinitesimal part in something much, much bigger than myself.
However, I discovered something new this time, something I hadn’t [perhaps consciously] noticed before: the language of the Creed is so highly propositional. It lists the things which we, together, claim to intellectually affirm. And while I’m all for intellectual understanding & inquiry & application, I hope that my faith is something more. I don’t wish to take issue with the specifics of the creed; others have done so and will continue to do so “till the end of ages, Amen.” What I’d like to see, though, is language that reflects a wholehearted devotion to this God, to this path, to this way of being. A more holistic approach, perhaps. Tiny adaptations, really, but changes that would alter how we interpret our experience and engagement. So here, as a trial run, is a way in which I might like to recite the Creed someday:
The story of my people begins with one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
Our life is grounded in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We are sustained by the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We find life and love in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We participate in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look with hope for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Lori is a home-based mom of two, volunteer-at-large, and proud survivor of 10 Michigan winters. She and her husband own Compass Outreach Media (http://www.compass-om.com/). Exploring faith–from the paradoxic vantage points of a rich heritage and a break-the-molds future–helps her get out of bed in the morning. This post first appeared at her blog QueFascinante.
Tags: Lori Wilson, Nicene Creed
October 29th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Last weekend, I heard a few minutes of a very interesting interview with Jaroslav Pelikan about creeds (http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/pelikan/). He studied Christian creeds from all over the world and wrote a book about it called Credo: Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of Faith.
He highlighted The Maasai Creed as a good example of an updated creed that expresses the essentials of Christian faith within one’s cultural framework. He also pointed out that this creed actually spends some time acknowledging the life of Jesus – something that is missing in the Apostles’ and Nicene creed. Now, of couse, I realize I’ve been missing that as well.
The other thing he talked about was love being the basis of the church’s confession of faith and because creeds are trying to express this language of love, many traditions set it to music instead of speaking. He referred often to St. John Chrysostom.
“The Divine Liturgy According to Saint John Chrysostom prefaces the recitation of Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed with the admonition: “Let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! The Trinity, one in essence and undivided.” … If we do not love one another, we cannot love God; if we do not love God, we cannot make a true confession of faith and cannot enter into the inner spirit of Tradition.” – Credo
I certainly haven’t felt the language of love in our creeds or even sometimes in our confessions. The creed still feels like a litmus test to me and the confession often feels like a way to get our weekly stamp of grace, but this interview got me thinking about the possibilities.
So anyway, more fodder to add to the discussion of creeds.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:19 am
And how, pray tell, do you get to your belief that a complete devotion to God is the right way to live your life other than through an intellectual understanding? And that’s before you even touch on the idea that the Christian God is the correct one. The greatest Christian intellectuals have said that Christianity must be the correct religion because it is the first that put forward the primacy of human life, the idea that each human is God’s and we have no ownership, especially of others. (This is not strictly true, some Eastern philosophies espoused this too.) But they were using their intellect to validate their faith, it appears to me you wish to have faith first and intellect second.
I like Kim’s take though, viewing all the different Christian faiths and selecting from the best of them. If only people were less dogmatic and could take their religion more based on their intellectual view of good and bad, rather than take it from the autocratic, current leadership of their faith then we’d have less splits in the Church, less inter-faith conflict and more open discussions of what it means to be a Christian.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:56 am
Kim–thanks for sharing that link. The idea of presenting the creed in the context of love for God & one’s neighbors is a beautiful one. I think it could help us get at the broader meaning of the term “believe”–yes, the word means intellectual assent, but it also means to cling to, to fully commit oneself to, to throw oneself into.
“Keddaw”–I think this “freshening up” of my appreciation of belief is what I was after with the intellectual/faith comments. I think that the two influence each other in ways we often don’t acknowledge, and I think that appreciating and accepting that interaction will enrich each. It parallels, perhaps, emerging brain studies, which show much more give-and-take between emotion and logic than we previously understood. Our decisions are very seldom entirely intellectual, entirely faith-driven, entirely emotional. We really are integrated beings, and it seems like the more we acknowledge that and live into it, the more healthy and faithful human beings we will be.
October 30th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Lori, your comment “Our decisions are very seldom entirely intellectual, entirely faith-driven, entirely emotional.” is one I find accurate and insightful. The people I more commonly converse with would do well to take this onboard.
Sometimes, even when we think we are being logical what we are actually doing is reasoning backwards, trying to explain an emotional decision in an intellectual way.
However, I think that faith can occassionally lead to an emotional reaction, bypassing the intellect alltogether. That is why I initially commented regarding your wish to abandon (too strong, but that’s what it looked like at first) your intellect and give yourself over to faith. When that happens any meaningful, rational discussion is pointless and you suddenly think that any attack on any part of your faith/church is an attack on you personally. Something that is repeatedly shown on TV whenever they have one of the ‘new atheists’ on as a guest and a religious counterpoint is given by someone who often views the concept of atheism as an attack on his/her faith. Makes for good YouTube clips though
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June 20th, 2011 at 10:14 pm
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August 25th, 2011 at 8:29 am
I have a printer hooked up to the computer in my room. My daughter has a computer in her room and no printer. How can she do her homework on her computer, but have it print out on the printer in my room? Do I need the internet on one computer or both? Maybe not at all?.
September 23rd, 2011 at 10:45 pm
Sorry, had to vent. Anyway as much as I would love to believe that skepticism and critical thinking could become mainstream, I dont see a lot of promising evidence. My roommate is a huge John Edwards fan. She even went to a show taping once and is convinced he told her sister things he couldnt have known. Then she went to a $300/hour psychic and related the experience in a way that made me – for just a moment – wonder if it could be real. But when I listened to the tape of the session it was clear that the woman was wrong at least as much as she was right and that my roommate fed her most of the main facts while the rest were merely statistic probabilities. Shes listened to that tape many times over and is just as convinced of the psychics gifts as the day she stepped out of her office (or parlor, or wherever.)