Athanasian Creed Research Articles

‘The Substance of the Faith’ A Clarification of the Concept in the Church of Scotland

In determining the meaning of the expression ‘the substance of the Faith’, it seems right to go back to the act of the Scottish Parliament in 1690 which ratified the Westminster Confession of Faith ‘as the publick and avowed Confession of this Church, containing the summe and substance of the doctrine of the Reformed Churches.’ There the WCF was regarded as containing the sum and substance of some thirty Reformed Confessions, including the Scots Confession, the First and Second Helvetic Confessions. These confessions expressly acknowledged the ancient Catholic Creeds and Conciliar Statements of the Church, the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Formulations of Ephesus and Chalcedon, and the so-called ‘Athanasian Creed’, and embodied all their main statements as essential articles of belief. This was true of the WCF which, as James Denney once pointed out, ‘contains everything that is in the Nicene Creed’ (Jesus and the Gospel, p. 39If). That is to say, there was no move away from what the Athanasian Creed and the Second Helvetic Confession called ‘the Catholic Faith’, although the basic articles of faith handed down through the Creeds were set within a confessional frame of distinctively Reformed character. It was inevitable, therefore, that a distinction was made between what Samuel Rutherford called (Due Right Presbyteries, p. 13) ‘a confession dejure, what everyman ought to believe, as the Nicene Creed, and the Creed of Athanasius’, and a wider summation of teaching common to ‘true Reformed Protestant religion’.

From Plowing to Penitence: Piers Plowman and Fourteenth-Century Theology

Perhaps no episode in medieval literature has proven as puzzling to modern readers as pardon scene in B text of Piers Plowman. Critics continue to debate whether document which Piers receives in Passus VII is a pardon. The document is, after all, sent by Truth, divine authority whose tower overshadows fair field. Its message - Et qui bona egerunt ibunt in vitam eternam; / Qui vero mala in ignem eternum - is an article of Athanasian Creed and thus an orthodox tenet of faith. Moreover, critics who argue that Truth's document is a pardon maintain that its text is consistent with theme of Visio. Frank, for example, contends that the message of pardon, well, is a logical culmination of of labor and good preached throughout Visio. If pardon is no pardon, if well is not way to salvation, reader has been led down garden path by a most irresponsible poet.' Many readers of Piers Plowman remain uncomfortable with this interpretation, however, because, contrary to what we expect, Piers himself tears up parchment from Truth and vows to change his life. Piers's response is hardly that of a man who accepts do and haue wel as a pardon, and his action forces us to examine what doing well meant to a medieval audience. If we place poem in a historical context, we discover importance of a crucial theological controversy of fourteenth century to understanding of issues involved in pardon scene. The relationship between doctrine of labor and good works expressed in Truth's pardon and in theological debate between Augustinians and Nominalists demonstrates conclusively that Langland does not intend Truth's pardon as a true pardon.

Belief and Will

It is a widely held belief that one can will to believe, disbelieve, and withhold belief concerning propositions. It is sometimes said that we have a duty to believe certain propositions. These theses have had a long and respected history. In one form or another they receive the support of a large number of philosophers and theologians who have written on the relationship of the will to believing. In the New Testament Jesus holds his disciples responsible for their beliefs, reprimands them for doubting, and speaks of the ability to believe as if it were optional. Paul makes it clear that he thinks propositional belief is a necessary condition for salvation. If a man confesses Christ as Lord with his lips and believes in his heart that God has raised him from the dead, he shall be saved (Romans 10: 9f.). The writer of Hebrews implies that unless we have certain propositional beliefs we cannot please God (Heb. II: 6). In the New Testament most cases of pistis (belief, faith) involve more than a propositional attitude. They involve the idea of trust and faithfulness. Nevertheless, a prima facie case for saying that the volitional theses can be found in the New Testament can be made. Forms of volitionalism can be found stated more explicitly in the writings of the early Church, in the writings of Irenaeus, in the Athanasian Creed, and in Augustine. Acquinas describes faith as an act of the intellect moved by the will. Descartes is perhaps the classic example of a volitionalist, holding that if we were not responsible for our beliefs (especially our false beliefs), then God would be - which is tantamount to blasphemy in that it makes God into a deceiver.

The Athanasian Creed. The Paddock Lectures for 1962–3. By J. N. D. Kelly. A. & C. Black, London, 1964. Pp. xi + 140. 18s.

The Athanasian Creed. The Paddock Lectures for 1962–3. By J. N. D. Kelly. A. & C. Black, London, 1964. Pp. xi + 140. 18s.

