Creed
CREED
A form of words in which the articles of faith are comprehended.
See CONFESSION. The most ancient form of creeds is that which goes under the name of the Apostles’ Creed (see below;) besides this, there are several other ancient forms and scattered remains of creeds to be met with in the primitive records of the church; as,
1. The form of apostolical doctrine collected by Origen.
2. A fragment of a creed preserved by Tertullian.
3. A remnant of a creed in the works of Cyprian.
4. A creed composed by Gregory Thaumaturgus for the use of his own church.
5. The creed of Lucian, the martyr.
6. The creed of the apostolical constitutions. Besides these scattered remains of the ancient creeds, there are extant some perfect forms, as those of Jerusalem, Cesarea, Antioch, &c.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
creed
(Latin: credere, to believe)
A form of belief. Applied to the religious sphere, the term has two meanings. First, it signifies the entire body of beliefs held by the adherents of a given religion; thus it is synonymous with doctrine or objective faith, as when we refer to the “conflict, of creeds.” Second, in a more restricted sense, it denotes an authoritative summary of the principal articles of faith professed by a body of believers, as in the phrase “creeds of Christendom,” i.e., the symbols or formulations of the Christian faith as drawn up and accepted by the various Christian churches. Practically, a creed is a distinctive mark of those who adhere to a specific religious belief. Hence a “profession of faith” is required in connection with the administration of Baptism, and on certain other occasions. The principal creeds publicly used in the Catholic Church are the Apostles ‘, Athanasian , and Nicene Creeds. Protestant formularies of faith are commonly designated “confessions of faith”. see also: Protestant Creeds .
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Creed
(Latin credo, I believe).
In general, a form of belief. The work, however, as applied to religious belief has received a variety of meanings, two of which are specially important. (1) It signifies the entire body of beliefs held by the adherents of a given religion; and in this sense it is equivalent doctrine or to faith where the latter is used in its objective meaning. Such is its signification in expressions like “the conflict of creeds”, “charitable works irrespective of creed”, “the ethics of conformity of creed”, etc. (2) In a somewhat narrower sense, a creed is a summary of the principal articles of faith professed by church or community of believers. Thus by the “creeds of Christendom” are understood those formulations of the Christian faith which at various times have been drawn up and accepted by one or the other of the Christian churches. The Latins designate the creed in this sense by the name symbolum which means either a sign (symbolon) or a collection (symbole). A creed, then, would be the distinctive mark of those who hold a given belief, or a formula made up of the principal articles of that belief. A “profession of faith” is enjoined by the Church on special occasions, as at the consecration of a bishop; while the phrase “confession of faith” is commonly applied to Protestant formularies, such as the “Augsburg Confession”, the “Confession of Basle”, etc. It should be noted, however, that the role of Faith is not identical with creed, but, in its formal signification, means the norm or standard by which one ascertains what doctrines are to be believed.
The principal creeds of the Catholic Church, The Apostles’, Athanasian, and the Nicene, are treated in special articles which enter into the historical details and the content of each. The liturgical use of the Creed is also explained in a separate article. For the present purpose it is chiefly important to indicate the function of the creed in the life of religion and especially in the work of the Catholic Church. That the teachings of Christianity were to be cast in some definite form is evidently implied in the commission given the Apostles (Matthew 28:19-20). Since they were to teach all nations to observe whatsoever Christ had commanded, and since this teaching was to carry the weight of authority, not merely of opinion, it was necessary to formulate at last the essential doctrines. Such formulation was all the more needful because Christianity was destined for all men and for all ages. To preserve unity of belief itself was quite clearly stated. The creed, therefore, is fundamentally an authoritative declaration of the truths that are to be believed.
The Church, moreover, was organized as a visible society (see CHURCH). Its members were called on not only to hold fast the teaching they had received, but also to express their beliefs. As St. Paul says: “With her heart we believe unto justice; but, with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation” (Romans x, 10). Nor is the Apostle content with vague or indefinite statements; he insists that his followers shall “hold the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith” (II Tim. i, 13), “embracing that faithful word which is according to doctrine, that he (the bishop) may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to convince the gainsayers (Titus i, 9). Hence we can understand that a profession of faith was required of those who were to be baptized, as in the case of the eunuch (Acts 8:37); in fact the baptismal formula prescribed by Christ himself is an expression of faith in the Blessed Trinity. Apart then from the question regarding the composition of the Apostles’ Creed, it is clear that from the beginning, and even before the New Testament had been written, some doctrinal formula, however concise, would have been employed both to secure uniformity in teaching and to place beyond doubt the belief of those who were admitted into the Church.
