Creed

As we looked at last week, the essence of God is beyond all intellectual conception, and therefore God as an Object of study is impossible. But if we begin with God as Persons with whom we can relate through our own existential, ecstatic, eros (as he defines these terms in section 6) experience of God, then we can move forward.

The Creed is a profession of faith, not merely belief. “Belief” refers only to the cognitive dimension of faith, whereas “faith” encompasses the entire human response to God. Belief, however, is the first step into faith and forms the foundation of our common faith.  The Creed provides us with this foundation.

Johnson begins his discussion of the Creed with the Jewish Shema  (Hebrew for “Hear!”) as contained in Deuteronomy 6:4-5.  Johnson shows how this basic statement of faith is Communal, Exclusive, and Personal.

Over the next few centuries, the Church expanded and formalized these early statements in order to preserve the essential beliefs of the Church. In reading these early statements, hopefully, you will notice that the Nicene Council did not invent the Creed, but simply brought together existing statements of faith.