HISTORY OF THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM. FIRST CHAPTER. OF CREEDS IN GENERAL. General Literature. WM. DUNLOP (Prof. of Church Hist. at Edinburgh, d. 1720): Account of all the Ends and Uses of Creeds and Confessions of Faith, a Defense of their Justice, Reasonableness, and Necessity as a Public Standard of Orthodozy, 2d ed. Lond. 1724. Preface to [Dunlop's] Collection of Confessions in the Church of Scotland, Edinb. 1719 sq. Vol. I. pp. v.-cxlv. J. CASPAR KÖCHER: Bibliotheca theologiæ symbolicæ et catechetica; itemque liturgicæ, Wolfenb. and Jena, 1751-69, 2 parts, 8vo. CHARLES BUTLER (R.C., d. 1832): An Historical and Literary Account of the Formularies, Confessions of Faith, or Symbolic Books of the Roman Catholic, Greek, and principal Protestant Churches. By the Author of the Hora Biblica, London, 1816 (pp. 200). CHARLES ANTHONY SWAINSON (Prof. at Cambridge and Canon of Chichester): The Creeds of the Church in their Relations to the Word of God and to the Conscience of the Individual Christian (Hulsean Lectures for 1857), Cambridge, 1858. FRANCIS CHAPONNIÈRE (University of Geneva): La Question des Confessions de Foi au sein du Protestantisme contemporain, Genève, 1867. (Pt. I. Examen des Faits. Pt. II. Discussion des Principes.) KARL LECHLER: Die Confessionen in ihrem Verhältniss zu Christus, Heilbronn, 1877. The introductions to the works on Symbolics by MARHEINEKE, WINEr, Möhler, Köllner, Guericke, MATTHES, HOFMANN, OEHLER, contain some account of symbols, as also the Prolegomena to the Collections of the Symbols of the various Churches by WALCH, MÜLLER, NIEMEYER, KIMMEL, etc., which will be noticed in their respective places below. § 1. NAME AND DEFINITION. A Creed,' or Rule of Faith,2 or Symbol,3 is a confession of faith for public use, or a form of words setting forth with authority certain arti From the beginning of the Apostles' Creed (Credo, I believe), to which the term is applied more particularly. Kavúv rñs níorews or rñs ảλŋGɛías, regula fidei, regula veritatis. These are the oldest terms used by the ante-Nicene fathers, Irenæus, Tertullian, etc. 'Lipßoλov, symbolum (from ovμßáλλev, to throw together, to compare), means a mark, badge, watchword, test. It was first used in a theological sense by Cyprian, A.D. 250 (Ep. 76, al. 69, ad Magnum, where it is said of the schismatic Novatianus, eodem SYMBOLO, quo et nos, baptizare), and then very generally since the fourth century. It was chiefly applied to the Apostles' Creed as the baptismal confession by which Christians could be known and distinguished from Jews, heathen, and heretics, in the sense of a military signal or watchword (tessera militaris); the Christians being regarded as soldiers of Christ fighting under the banner of the cross. Ambrose (d. 397) calls it 'cordis signaculum et nostræ militiæ sacramentum.' Rufinus, in his Expositio in Symb. Apost., uses the word likewise in the military sense, but gives it also the meaning collatio, contributio (confounding ouμßolov with ovμßodń), with reference to the legend of the origin of the creed from contributions of the twelve apostles (quod plures in unum conferunt; id enim fecerunt apostoli,' etc.). Others take the word in the sense of a compact, or agreement (so Suicer, Thes. eccl. II. 1084: 'Dicere possumus, symbolum non a militari, sed a contractuum tessera nomen id accepisse; est enim tessera pacti, quod in baptismo inimus cum Deo'). Still others derive it (with King, History of the Apostles' Creed, p. 8) from the signs of recognition among the heathen in their mysteries. Luther and cles of belief, which are regarded by the framers as necessary for salvation, or at least for the well-being of the Christian Church. A creed may cover the whole ground of Christian doctrine and prac tice, or contain only such points as are deemed fundamental and sufficient, or as have been disputed. It may be declarative, or interrogative in form. It may be brief and popular (as the Apostles' and the Nicene Creeds), for general use in catechetical instruction and at baptism; or more elaborate and theological, for ministers and teachers, as a standard of public doctrine (the symbolical books of the Reformation period). In the latter case a confession of faith is always the result of dogmatic controversy, and more or less directly or indirectly