Creeds should not be forced upon people nor used for leverage in power disputes. Yet they have the potential to do much good. Creeds are public statements of biblical doctrines through which Christians and churches affirm allegiance to God, identify false beliefs, and promote unity.
There are some things that creeds do not do. Generally, creeds and confessions of faith do not define Christian morality, give expression to human experiences, or describe the details of church order. Other documents do these.
On the other hand, creeds are useful. Their usefulness reaches beyond recitation during Sunday worship. Baptismal candidates memorised them, bishops indicted for heresy recited them, and church councils proclaimed them at the commencement or conclusion of their theological deliberations.[1] I suggest that there are seven core purposes of creeds. In this post I will outline the first three.
First, creeds tell a glorious story. They summarise the good news embodied by Jesus Christ and announced in his preaching about the kingdom of God and the call to repentance and faith in God.
The earliest creeds were not directed solely at opposing heretical teaching but “to state the wonderful truths of the new-found faith.”[2] Christians actively participate in the gospel narrative, a story that continues today and will go on, in one way or another, until the end of time. The past is crucial, but creeds also refer to aspects of the Christian story that take place in the present and the future.
Notice the verb tenses in the Nicene Creed and Apostles’ Creed. Both documents commence with the words, “I believe…” followed by a list of statements about God, creation, the incarnation of Christ, his death and resurrection, the reality of the Holy Spirit and the church, the expectation that humans will rise after death, and the hope of living forever.
Some of these events happened centuries ago, others are ongoing as you read this article, and still others will happen at undisclosed future times.[3] We live within the grand story.
Second, creeds pass on doctrines to future generations. In 2 Timothy 1:13f, Paul writes, “Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” Creeds function as standard summaries of “sound” Christian teaching, clarifying orthodox belief and enabling people of faith to practice soundness in doctrine (cf 1 Tim 1:10; Tit 1:9; 2:10).
As they tell the Christian story, creeds help maintain the church’s focus on the essentials of the good news. They help to reflect and preserve orthodox faith (Jude 3), expose doctrinal errors and half-truths, and establish the boundaries of faith. Yet a creed should have “the authority of the herald, not the magistrate.”[4]
Creeds strive for precision and brevity in expressing sometimes complex doctrinal formulations of biblical teaching that continue to make sense across the generations and the centuries. In their brevity, and especially in what they do not spell out, creeds remind us of the need to accommodate diversity of thought within the bounds of Christian orthodoxy.
Third, creeds construct a world. Carl Trueman argues that, for Christians, a properly credal faith offers a better way forward in a secular world than a faith that claims, “no creed but the Bible.” This is not to criticise the primacy of “biblical Christianity” but to note the importance of a theologically informed faith. Such faith has deep roots that provide sustenance and stability in difficult times.
Similarly, Luke Timothy Johnson suggests that the creed constructs a distinctly Christian world for those who affirm it. This world is fundamentally different from the world as constructed by religions such as Hinduism or Confucianism. Johnson argues, “When they say the creed together, Christians explicitly articulate their vision of the world and at the same time implicitly reject other visions of reality. They choose to live their lives in adherence to these claims about reality, and none other.”[5]
Creeds tell a glorious story, pass on doctrines to future generations, and construct a world. But that is not all they do. In my next post, I outline four more purposes of creeds that, together with these three, demonstrate their enduring relevance.
Dr Rod Benson is Research Support Officer at Moore Theological College, Sydney. He previously pastored four Baptist churches in Queensland and NSW, and served for 12 years as an ethicist with the Tinsley Institute at Morling College.
References
[1] Quoted in Wolfram Kinzig (ed.), Faith in Formulae: A Collection of Early Christian Creeds and Creed-Related Texts. Volume 1 (trans. Wolfram Kinzig & Christopher M. Hays; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
[2] J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds (London: Longmans, Green, 1950), 65.
[3] Stephen K. Ray & R. Dennis Walters, The Faith for Beginners: Understanding the Creeds (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015), 4.
[4] John Webster, “Confession and confessions,” Toronto Journal of Theology 18 (1), 2002, 177.
[5] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters (London: Darton, Longman & Todd,2003), 60.
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