Faith Essentials for Catholics: The Creed

By Thomas Bokenkotter

You may remember the flap, not too long ago, over the book Christ Among Us. The controversy that raged over this popular Catholic catechism highlights the tension in the Church today about what a Catholic should believe. The text was used by thousands of religion teachers in the United States who considered it an effective tool for teaching Catholic doctrine today. Other people, however, complained about the book’s position on certain teachings, and Church authority eventually determined that it should no longer be used as a text in classes on Catholic doctrine.

There is, no doubt, a wide range of opinion on many points of Church teaching today. "Liberals" are often opposed to "conservatives" and sometimes the conflict gets pretty testy. Some fundamentalist Catholics are even organized to save the faith from those they call "modernists." The average Catholic often feels confused—especially if his or her previous religious education was limited to the Baltimore Catechism.

One may speculate about the reasons for the turmoil but it is obvious that the Second Vatican Council’s call for change in many areas of Catholic life is the biggest factor. We must especially keep in mind that the Council endorsed a new critical approach to the Bible. Some theologians took this new spirit of openness as a green light to reexamine such traditional doctrines as infallibility, original sin and sanctifying grace. Such theologians as Hans Kung, Karl Rahner and Edward Schillebeeckx became famous for their bold speculations on these and other topics.

What are the essentials of our faith?

The average American Catholic was not very well prepared, to put it mildly, for this invasion of liberal-thinking theologians. Many were very bewildered by all the "new ideas."

One thing is clear. Many Catholics have a hard time distinguishing between essentials and nonessentials in matters of faith. Too many put everything on the same level. If they are told, for example, that the account of Jonah and the whale should be seen as a story teaching God’s mercy rather than as historical fact, they often exclaim: "What can I believe anymore? Are we to throw out the whole Bible?"

The question of what is essential and what is not essential to Catholic belief is not a new problem by any means. It existed from the very beginning of the Church and that is why the various creeds of Christianity (brief statements of the essentials of the faith) were issued.

The creed we recite at Sunday Mass, popularly called the Nicene Creed (since it is based in part on the Council of Nicaea, 325 A.D.) is a developed form of an early baptismal creed. Regarded as an ideal statement of Catholic orthodoxy, the Nicene Creed soon spread through East and West. It has lately even been recommended as an ideal basis for agreement between Catholics and Protestants.

For those who are confused today about what to believe, a brief, point-by-point reflection on the Nicene Creed might help refocus our attention on the essentials of our faith. To assist in this worthy endeavor, let me offer the following.

We believe in one God...

The first article and the basis of everything else is belief in God. The use of "we" rather than "I" reminds me that my faith in God, though a very personal act and rooted in my own experience, is something I share with the community, and it is strengthened and enriched by its contact with the tradition and the life of the community.

Belief in God is a free choice, an act of fundamental trust. Atheism is not refuted purely on a logical basis, for many persons find that the evidence regarding God’s existence points both ways. Charles Darwin himself never denied the existence of God, but many regard his theory of evolution as eliminating the need for a God who created all things.

Others, while still believers, have experienced the "death of God" insofar as they feel the absence of God rather than his presence. They are haunted by images of people suffering terrible pain and degradation, human beings flayed alive by the atom bomb at Hiroshima, Jews tortured to death in the Nazi camps, starving Ethiopian babies with bloated bellies. If God exists, they ask themselves, how can he allow such enormous, senseless evil?

Archie Bunker, in heated argument with his agnostic son-in-law, is asked, "Archie, if there’s a God, why is there so much suffering in the world?" He replies, "I’ll tell you why...(pause)..;Edith, if there’s a God, why is there so much suffering in the world?" There is only a blank silence, so Archie yells, "Edith, would you-get in here and help me? I’m having to defend God all by myself."

Only a fool, of course, can give a ready answer to the problem of pain and evil. Jesus himself did not live in a fool’s paradise. He was terribly familiar with human suffering and degradation. He saw all around him the brutal results of plague, war, Roman occupation, famine and earthquake. But in spite of it all, he proclaimed the neatness of God whose glory shines through all the murkiness of sin and evil in the world, and he staked his life on God’s ultimate victory over all that is anti-life.

