Nicene Creed
Nicene Creed is the formal statement of the Christian faith on the doctrine of the Trinity and the person of Christ, framed at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and expanded at the Council of Constantinople in 381, which is received in the Church of England as one of the three Creeds named in Article VIII of the Thirty-nine Articles and is sung or said at the Holy Communion in the Book of Common Prayer.
The Council of Nicaea (325)
The Council of Nicaea was convened in 325 to settle the controversy raised by the teaching of Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria. Arius taught that the Son of God was not eternal, but a creature brought forth by the will of the Father, and therefore not of the divine substance. Against this teaching the Council confessed that the Son is "begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father." The Greek word used for "of one substance" is homoousios — from homos, "same," and ousia, "essence" — and its adoption became the hallmark of Nicene orthodoxy.
The creed framed at Nicaea ended with the words "And in the Holy Spirit," and was followed by anathemas directed against those who denied the full deity of the Son.
Constantinople (381) and the expanded Creed
The form of the Creed in common use today is not the brief symbol of 325 but the expanded form associated with the Council of Constantinople in 381, commonly called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. This expansion gave a fuller treatment to the third article, confessing the Holy Spirit as "the Lord, and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the Prophets," and added clauses on the one holy catholic and apostolic Church, one Baptism for the remission of sins, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Article VIII: "Of the Three Creeds"
In the Church of England the Nicene Creed stands with the Athanasian Creed and the Apostles' Creed as one of the three Creeds of Article VIII of the Thirty-nine Articles:
- The Three Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius's 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 reason given for receiving the Creeds is scriptural: they are to be received and believed not merely on the authority of the Church, but because they can be proved from Holy Scripture. For a fuller account, see Browne on Article VIII.
The filioque
The Western text of the Creed contains, in the article on the Holy Spirit, the words "and the Son" — in Latin, filioque — so that the Spirit is confessed to proceed "from the Father and the Son." This clause was not part of the Creed of 381, whose Greek text reads that the Spirit "proceedeth from the Father." The filioque first appeared in the Latin form of the Creed associated with the Council of Toledo in Spain in 589, and its use spread through the Western Church in the centuries that followed.
The addition became, and remains, a major point of controversy between East and West. Eastern churches have objected both to the doctrine as they understand it and to the unilateral alteration of an ecumenical creed by a part of the Church; Western churches have defended the clause as a legitimate expression of the faith. The disagreement was among the causes of the schism between East and West in 1054. In the Anglican formularies the Creed is printed with the filioque, as in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
The text in the 1662 Prayer Book
In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer the Nicene Creed is appointed to be sung or said at the Holy Communion, after the Gospel, while the Apostles' Creed is the creed used at Morning and Evening Prayer, the Daily Office. The 1662 text runs, in part:
- I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And of all things visible and invisible: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God, Begotten, not made, Being of one substance with the Father, By whom all things were made; Who for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man, And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. … And I believe in the Holy Ghost, The Lord and giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the Prophets. And I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins. And I look for the Resurrection of the dead, And the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Prayer Book text is in the singular — "I believe" — following the Latin form of the Creed, although the Greek conciliar text is in the plural, "We believe." In the Anglican Communion the Nicene Creed remains the principal creedal confession at the Eucharist.
See also
References
- The Book of Common Prayer (1662), the Holy Communion office, and Article VIII.
- J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, Longman, 1950.