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

by Jaroslav Pelikan

• ISBN13: 9780300109740
• ISBN10: 0300109741
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2005-12-12
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

One of the world's leading theologians offers important insights into the history and significance of Christian creeds. "A work of keen insight, great learning, and ecumenical generosity."Robert Louis Wilken,First Things "[Pelikan's] book is learned, indeed massively so, yet because of the lucidity of its prose it is accessible to the general reader."Luke Timothy Johnson,Washington Post Book World "Indispensable. . . . An achievement unlikely to be surpassed."Donald K.McKim,Theological Studies

Author Biography

JAROSLAV PELIKAN is Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and in 2004 received the John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Human Sciences. During his distinguished career he has received dozens of honors and awards, including 42 honorary degrees. He is the author of nearly 40 books and the editor of scores of others.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Abbreviations for Creeds and Confessions	xvii
Editions, Collections, and Reference Works	xlv
I. Definition of Creed and Confession	1	(122)
1. Continuity and Change in Creeds and Confessions	7	(28)
1.1. Continuity versus Change in the Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils	9	(9)
1.2. Patristic Thought on Continuity and Change	18	(4)
1.3. The Doctrine of the Trinity as Example of Continuity and of Change	22	(7)
1.4. The Person of Christ as Exemplar of Continuity and of Change	29	(2)
1.5. Change and the "Passing" of Creeds	31	(4)
2. The Creedal and Confessional Imperative	35	(29)
2.1. Believing and Confessing	37	(6)
2.2. Faith Defined	43	(10)
2.3. Confessing the Faith	53	(6)
2.4. The Content of the Confession	59	(5)
3. Confession of the Faith as Doctrine	64	(29)
3.1. The Teaching of the Church	66	(5)
3.2. "The Sum of Doctrine"	71	(7)
3.3. "Doctrines" and Doctrine	78	(10)
3.4. Doctrine as Dogma	88	(5)
4. Faith and Order	93	(30)
4.1. Apostolic Creed and Apostolic Ministry	100	(4)
4.2. Doctrines of Church Order East and West	104	(3)
4.3. Polity as Doctrine in the Reformed Confessions	107	(7)
4.4. Faith and Order in the Ecumenical Confessional Dialogue	114	(9)
II. The Genesis of Creeds and Confessions	123	(122)
5. Scripture, Tradition, and Creed	127	(31)
5.1. Creeds in Scripture	130	(6)
5.2. Scripture in the Creeds and Confessions	136	(3)
5.3. The Confessions and the Problem of the Canon	139	(3)
5.4. Confessional Rules of Biblical Hermeneutics	142	(16)
6. The Rule of Prayer and the Rule of Faith	158	(28)
6.1. The Lord's Prayer in the Confessions	161	(5)
6.2. Lex orandi lex credendi	166	(12)
6.3. The Place of Creed in Liturgy	178	(3)
6.4. Councils and Confessions on Worship	181	(5)
7. Formulas of Concord—And of Discord	186	(30)
7.1. Creedal Anathema and Polemics	189	(6)
7.2. Direct and Indirect Censures	195	(4)
7.3. Creeds and Confessions as Instruments of Concord	199	(6)
7.4. The Holy Spirit of Concord and the Sacrament of Concord: Two Ironic Case Histories	205	(11)
8. The Formation of Confessions and the Politics of Religion	216	(29)
8.1. Confessing as a Political Act	218	(7)
8.2. Civil Law on Adherence to Creeds	225	(4)
8.3. Confessions and the Formation of Politics	229	(12)
8.4. The Politics of Confessional Diversity	241	(4)
III. The Authority of Creeds and Confessions	245	(120)
9. Creedal Dogma as Church Law	249	(29)
9.1. Creedal Formulation as Enactment	252	(3)
9.2. Reception of Creeds, Councils, and Confessions as Ratification	255	(6)
9.3. The Enforcement of Orthodoxy	261	(3)
9.4. Confessional Subscription as Legal Compliance	264	(9)
9.5. Rules of Confessional Hermeneutics	273	(5)
10. Deeds, Not Creeds?	278	(28)
10.1. Doctrines of Christian Discipline in the Reformation Confessions	280	(8)
10.2. Heresy and/or Schism	288	(5)
10.3. Orthodoxy and Asceticism	293	(7)
10.4. Christian Love the Presupposition for Christian Confession	300	(4)
10.5. A Modern Secular Parallel	304	(2)
11. Transmission of Creeds and Confessions to Other Cultures	306	(30)
11.1. Cultus, Code, and Creed Across Cultural Boundaries	309	(9)
11.2. The Fate of Creeds in Missions and Migrations	318	(5)
11.3. Patterns of Creedal Indigenization	323	(7)
11.4. The Paradigm: Shema to Homoousios	330	(6)
12. The Orthodoxy of the Body of the Faithful	336	(29)
12.1. What Did the Laity Believe, Teach, and Confess?	340	(5)
12.2. Popular Religion, the Rule of Prayer, and Tradition	345	(8)
12.3. Conformity by the People of the Church to Civil and Creedal Law	353	(6)
12.4. Code, Creed, and Folk Culture	359	(6)
IV. The History of Creeds and Confessions	365	(152)
13. Rules of Faith in the Early Church	369	(28)
13.1. The Primal Creed	374	(3)
13.2. The Kerygma and Baptismal Symbols	377	(6)
13.3. The Deposit of the Faith, Evangelism, and Apologetics	383	(5)
13.4. Didache, Catechesis, and Formulas of Exorcism	388	(5)
13.5. Prescribed Forms of Praying and of Confessing	393	(4)
14. Affirmations of Faith in Eastern Orthodoxy	397	(30)
14.1. The Ambivalence of the Orthodox Church Toward "Symbolical Books"	399	(6)
14.2. The Liturgy as the Church's Preeminent Confession of the Faith	405	(8)
14.3. The Sacred Tradition of the Seven Ecumenical Councils	413	(6)
14.4. The Eastern Confessions as Equal and Opposite Reactions	419	(8)
15. Professions of Faith in the Medieval West	427	(30)
15.1. The Western Reception of the Catholic Creedal and Conciliar Tradition	428	(9)
15.2. The Confessionalization of Western Sacramental Doctrine	437	(7)
15.3. Scholastic Theology as Reasoning on the Basis of the Creed	444	(5)
15.4. The Rise of Ecclesiological Confessions in the Later Middle Ages	449	(8)
16. Confessions of Faith in the Reformation Era	457	(29)
16.1. The Proliferation of Confessions in the Age of the Reformation	460	(6)
16.2. Lutheran, Reformed, Roman Catholic, and Radical "Confessionalisms"	466	(6)
16.3. Catholic Substance and Protestant Principle in Reformation Confessions	472	(8)
16.4. From Reformation Confessions to Confessional Scholasticism	480	(6)
17. Statements of Faith in Modern Christianity	486	(51)
17.1. The Discomfort with Creed Caused by the Consciousness of Modernity	488	(9)
17.2. Old and New Contexts of Christian Confessing	497	(8)
17.3. The Flowering of Creedal and Confessional Scholarship in the Modern Era	505	(3)
17.4. In Light of Their History, Do Creeds Have a Future as Well as a Past?	508	(9)
V. Bibliography	517	(20)
VI. Indexes to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition	537	(50)
A. A Comparative Creedal Syndogmaticon, with Alphabetical Index	538	(37)
B. Ecclesiastical Index: Churches, Heresies, Creeds, Confessions, Councils	575	(12)
VII. Indexes to Credo
A. References to Scripture	587	(4)
B. References to Creeds and Confessions	591	(13)
C. Names of Persons	604