On Belief And Creeds

Posted on Jan 20, 2010 - 04:27 PM

Whatever else the term “Progressive Christian” points to, all of us share the idea that dogmatism and so-called Christian doctrines can be rigidly interpreted and used to cause conflict and acrimony rather than as invitation to inclusivity and spiritual community.  Carol Wendland, one of our founders, expresses her understanding regarding the role of belief and creeds as we seek to find common purpose and common understanding about what it means to be a progressive Christian.  Carol says, “We don’t believe that everyone has to believe exactly the same things.  Still, what we believe matters, because it influences how we act, which matters even more. While creeds are deeply meaningful to many Christians, it is also possible to be deeply faithful to God without saying a creed.”

PCCS welcomes Christians who say traditional corporate creeds, Christians who prefer modern or individual statements of faith, and Christians and others who do not say creeds.
Here at PCCS, we urge everyone to join us in taking a fresh look at belief. Why do we believe what we do, and how we are willing to bear witness to those beliefs in public? How do we speak out and prevent churches from using creeds as weapons to beat people with?

Churches that generally don’t use creeds cover a wide spectrum. Highly emotional, spirit-filled forms of worship have especially strong roots here in the South, where Baptist revivals and Methodist camp meetings have often evolved into nondenominational churches, many evangelical or pentecostal. Their enthusiastic singing, testifying, and praying stands in contrast to quieter traditions such as Quakers and Unitarians, whose hearts may be moved more by sober teaching, thoughtful discussion, and silent meditation. Yet both extremes share a belief that is itself a kind of creed. For all these Christians, true worship is more experiential than liturgical, belonging to and grow-ing out of the worshipers themselves, not any dry form imposed from above.

Regardless of denomination, some people simply prefer not to say any creed. They may feel at a gut level that religious belief is a personal matter, or that faith should be shown by deeds rather than words. They may see the traditional creeds of the church as a classic hierarchical tactic to separate Christians into insiders and outsiders, historically imposed on laity by power-hungry clergy seeking unquestioning obedience, eager to persecute anyone whom they could call a heretic. People who decline to say creeds on principle may even feel that creeds in and of themselves, and the persistent efforts of Christian orthodoxy to enforce them, are a serious obstacle to a truly inclusive, ecumenical understand-ing of Christianity, or, indeed, of all religion. In an age of increasing global interdependence, can we afford to retain the traditional creeds at the cost of alienating not only atheists, but people from other faiths?

Progressive Christians who do say traditional creeds often do not interpret them literally. For instance, they gen-erally do not believe that God is a physical being who has a right hand, or that heaven is a physical place above the earth. They often do not believe that resurrection means literal resuscitation, or that earth was created in any supernatural way. They are aware that many powerful men in ancient cultures were said to have been born of vir-gins as a sign of status, and that the Hebrew word traditionally translated as “virgin” can also have other senses, such as “maiden” or “young woman.”

For similar reasons, progressive Christians who do not subscribe to every single word within a creed may still affirm the statement as a whole. The traditional Apostles’ and Nicene creeds, for example, describe God only as Father, an ancient metaphor that many Christians, especially feminists, cannot in good conscience support. Some Christians may continue to say such phrases, knowing that all statements about God represent only a part of the truth. Others may choose to add words such as “and Mother,” or may simply omit certain phrases. Even Christians who are aware of these reservations may still choose to recite a traditional creed in public wor-ship. Some do so to honor the tradition of their denomination. In the Catholic, Orthodox, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and many other churches, creeds form a core part of the liturgy and the vows of baptism or confirmation. Even as members’ understanding of the creed changes over the years, many still welcome the opportunity to affirm their continuing commitment to the church in a familiar way. Reciting a creed may also express individual Christians’ solidarity with the church as the people of God, from the universal church to the local congregation. When we profess our faith in unison, using words that Christians have spoken for centuries, we enact our belief that together we are the body of Christ. Even if only for a moment, we deliberately submerge our own identity in that of the gathered church, acknowledging that it’s not just about us.

Scholars who study the historical creeds may open up new ways of understanding them that are helpful to pro-gressive Christians. For example, did you know that “Lord” and “Son of God” were titles traditionally used for the Roman emperor? When we use these grandiose titles to affirm Jesus, a humble peasant executed as a criminal, we are turning the world upside down, denying such pride and power to all earthly rulers and cruel empires. And when we affirm that Jesus was divine, we make a powerful statement about the true nature of God. What kind of god is not supernatural but human, not all-powerful but vulnerable even to the point of death?

In recent decades, many Christians have written completely new creeds. What alternative creeds or statements of faith does your church offer? Have you ever looked in the back of your hymnal or prayer book? What would it mean to affirm God as “creator and sustainer,” one who “has created and is creating”? Or to begin with the words “We are not alone,” or to see God in “every act of self-giving on behalf of others,” or to say out loud that God’s covenant binds “all ages, tongues, and races”? How could you help persuade your worship leaders to use different creeds one or two Sundays a month?

If you yourself, or your own congregation, Sunday school class, or study group, wanted to write a new creed for the 21st century, what would it include that’s scarcely mentioned or hinted at in the historical creeds? What would it say about different kinds of justice — social, economic, racial, gender, age-based, environmental ... ? What about respect and tolerance for other religions and cultures? Could a new creed highlight compassion, peace, and nonviolence? How would you reaffirm the scriptural tradition to emphasize these aspects?

No matter which of these perspectives reflects your own current understanding, PCCS can help you to dig deeper. If you assume that some kind of creed is essential, why not experiment with freer forms of worship? If you never say a creed, why not learn more about the history of such statements of faith? If you always say the same creed, why not encourage your church to use different ones from time to time, and discuss them?

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