Along with the diffusion of Christianity there sprang up in the course of time various heretical views regarding the doctrines of faith. It thus became necessary to define the truth of revelation more clearly. The creed, in consequence, underwent modification, not by the introduction of new doctrines, but by the expression of the traditional belief in terms that left no room for error or misunderstanding. In this way the “Filioque” was added to the Nicene and the Tridentine Profession forth in full and definite statements the Catholic Faith on those points especially which the Reformers of the sixteenth century had assailed. At other times the circumstances required that special formulas should be drawn up in order to have the teaching of the Church explicitly stated and accepted; such was the profession of faith prescribed For the Greeks by Gregory XIII and that which Urban VIII and Benedict XIV prescribed for the Orientals(cf. Denzinger, Enchiridion). The creed therefore, is to be regarded not as a lifeless formula, but rather as a manifestation of the Church’s vitality. As these formulas preserve intact the faith once delivered to the saints, they are also an effectual means of warding off the incessant attacks of error.
On the other hand it should be remarked that the authoritative promulgation of a creed and its acceptance imply no infringement of the rights of reason. The mind tents naturally to express itself and especially to utter its thought in the form of language. Such expression, again, results in greater clearness and a firmer possession of the mental content. Whoever, then, really believes in the truths of Christianity cannot consistently object to such manifestation of his belief as the use of the creed implies It is also obviously illogical to condemn this use on the ground that is makes religion simply an affair of repeating or subscribing empty formulas. The Church insists that the internal belief is the essential element, but this must find its outward expression. While the duty of believing rests on each individual, there are further obligations resulting from the social organization of the Church. Not only is each member obliged to refrain from what would weaken the faith of his fellow-believers, he is also bound, so far as he is able, to uphold and quicken their belief, The profession of his faith as set forth in the creed is at once an object-lesson in loyalty and a means of strengthening the bonds which unite the followers of Christ in “one Lord, one faith, one baptism”.
Such motives are plainly of no avail where the selection of his beliefs is left to the individual. He may, of course, adopt a series of articles or propositions and call it a creed; but it remains his private possession, and any attempt on this part to demonstrate its correctness can only result in disagreement. But the attempt itself would be inconsistent, since he must concede to every one else the same right in the matter of framing a creed. The final consequence must be, therefore, that faith is reduced to the level of views, opinions, or theories such as are entertained on purely scientific matters. Hence it is not easy to explain, on the basis of consistence, the action of the Protestant Reformers. Had the principle of private judgment been fully and strictly carried out, the formulation of creeds would have been unnecessary and, logically, impossible. The subsequent course of events has shown how little was to be accomplished by confession of faith, once the essential element of authority was rejected, From the inevitable multiplication of creeds has developed, in large measure, that demand for a “creedless Gospel” which contrasts so strongly with the claim that the Bible is the sole rule and the only source of faith. (See DOGMA, FAITH, PROTESTANTISM.)
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DENZINGER, Enchiridion (Freiburg, 1908); MOHLER, Symbolism (NEW YORK, 1984); DUNLOP, Account of All the Ends and Uses of Creeds and Confessions of Faith, etc. (London, 1724); BUTLER, An Historical and Literary Account of the Formularies, etc., (London, 1816); SCHAFF, The History of the Creeds of Christendom (London, 1878); GRANDMAISON, L’Estasticite des formules de Foi in Etudes 1898; CALKINS, Creeds and Tests of Church Membership in Andover Review (1890), 13; STERRETT, the Ethics of Creed Conformity (1890), ibid.
