Believe it or not: why creeds matter

Christian Century, Sept 20, 2003 by William C. Placher

These volumes contain interesting resources for such a project. The Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei verbum, reminds Catholics of the need to attend to the literary genres of scripture, since truth, is presented and expressed differently in historical, prophetic or poetic texts, or in other styles of speech. The interpreter has to look for that meaning which a biblical writer intended and expressed in his particular circumstances, and in his historical and cultural context, by means of such literary genres as were in use at his time. To understand correctly what a biblical writer intended to assert, due attention is needed both to the customary and characteristic ways of feeling, speaking and storytelling which were current in his time, and to the social conventions of the period.

The Confession of 1967, part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Book of Confessions, argues, by the language, thought forms, and literary fashions of the places and times at which they were written. They reflect views of life, history, and the cosmos which were then current. The church, therefore, has an obligation to approach the Scriptures with literary and historical understanding. As God has spoken his word in diverse cultural situations, the church is confident that he will continue to speak through the Scriptures in a changing world and in every form of human culture.

In our current debates, we may need to move a step or two toward greater specificity. What do such claims mean for how scripture functions authoritatively in our faith and life?

As both the documents here collected and Pelikan's introduction to them remind us, creeds and confessions call function either to establish a consensus or to make clear lines of disagreement. In many mainline Protestant denominations, if the next generation does not find a way of establishing consensus, it may be necessary, to draw dividing lines. Either way, we may well be thinking a great deal in the coming decades about the form and function of creeds and confessions of faith. No resource will be more valuable to that thinking, and to much other thinking important to the life of the church, than these volumes. By presenting a collection worldwide and 20 centuries long in scope, they also remind us of the often parochial character of our own debates and the church's enduring ability to continue confessing faithfully through crises much greater than our own.

Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition.

Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan and Valerie Hotchkiss. Yale University Press, 4 vols, 3,796 pp. and CD ROM, $995.00

Credo.

By Jaroslav Pelikan. Yale University Press, 609 pp. First of the 4 vol. set, also sold separately at $37.50

William C. Placher is Charles D. and Elizabeth S. LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana.