Michael's Theological Musings

Welcome back! Up to this point in our study of the Nicene Creed we've reviewed a little Church history and we've touched on what it means in a liturgical context when we say we believe something. Now it's time to look into what it is we say we agree with as true when we recite the creed. Right off we make a bold statement: We believe in one God,     the Father, the Almighty,     maker of heaven and earth,     of all that is, seen and unseen. This sentence says a lot so we'll take some time to unpack it.  The creed opens with stating we believe in one God. With this opening we state that as Christians we are  monotheistic , that is, we say we believe in one all powerful God. In fact, there can be only one actual "all powerful" being, else we run the risk of running into what might be called a  paradox of competing omnipotence  (overly simplified, if you have two beings that can do anything then can one ...

Welcome back! Now it's time for us to start working our way through the Nicene Creed . Recall that a creed is a statement of accepted beliefs and we see this in the structure of the Nicene Creed. Notice that over and over we make a statement about something we believe: We believe in one God... We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ... We believe in the Holy Spirit... We believe in one holy catholic and  apostolic Church...  Let's take a moment and think about the first two words of the creed, "We believe". We If you read various sources you will find some presentations of the Nicene Creed with "I believe" in place of the "We believe" in our reading. Why is this? Well, there actually is a technical reason for the two different presentations. The original statement of the Nicene Creed was written in Greek and actually used the Greek phrase for "We believe" (" pisteuomen" or " πιστεύομεν" if you want to get fancy). When it ...

 Welcome back! As we start our conversation about what some call the  Nicene Creed , I think it is important we cover a few important terms and concepts. Too often in religious discussions we just use terms thinking everyone knows what we are talking about and that they agree with what we think we're talking about. So, let's investigate a little and develop a common understanding of what it is we'll be discussing. In the future I hope to go into detail on the following topics, but for now we'll just try to develop a functioning vocabulary for the immediate future by working through a few questions: What is a creed? The Nicene Creed is a creed (obviously) ,  so what does that mean? Well, the word  creed  comes from the Latin word  credo  which means  I believe . So when we talk about creeds we are talking about some type of statement of beliefs. There is more to this but let's keep it simple for now. OK, what is a Nicene? Throughout Church History,...

Hello and welcome to my blog. I know most sites start with some type of biographical sketch of the author. Quick and easy, but I hate talking about myself so I don't think I will go that route. As this is a site about theology, I will introduce myself gradually through my posts. I know, I know... for Biblical or theological sites people want to read a short biographical sketch and then a detailed doctrinal statement to see if the author is worthy of their time, but where's the fun in that? Often in seminary an ongoing assignment throughout your theology classes is to take the information you learn and write your own statement of beliefs. I like that idea, so my first few posts will be talking about Christian theological beliefs, starting with what is usually considered the "common denominator" statement shared by most Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, and Catholics, the  Nicene Creed . (Note: If you want to read it and click the link you will see three versions of t...