GEORGE J. LUCAS Transcribed by Suzanne Plaisted In Memory of Reese Jackson
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IVCopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Creed
(credere, to believe), a form of words in which articles of belief are comprehended; not necessarily a complete summary of the faith, but a statement respecting some points which are fundamental, and have been- disputed. SEE CONFESSION. For instance, while the doctrine of the atonement must be reckoned a fundamental part of the apostle’s doctrine, it is yet not in the Apostles’ Creed as a doctrine. Hence some infer that it was not believed, though the more obvious inference would be that it was not disputed.
1. In the early Eastern Church a summary of this sort was called , the lesson, because the catechumens were required to learn it. Sometimes, from the nature of its contents, or the uses to which it was applied, it was called , symbolum, a mark, token, or badge, as a seal-ring the proof of orthodoxy; sometimes , regula fidei, the rule, or the rule of faith; , the faith; or , the determination or exposition of the faith. The word (watchword, token), whether borrowed, as some of the fathers assert, from military language, or, as others assert, from the signs of recognition in use among the heathen in their mysteries, denotes a test and a shibboleth whereby each church may know its own, and is circulated through its members as a warning against the snares of enemies or false brethren (Hinds, Early Christianity, pt. 3, ch. 6).
Many confessions of faith are to be found, nearly corresponding with the creeds which we now possess, in the writings of the earliest fathers. For example, in Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, the Apostolic Constitutions (cited in Wall, On Infant Baptism, II, pt. 2, ch. 9, 10, p. 439, and in Bingham, bk. 10, ch. 4). We have also creeds of several different churches preserved to us, agreeing in substance, but slightly varying in form; as, the creeds of Jerusalem, Caesarea, Alexandria, Antioch, Aquileia, etc. (see them in Bingham, 1. c.). But until the time of the Council of Nice there does not appear to have been any one particular creed which prevailed universally, in exactly the same words, and commended by the same universal authority (Browne, On the Thirty-nine Articles, art. 8). As for the authority of creeds, the Protestant doctrine is that the creed may be norma doctrine (standard of doctrine), but that the Bible alone is norma fidei (rule of faith). So Dr. H. B. Smith (Discourse on Christian Union), speaking of the Westminster Confession, says, We receive the Confession, not as a rule of faith and life, for this only the Scriptures can be, but as containing our system of faith, in contrast with Arminianism and Pelagianism, as well as Socinianism and Romanism. We accept it in its legitimate historical sense, as understood and interpreted through the history of our church… and as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.’ My liberty here is not to be judged of another man’s conscience. Any other view not only puts, for all practical purposes, the Confession above the Scriptures, but also puts somebody’s theological system above the Confession. The experience of the Church has attested the value of creeds as standards of doctrine. Churches without creeds (e.g. the Society of Friends) have been torn by doctrinal dissensions quite as thoroughly as those which have adopted confessions of faith. SEE CONFESSIONS.
2. The first object of creeds was to distinguish the Church from the world, from Jews and pagans. In this view, the earliest formularies of this kind contained simply the leading doctrines and facts of the Christian religion; and it was only necessary that they should be generally and briefly expressed; the difference lying not in the exposition, but in the credenda, the things to be believed themselves. The second object was to distinguish between persons professing the Christian faith; between those who retained the apostolic doctrine, and those who, through unauthorized speculations, had departed from it, and fallen into different errors on important points. Creeds of this kind, therefore, contained the fundamental truths, with brief expositions, declaratory of the sense in which they were to be understood, in order to the full reception of the doctrine of Scripture respecting them. The Apostles’ Creed is of the first class, the Nicene and Athinasian of the second; the Nicene, especially, having the most solemn sanction of the congregated churches of Christ. Other creeds and confessions have been at later periods adopted by different churches, orthodox in fundamentals, but differing greatly on some questions of comparatively lighter moment. SEE CONFESSIONS.
These were so extended, in consequence, as to embrace not only the principal doctrines of the faith, but the peculiar views of the churches which agreed upon them, on those subjects of controversy by which the age was distinguished. All these are unquestionably tests, and were designed as such, and all were necessary; the first class to secure the renunciation of Judaism and paganism’; the second class to exclude those from the Church who had made shipwreck of the faith; the third class to promote peace, by obliging Christians differing considerably in non-essentials to form themselves into distinct religious societies (R. Watson, Works, 7:498). As to the use of creeds as confessions of faith in the Christian Church, see Sartorius, Nothwendigkeit der kirchlichen Glaubensbekenntnisse (Stuttg. 1845); Miller, On Creeds (Presb. Board); Bonar, Scottish Catechisms (1866), Preface; CONFESSIONS.