polemical against opposing error. Each symbol bears the impress of its age, and the historical situation out of which it arose. There is a development in the history of symbols. They assume a more definite shape with the progress of biblical and theological knowledge. They are mile-stones and finger-boards in the history of Christian doctrine. They embody the faith of generations, and the most valuable results of religious controversies. They still shape and regulate the theological thinking and public teaching of the churches of Christendom. They keep alive sectarian strifes and antagonisms, but they reveal also the underlying agreement, and foreshadow the possibility of future harmony. § 2. ORIGIN OF CREEDS. Faith, like all strong conviction, has a desire to utter itself before others-Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh;' 'I believe, therefore I confess' (Credo, ergo confiteor). There is also an express duty, when we are received into the membership of the Christian Church, and on every proper occasion, to profess the faith within us, to make ourselves known as followers of Christ, and to lead others to him by the influence of our testimony.' Melancthon first applied it to Protestant creeds. A distinction is made sometimes between Symbol and Symbolical Book, as also between symbola publica and symbola privata.' The term theologia symbolica is of more recent origin than the term libri symbolici. 1 Comp. Matt. x. 32, 33: Every one who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.' Rom. x. 9, 10: If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus [Jesus as Lord], and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath This is the origin of Christian symbols or creeds. They never precede faith, but presuppose it. They emanate from the inner life of the Church, independently of external occasion. There would have been creeds even if there had been no doctrinal controversies. In a certain sense it may be said that the Christian Church has never been without a creed (Ecclesia sine symbolis nulla). The baptismal formula and the words of institution of the Lord's Supper are creeds; these and the confession of Peter antedate even the birth of the Christian Church on the day of Pentecost. The Church is, indeed, not founded on symbols, but on Christ; not on any words of man, but on the word of God; yet it is founded on Christ as confessed by men, and a creed is man's answer to Christ's question, man's acceptance and interpretation of God's word. Hence it is after the memorable confession of Peter that Christ said, 'Thou art Rock, and upon this rock I shall build my Church,' as if to say, 'Thou art the Confessor of Christ, and on this Confession, as an immovable rock, I shall build my Church.' Where there is faith, there is also profession of faith. As 'faith without works is dead,' so be said also that faith without confession is dead. it may But this confession need not always be written, much less reduced to a logical formula. If a man can say from his heart, 'I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,' it is sufficient for his salvation (Acts xvi. 31). The word of God, apprehended by a living faith, which founded the Christian Church, was at first orally preached and transmitted by the apostles, then laid down in the New Testament Scriptures, as a pure and unerring record for all time to come. So the confession of faith, or the creed, was orally taught and transmitted to the catechumens, and professed by them at baptism, long before it was committed to writing. As long as the Disciplina arcani prevailed, the summary of the apostolic doctrine, called 'the rule of faith,' was kept confidential among Christians, and withheld even from the catechumens till the last stage of instruction; and hence we have only fragmentary raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto [so as to obtain] righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' Semisch, Das apostolische Glaubensbekenntniss (Berlin, 1872, p. 7): 'Bekenntnisse, an welchen sich das geistige Leben ganzer Völker auferbaut, welche langen Jahrhunderten die höchsten Ziele und bestimmenden Kräfte ihres Handelns vorzeichnen, sind nicht Noth- und Flickwerke des Augenblicks. . . es sind Thaten des Lebens, Pulsschläge der sich selbst bezeugenden Kirche.' |