Growing up, it was common to hear that our only creed was "We have no creed but the Bible."Of course that was not true. We believed in all kinds of things that the Bible does not describe, the Trinity and the divine and human natures of Christ most prominently. These things come to us from the great tradition of the church, of which we were largely ignorant. In my opinion this is sad. In an attempt to be un-Catholic many evangelical protestants cut themselves off from the riches of the great tradition.
On the other hand, members of many liturgical churches could recite the creeds much easier than they could recite any biblical passage.This is also sad. in an effort to stay true to the traditions of the church, they have lost the most sacred and most fundamental of all traditions, the scripture itself!
I think many of us feel forced to make a choice. You can have either the traditions of the church, or you can have the Bible, but not both.
So where is the nice middle ground? Is it possible to be both anchored in scripture and to draw from the riches of the great tradition? Can we actually be evangelical and recite the Nicene Creed every week in church
What do you think?
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Very interesting post - I'd say that doctrinal statements are modern creeds that no one reads except for seminary students trying to figure out if a preacher or agency that says or does something interesting they've never heard before is a heretic, problem is most of those guys don't publish doctrinal statements that are detailed enough!
ReplyDeleteFortunately, my expereince with most young people is that there is not such an overboard concern with being "too Catholic" that we're actually trying to bathe the baby again! (or at least recognize we were a bit hasty in tossing the child out)...
Bern,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts.
I think modern doctrinal statements are and are not creeds. Doctrinal statements are usually very detailed and particular. Creeds, on the other hand, are generally broadly applicable and unifying. I would want to make some distinction. When I think of creeds, I think of historic statements of essential Christian belief. When I think of doctrinal statements I think of long, drawn out documents aimed at describing what is peculiar about a given church, group, or organization.
Maybe that is not how others use those terms?