Article VIII

OF THE THREE CREEDS^[1]

 

The Three Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius’ Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles’ Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed: for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.

 

The tendency today is to decry the value of creeds or dogmatic statements of religious belief and to lay the emphasis on Christian character and conduct; how one behaves and not what he believes or professes is the vital matter.  When this attitude is examined it becomes clear that it is not really the importance assigned by the Church to its Creeds that is criticized, but human inconsistency.  To think before acting is the normal sequence for rational beings, and everyone recognizes that we ought to act in accordance with our convictions; it is weakness, hypocrisy or downright sinful not to do so.  Our beliefs on the highest things, about God, ourselves, and our fellow men should determine the quality of our conduct by providing its motives and ends; no man is ever better than the best that he believes.  Consistent living demands that behaviour should be the practical issue of inner convictions; the Christian life is properly the complement of the Christian Faith.  And conversely, as we have already seen, much of Christian belief is the interpretation of Christian experience.  There are revealed truths which are inculcated and accepted in faith, but all they mean cannot be fully appreciated until we have had the experience of acting upon them.  The theology of the Gospels is the theology of revelation, which is verified and amplified in the religious experience behind the theology of the Epistles.