On the Athanasian Creed

On the Athanasian Creed

REVIEWS

St Anselm's‘Proslogion’with‘A Reply on Behalf of the Fooľ by Gaunilo and‘The Author's Reply to Gaunilo’. Translated with an introduction and philosophical commentary by M. J. Charlesworth. Christian Discourse. Some Logical Explorations. By Ian Ramsey. Philosophy and Religion. By Axel Hägerström. Translated by Robert T. Sandin. Spirit as Inquiry. Studies in Honour of Bernard Lonergan, S.J. Edited by Frederick E. Crowe, s.j. The Existential Background of Human Dignity. By Gabriel Marcel. The Moral Teaching of the New Testament. By Rudolf Schnackenburg. The Power and the Wisdom. By John L. McKenzie. Christ in Christian Tradition. Alois Grillmeder, s.j. Translated by J. S. Bowden. The Athanasian Creed. J. N. D. Kelly, d.d. St Jerome as a Satirist. By David S. Wiesen. Early Thomistic School. By Frederick J. Roensch. Cardinal Bainbridge in the Court of Rome, 1509 to 1514. By D. S. Chambers The Dangerous Queen. By Francis Edwards, s.j. Commentarios al Codigo de Derecho Canonico. Vols I‐IV. The Politics of Johannes Althusius. Translated and abridged by Frederick S. Carney. With a Preface by Carl J. Friedrich. No Rusty Swords. Letters, Lectures and Notes 1928–1936 (from the collected works). By Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Edited and introduced by Edwin H. Robertson. Translated by Edwin H. Robertson and John Bowden. The New Reformation? By John A. T. Robinson. The Secularization of Christianity. By E. L. Mascall. Die Arnoldshainer Abendmahlsthesen. By W. L. Boelens, s.j.

Book Review: The Athanasian Creed

Book Review: The Athanasian Creed

The Athanasian Creed. J. N. D. Kelly

<i>The Athanasian Creed</i>. J. N. D. Kelly

Book Review: III. Theological and Historical Studies: The Athanasian Creed

Book Review: III. Theological and Historical Studies: The Athanasian Creed

Book Review: The Athanasian Creed

Book Review: The Athanasian Creed

The Athanasian Creed by J. N. D. Kelly; Adam and Charles Black, 78s.

The Athanasian Creed by J. N. D. Kelly; Adam and Charles Black, 78s.

Paul Couturier and Unity in Christ by Geoffrey Curtis, C.R.: S.C.M. Press, 35s.

PAUL COUTURIER AND UNITY IN CHRIST by Geoffrey CurtisLES RELIGIEUSES DANS L'EGLISE ET DANS LE MONDE ACTUEL. Par Sœur Jeanne d'Arc, O.P.;THE QUESTIONING CHURCH by Julius Cardinal Doepfner;PRIEST AND LAYMAN by Albert Dondeyne;MISSION AND GRACE, Vol II, by Karl RahnerTHE ATHANASIAN CREED by J. N. D. Kelly;THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF JOHN XXIII;THE SECOND SESSION by Xavier Rynne;OBSERVER IN ROME by Robert McAfee Brown;ON HERESY (Quæstiones Disputatæ) by Karl Rahner;CHRISTIANITY AND THE COMPUTER by A. Q. Morton and J. McLeman:CHURCH AND SCHOOL. A study of the impact of education on religion, by Joan Brothers;THE DECLINE OF HELL by D. P. Walker;WORDSWORTH AND THE POETRY OF SINCERITY by David Perkins:FAITH AND FICTION by Philip Stratford;ST AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. by Gerald Bonner;THE SHROUD by John Walsh;AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES AND WESTERN TRADITION by Eric Ashby;THURSTAN, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK (1114–1140) by Donald Nicholl;SPEAK WHAT WE FEEL. A Christian looks at the contemporary theatre, by K. M. Baxter;

REVIEWS

Journal Article REVIEWS Get access The Athanasian Creed. J. N. D. KELLY. Pp. xii+140. London: A. & C. Black, 1964. 18s. J. H. CREHAN J. H. CREHAN Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume XVI, Issue 2, October 1965, Pages 510–511, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/XVI.2.510 Published: 01 October 1965

THE EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF OBERLIN—THE FOUNDER OF THE FIRST NURSERY SCHOOL

Education, since the earliest times, has been concerned with the mental, moral and physical well-being of the individual yet it has rarely, in practice, been able fully to adjust itself to man's threefold nature. To divide the attention equally between a training of man's mind, body, and morals, and to realise, in the words of the Athanasian creed, that is afore or after other - none is greater or less than another, would seem to present an ideal of educational theory and practice that is wholly unattainable. In consequence, as we become only too painfully aware when studying the evolution of educational consciousness, different countries in different centuries have tended to exalt those aspects of man's development that have particularly interested them, and often to stress them unduly.

The Uncial Gospel Leaves Attached to the Utrecht Psalter

THERE are not many manuscripts which can boast of complete facsimile reproduction. The Utrecht Psalter, along with the Gospel leaves attached to it, has been reproduced in its entirety and in the original size.1 A separate publication exists of its numerous illustrations.2 Many studies have been devoted to this manuscript and one entire book.3 Its chief interest lies not in its Biblical and liturgical texts (even though its Athanasian Creed once made the manuscript the subject of controversy and intense study), but in the lively and vigorous illustrations with which the Psalter abounds. The verve and artistic skill displayed in the drawings render the volume one of the most remarkable products of the entire Middle Ages.

Notes on the Culross Psalter in the Advocates' Library

The psalter is the earliest example which the library possesses of an illuminated manuscript which is known to have been written in Scotland. The volume contains the Calendar in red and black; the Psalms, the Benedicte omnia opera, Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis; various prayers; the Athanasian Creed, Litany of Saints, and Vigils of the Dead. It is written in the ordinary book-hand of the fifteenth century, and the decoration is the characteristic floriated work of the\r\nperiod.

The Athanasian Creed

The Athanasian Creed

The Athanasian Creed

The Athanasian Creed

Story concerning the athanasian creed

Story concerning the athanasian creed

The Athanasian Creed and Its Early Commentaries. A. E. Burn

<i>The Athanasian Creed and Its Early Commentaries</i>. A. E. Burn