Credo

Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition

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By Jaroslav Pelikan

Yale University Press

Copyright © 2003 Yale University
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-300-09388-9

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Contents

Preface.....................................................................................................xiAbbreviations for Creeds and Confessions....................................................................xviiEditions, Collections, and Reference Works..................................................................xlvI. Definition of Creed and Confession.......................................................................11. Continuity and Change in Creeds and Confessions..........................................................71.1. Continuity versus Change in the Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils.....................................91.2. Patristic Thought on Continuity and Change.............................................................181.3. The Doctrine of the Trinity as Example of Continuity and of Change.....................................221.4. The Person of Christ as Exemplar of Continuity and of Change...........................................291.5. Change and the "Passing" of Creeds.....................................................................312. The Creedal and Confessional Imperative..................................................................352.1. Believing and Confessing...............................................................................372.2. Faith Defined..........................................................................................432.3. Confessing the Faith...................................................................................532.4. The Content of the Confession..........................................................................593. Confession of the Faith as Doctrine......................................................................643.1. The Teaching of the Church.............................................................................663.2. "The Sum of Doctrine"..................................................................................713.3. "Doctrines" and Doctrine...............................................................................783.4. Doctrine as Dogma......................................................................................884. Faith and Order..........................................................................................934.1. Apostolic Creed and Apostolic Ministry.................................................................1004.2. Doctrines of Church Order East and West................................................................1044.3. Polity as Doctrine in the Reformed Confessions.........................................................1074.4. Faith and Order in the Ecumenical Confessional Dialogue................................................114II. The Genesis of Creeds and Confessions...................................................................1235. Scripture, Tradition, and Creed..........................................................................1275.1. Creeds in Scripture....................................................................................1305.2. Scripture in the Creeds and Confessions................................................................1365.3. The Confessions and the Problem of the Canon...........................................................1395.4. Confessional Rules of Biblical Hermeneutics............................................................1426. The Rule of Prayer and the Rule of Faith.................................................................1586.1. The Lord's Prayer in the Confessions...................................................................1616.2. Lex orandi lex credendi................................................................................1666.3. The Place of Creed in Liturgy..........................................................................1786.4. Councils and Confessions on Worship....................................................................1817. Formulas of Concord-And of Discord.......................................................................1867.1. Creedal Anathema and Polemics..........................................................................1897.2. Direct and Indirect Censures...........................................................................1957.3. Creeds and Confessions as Instruments of Concord.......................................................1997.4. The Holy Spirit of Concord and the Sacrament of Concord: Two Ironic Case Histories.....................2058. The Formation of Confessions and the Politics of Religion................................................2168.1. Confessing as a Political Act..........................................................................2188.2. Civil Law on Adherence to Creeds.......................................................................2258.3. Confessions and the Formation of Politics..............................................................2298.4. The Politics of Confessional Diversity.................................................................241III. The Authority of Creeds and Confessions................................................................2459. Creedal Dogma as Church Law..............................................................................2499.1. Creedal Formulation as Enactment.......................................................................2529.2. Reception of Creeds, Councils, and Confessions as Ratification.........................................2559.3. The Enforcement of Orthodoxy...........................................................................2619.4. Confessional Subscription as Legal Compliance..........................................................2649.5. Rules of Confessional Hermeneutics.....................................................................27310. Deeds, Not Creeds?......................................................................................27810.1. Doctrines of Christian Discipline in the Reformation Confessions......................................28010.2. Heresy and/or Schism..................................................................................28810.3. Orthodoxy and Asceticism..............................................................................29310.4. Christian Love the Presupposition for Christian Confession............................................30010.5. A Modern Secular Parallel.............................................................................30411. Transmission of Creeds and Confessions to Other Cultures................................................30611.1. Cultus, Code, and Creed Across Cultural Boundaries....................................................30911.2. The Fate of Creeds in Missions and Migrations.........................................................31811.3. Patterns of Creedal Indigenization....................................................................32311.4. The Paradigm: Shema to Homoousios.....................................................................33012. The Orthodoxy of the Body of the Faithful...............................................................33612.1. What Did the Laity Believe, Teach, and Confess?.......................................................34012.2. Popular Religion, the Rule of Prayer, and Tradition...................................................34512.3. Conformity by the People of the Church to Civil and Creedal Law.......................................35312.4. Code, Creed, and Folk Culture.........................................................................359IV. The History of Creeds and Confessions...................................................................36513. Rules of Faith in the Early Church......................................................................36913.1. The Primal Creed......................................................................................37413.2. The Kerygma and Baptismal Symbols.....................................................................37713.3. The Deposit of the Faith, Evangelism, and Apologetics.................................................38313.4. Didache, Catechesis, and Formulas of Exorcism.........................................................38813.5. Prescribed Forms of Praying and of Confessing.........................................................39314. Affirmations of Faith in Eastern Orthodoxy..............................................................39714.1. The Ambivalence of the Orthodox Church Toward "Symbolical Books"......................................39914.2. The Liturgy as the Church's Preeminent Confession of the Faith........................................40514.3. The Sacred Tradition of the Seven Ecumenical Councils.................................................41314.4. The Eastern Confessions as Equal and Opposite Reactions...............................................41915. Professions of Faith in the Medieval West...............................................................42715.1. The Western Reception of the Catholic Creedal and Conciliar Tradition.................................42815.2. The Confessionalization of Western Sacramental Doctrine...............................................43715.3. Scholastic Theology as Reasoning on the Basis of the Creed............................................44415.4. The Rise of Ecclesiological Confessions in the Later Middle Ages......................................44916. Confessions of Faith in the Reformation Era.............................................................45716.1. The Proliferation of Confessions in the Age of the Reformation........................................46016.2. Lutheran, Reformed, Roman Catholic, and Radical "Confessionalisms"....................................46616.3. Catholic Substance and Protestant Principle in Reformation Confessions................................47216.4. From Reformation Confessions to Confessional Scholasticism............................................48017. Statements of Faith in Modern Christianity..............................................................48617.1. The Discomfort with Creed Caused by the Consciousness of Modernity....................................48817.2. Old and New Contexts of Christian Confessing..........................................................49717.3. The Flowering of Creedal and Confessional Scholarship in the Modern Era...............................50517.4. In Light of Their History, Do Creeds Have a Future as Well as a Past?.................................508V. Bibliography.............................................................................................517VI. Indexes to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition...................................537A. A Comparative Creedal Syndogmaticon, with Alphabetical Index.............................................538B. Ecclesiastical Index: Churches, Heresies, Creeds, Confessions, Councils..................................575VII. Indexes to CredoA. References to Scripture..................................................................................587B. References to Creeds and Confessions.....................................................................591C. Names of Persons.........................................................................................604

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