Creeds
Creeds, such as the Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, are summaries of the biblical narrative. Their beginnings are situated historically, yet they express the Christian faith for the whole church succinctly and accurately across the centuries. They provide the Christian community with tested and approved rules (regula fidei) for interpreting Scripture. (Confessions, such as the Westminster Confession or the Augsburg Confession, typically express the faith of a particular Christian community, such as Presbyterians or Lutherans, with some urgency that comes from the era in which they are composed.) Besides understanding the historical background of specific creeds and the significance of their contents, and in addition to articulating the theological claims being made in the creeds, the candidate should also be able to argue for the necessity of creeds in light of the fact that some Christian communities insist that all we need is Scripture.
Contents
Recommended Reading
Justin Holcomb. Know the Creeds and Councils . Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2014.
John Leith, Creeds of the Churches, Third Edition: A Reader in Christian Doctrine from the Bible to the Present . Louisville, KY: WJK Press, 1982.
Jaroslav Pelikan. Credo: Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.
Resources for Further Study
Henry Bettenson and Chris Maunder. Documents of the Christian Church . 4th edition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Michael Bird. What Christians Ought to Believe: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine through the Apostles’ Creed . Downers Grove, IL: Zondervan Academic, 2018.
Luke Timothy Johnson. The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters . New York: Doubleday Publishers, 2003.
J.N.D. Kelly. Early Christian Creeds . 3rd edition. London: Continuum Books, 1972.
Robert Jenson, Canon and Creed . Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church. Louisville, KY: WJK Press, 2010.
Christopher Seitz, ed., Nicene Christianity: The Future of a New Ecumenism . Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2002.