For the three ancient creeds, the Apostles’, the Athanasian, and the Nicene, see below; and also Harvey, History and Theology of the Three Creeds; Guericke, Christl. Symbolik, 12; Coleman, Ancient Christianity, ch. xiv, 4; Walch, Biblioth. Symb. Vetus.; New Englander, July, 1865, art. xi; Amer. Church Rev. July, 1866, art. iv; Hare, Contest with Rome, p. 318; Burnet, On the Articles (Introduction); Shedd, Hist. of Doctrines, bk. vii; Bingham, Orig. Eccl. Luke 10, ch. 3; Vossius, De Tribus Symbolis, Opera, t. 6; the authorities cited under each head below; and the article SYMBOLICS.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Creed (2)
The following is the Greek text of the Apostles’ Creed: , , .. () , , , , , , , , , , , , ‘/ , . , , , , , . .
Dr. Schaff, in his Creeds of Christendom (N.Y. 1877, 3 volumes), which is the latest, and in many respects the most complete, treatise on ecclesiastical symbolics, arranges the Apostles’ Creed as in pages 162, 163.
Dr. Heurtley, in his valuable collection of creeds of the Western Church, which has been supplemented by two “University Programmes” by Dr. C.J. Caspari, professor of theology at the Norwegian University, published at Christiana in 1866 and 1869, traces the growth of the creed (as far as it can be traced) through Tertullian and Cyprian; then we must take a leap from Novatian (A.D. 250) to Rufinus, bishop of Aquileia (A.D, $90), the intermediate space of one hundred and forty years affording only one stepping-stone, furnished by the notes of the belief of Marcellus of Ancyra, which he delivered on his departure from Rome. The date of this is A.D. 341. We might have expected Marcellus to exhibit his belief in the words of the creed of Niceea; the fact that he used another symbol is interesting for more reasons than one. It comes to us in Greek, and with the assurance that he had received it from the Scriptures, and been taught it by his forefathers in the Lord; by which he must have meant that he regarded it as in entire agreement with the Scriptures. The creed of Ancyra, then, must in substance have accorded nearly with the creed of Rome as we learn it from Rufinus, differing from it only in the following points, viz.: it omits the name Father in the first article; it reads “born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary;” and at the end there is added the clause eternal life.” The annexed table (taken from Smith’s Dict. of Christ. Biog. s.v.) shows the principal forms of the Apostles’ Creed in Latin, the variations being printed in italics.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Creed
CREED (or Credo [AS. creda], taken from the first word of the Latin confession of faith = Greek symbol [symbolon, symbolum]).An ecclesiastical (non-Biblical) term, signifying the faith objectively and as explicitly declared, the articles of Christian belief drawn up in systematic and authoritative form. The Creeds denote the three great historical Confessions of the early Churchthe Apostles, the Nicene or Constantinopolitan (325, 381 a.d.), and the Athanasian (of Latin origin, 6th century); the Creed commonly means the Apostles Creed alone. This last can be traced, in its simplest form, to the 2nd century; see Lumbys Hist. of the Creeds, or Swetes Apostles Creed. Shaped in their developed form by doctrinal controversy and Conciliar definition, the Creeds owe their origin to the necessities of worship and the instinct of public confession in the Church, felt at baptism to begin with. Christian believers formed the habit, when they met, of reciting their common faith, and this recitation assumed a fixed rhythmical form; so that the creed is akin to the hymn and the doxology. Its beginnings are visible in the NTsee Mat 16:16; Mat 28:19, Rom 10:9-10, 1Co 8:6; 1Co 12:3 (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), Eph 4:4-6, 1Ti 3:16, 1Jn 4:2; and further back, for the OT and the Synagogue, in the Shema of Deu 6:4.
G. G. Findlay.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Creed
See Decrees; Law, Of Moses; Ecclesiasticism; Tradition
Decrees; Law, Of Moses; Ecclesiasticism; Tradition