Faith Works 6-27-2025
Jeff Gill
1700 years of religious guidance, plus a little controversy
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Jeff Gill
1700 years of religious guidance, plus a little controversy
___
Irenaeus and Tertullian in the very early Christian church talk about a "regula fidei," a "rule of faith" which was a statement of common belief the community could use to explain to new folk what their faith was in essence.
We have pieces, fragments of those old rules or symbols or statements (all terms used in Latin and Greek for these confessional statements). On one level, they all stem from the most basic statements of faith for Christianity: Simon Peter's confession in Mark 8 "You are the Christ," or Matthew 16's "You are the Christ, the son of the Living God" made at Caesarea Philippi, or Martha's statement in John 11:27 "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."
In a sense, "Jesus is Lord" (as Paul sums up in I Corinthians 12) is an elegant statement of faith which may, in some senses, be enough.
It didn't take long for the early church, as it spread throughout the Roman world, to run into complications. And complications lead to more complicated answers. The "symbol of faith" or confessional statements got longer, and themselves disputed.
Constantine becomes emperor over the Roman Empire at York, England in 306, defeats his primary opposition in 312, and in 313 issues the Edict of Milan requiring the toleration of Christianity… just a few years after the intense persecution of the faith by the emperors preceding Constantine, peaking in 303. Soon, the new emperor is suggesting that Christianity can be a new source of unity across the Mediterranean and beyond.
But he's disturbed at learning there are disputes within the recently beleaguered church, with some leaders or bishops disagreeing with others on the nature of Christ, and how God is at work in the person of Jesus. Given his military and imperial background, it's no surprise Constantine says "we should fix this" and calls the bishops together for a council, in a suburb of the city he had decided in 324 to declare as a "New Rome," what had been Byzantium and would now be Constantinople, today known as Istanbul.
So it was in 325 there was a council of bishops in Nicaea, just east of the new capital; some 300 bishops were present, plus a thousand or more priests and deacons and imperial officials, including Constantine himself for at least parts of it (though he did not ask to be allowed to vote, since he was not a bishop, and by some accounts not yet baptized).
Ultimately, the council of Nicaea came together in late May of 325, deliberated and discussed through June, and left by mid-July to attend formal events in Constantinople. During that time, they developed the "rule of faith" or creed we still call the Nicene Creed.
Less than 200 words in English translation from the Latin original, it is a succinct statement about what the Christian church held in common, mostly about the nature and role of Jesus. It is not a trinitarian document per se, focusing more on the subject of Christology, or the theology of who Christ is and his relationship to God. Somewhat infamously, the third person of the Trinity is given just five words as almost an afterthought: "And in the Holy Spirit."
I come from a non-creedal tradition: not opposed to the Nicene Creed, but not using it as a test of fellowship. There is also the Apostles' Creed, which many traditions use somewhat interchangeably with the Nicene, whose history may or may not go back as far. I'll leave that for scholars.
What Christians do have here is a testimony: a witness to the consensus they found in 325 A.D., now 1,700 years ago this June. All but two bishops could agree to the words we still share to try and explain to those new to our faith what it is we believe about a subject that is deep, and ancient, and we would affirm as true.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's still wrestling with creeds himself. Tell him how you see tests of fellowship in church life at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky.
We have pieces, fragments of those old rules or symbols or statements (all terms used in Latin and Greek for these confessional statements). On one level, they all stem from the most basic statements of faith for Christianity: Simon Peter's confession in Mark 8 "You are the Christ," or Matthew 16's "You are the Christ, the son of the Living God" made at Caesarea Philippi, or Martha's statement in John 11:27 "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."
In a sense, "Jesus is Lord" (as Paul sums up in I Corinthians 12) is an elegant statement of faith which may, in some senses, be enough.
It didn't take long for the early church, as it spread throughout the Roman world, to run into complications. And complications lead to more complicated answers. The "symbol of faith" or confessional statements got longer, and themselves disputed.
Constantine becomes emperor over the Roman Empire at York, England in 306, defeats his primary opposition in 312, and in 313 issues the Edict of Milan requiring the toleration of Christianity… just a few years after the intense persecution of the faith by the emperors preceding Constantine, peaking in 303. Soon, the new emperor is suggesting that Christianity can be a new source of unity across the Mediterranean and beyond.
But he's disturbed at learning there are disputes within the recently beleaguered church, with some leaders or bishops disagreeing with others on the nature of Christ, and how God is at work in the person of Jesus. Given his military and imperial background, it's no surprise Constantine says "we should fix this" and calls the bishops together for a council, in a suburb of the city he had decided in 324 to declare as a "New Rome," what had been Byzantium and would now be Constantinople, today known as Istanbul.
So it was in 325 there was a council of bishops in Nicaea, just east of the new capital; some 300 bishops were present, plus a thousand or more priests and deacons and imperial officials, including Constantine himself for at least parts of it (though he did not ask to be allowed to vote, since he was not a bishop, and by some accounts not yet baptized).
Ultimately, the council of Nicaea came together in late May of 325, deliberated and discussed through June, and left by mid-July to attend formal events in Constantinople. During that time, they developed the "rule of faith" or creed we still call the Nicene Creed.
Less than 200 words in English translation from the Latin original, it is a succinct statement about what the Christian church held in common, mostly about the nature and role of Jesus. It is not a trinitarian document per se, focusing more on the subject of Christology, or the theology of who Christ is and his relationship to God. Somewhat infamously, the third person of the Trinity is given just five words as almost an afterthought: "And in the Holy Spirit."
I come from a non-creedal tradition: not opposed to the Nicene Creed, but not using it as a test of fellowship. There is also the Apostles' Creed, which many traditions use somewhat interchangeably with the Nicene, whose history may or may not go back as far. I'll leave that for scholars.
What Christians do have here is a testimony: a witness to the consensus they found in 325 A.D., now 1,700 years ago this June. All but two bishops could agree to the words we still share to try and explain to those new to our faith what it is we believe about a subject that is deep, and ancient, and we would affirm as true.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's still wrestling with creeds himself. Tell him how you see tests of fellowship in church life at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky.
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