Creed
A
creed is a statement of
belief—usually
religious belief—or
faith.The word derives from the Latin
credo for
I believe.
Christian creeds
Christianity, affirming that God has been made manifest in the human being Jesus Christ, has formulated a number of statements of faith that seek to put its doctrine in a nutshell.
In this sense, perhaps the earliest statement of Christian faith is the slogan affirming that Jesus is LORD, which appears in St Paul's Epistle to the Romans 10:9. The meaning and importance of this slogan comes from its affirmation that Jesus Christ is the god Yahweh of Judaism incarnate, a doctrine thought impossible and indeed blasphemy by the rest of the Jewish community.
As Christianity wrestled with the implications of this statement, its developing theology required more complex formulations. It is likely that the earliest creed of Christianity that deserves the title in full is the Apostles Creed. Christian mythology attributes this creed to all of the twelve Apostles as a joint composition, and assigns one phrase of the creed to each Apostle. This attribution is unlikely, but the creed itself is quite old; it seems to have developed from a catechism used in the baptism of adults, and in that form can be traced as far back as the second century. The Apostles Creed seems to have been formulated to resist Docetism and similar ideas associated with Gnosticism; it emphasizes the birth, physical death, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Nicene Creed clearly derives from the Apostles Creed, and equally obviously represents an elaboration of its basic themes. The most salient additions to this creed are much more elaborate statements concerning Christology and the Trinity. These reflect the concerns of the First Council of Nicaea in 325 A. D., and have their chief purpose the rejection of Arianism, which the church adjudged a heresy. In the Roman Catholic liturgy the Nicene Creed is repeated during each Mass.
Other notable creeds include the:
Of the above list, Christians today probably use the Nicene Creed most widely, followed by the Apostles Creed.
Compare the
Thirty-Nine Articles.
Islamic creeds
The most basic attempt to put the religion of Islam in a brief statement of doctrine is the
shahada, the proclamation that there is no
god but
Allah, and
Muhammad is His
prophet.
More detailed credal declarations of Islamic
dogma constitute
aqidah.
Scientific Viewpoint
Freethinkers consider all creeds—unless they are supported by the
scientific method—to be unproved suppositions and
epistemologically invalid. They also point to the
inconsistent revelations underlying different creeds as evidence against the validity of any religious creed.
Further Reading
\n* Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition. Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan and Valerie Hotchkiss. Published by Yale University Press in 2003. [1]
\n----\nThere is also a rock band called
Creed, best known for their 1999 album
Human Clay. The
fundamentalist Christian upbringing of the group's lead singer and the symbolism of the band's lyrics have led the band to be referred to as a
Christian rock band in disguise, a title politely, and repeatedly, declined by the band themselves.
Category:Christianity\nCategory:Islam