Take courage, he said. Be stouthearted. Trust in God who numbers the hairs on your head and watches over the flight of sparrows. He is your heavenly Father and his fantastic love for you makes-the love of an earthly father look poor indeed.

The Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

In saying this we are really answering the questions that nag constantly at any thoughtful human being: Why am I here? What is the meaning of it all?

As I saw on a T-shirt recently, "Life is tough. And then you die."

In Joseph Heller’s novel Something Happened, the main character works for a huge insurance company and presides over an unhappy family which is falling apart. At one point he asks, "Is this all I can expect from life?"

The need for meaning, for some kind of answer to "Why?" can’t be permanently put aside. In the very first pages of Scripture, the Book of Genesis gives us an answer: God created us to be happy in a wonderful universe of communion with him and with each other.

Above all, in saying, "We believe in God, the Maker," we are saying that we believe in the eternal destiny and sacred dignity of each human being, that life has meaning, that we are not just human flotsam and jetsam lost in an empty universe.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.

This whole passage reflects the ancient controversies of the Church as to the precise relation of Jesus to the Father. The main point is the affirmation that Jesus is "one in being" with the Father, which was the Council of Nicaea’s answer to those who denied that Jesus was divine. Belief in Christ as divine and as Lord of Creation is undoubtedly the central dogma of the Church.

What should accepting Jesus as Lord mean in our everyday life? Everyone needs a faith of some kind to live by. Many simply have faith in life. They believe it is worthwhile to struggle against injustice, to work for a better world. And they will make great sacrifices in order to serve the victims of poverty and oppression. Their choice about life is not something strictly provable by reason. It’s a form of faith, a gut feeling they have that this is the way life should be lived. They could not rebut the arguments of those who favor the opposite life-style.

Christians, however, rely on more than gut feelings. They commit themselves consciously to Jesus Christ as their Lord, and the Shepherd who leads them along the path of righteousness and reveals to them the goodness at the heart of things—Jesus Christ who manifests God as Creator and Redeemer of the World. It is this trust in Jesus and in Jesus’ God that activates our hope for this world and draws us into the struggle for peace and justice.

For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven...

How did Jesus bring us salvation? To get the answer, we have to start with the Bible’s realistic depiction of the human condition: Human history is a history of sin—it is a record of crime, bloodshed and wars of incredible ferocity. The normal state of man and woman is alienation. People are alienated from each other: There is hatred, lying, injustice, oppression and open or covert hostility, not to mention ignorance and sheer folly. War after war has drenched the earth in blood and now our propensity to violence threatens the very future of the planet.

The sheer tragic character of our solidarity in evil was brought home forcefully to me recently while reading an article in The New York Times about the government’s "Star Wars" concept. While the plan is supposedly intended to diminish the threat of a nuclear holocaust, I, for one, fear that it may be just another spiral in human distrust and another reminder of our hopeless sinful condition apart from Christ’s healing love.

Human experience certainly testifies to human solidarity in sin and alienation. Left to ourselves the human race is powerless to change this state of affairs. But as Walter Kasper professes in Jesus the Christ: "Through the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ the disastrous situation in which all men are caught up and by which they are determined in their inmost being is changed. It has broken through at one point and this new beginning from now on determines anew the situation of all men."

Christ calls people out of the old solidarity in evil into a new solidarity, a solidarity of love and caring. The power of original sin—our solidarity in sin—is broken. Jesus is the "one for others," the firstborn of many brothers and sisters, the New Adam. For our salvation and liberation, Jesus establishes the New People of God and is the beginning of the new history of humanity.

By the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

The basis for this article is found in Matthew and Luke who describe how Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb through the action of the Holy Spirit. The question some Scripture scholars—including some Catholics—ask today is whether the primary intention of Matthew and Luke in asserting Mary’s virginity was historical or theological. Nevertheless, Church teaching upholds Mary’s virginity in both senses.

The meaning of the virgin birth is clear: Jesus’ birth does not belong to the ordinary course of human history. He represents a new beginning for the human race. And his being conceived by the Spirit means that the power of God rather than that of humanity is what brings forth a savior and a new creation.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died, and was buried.

It is striking that the creed says nothing about the message and way of life of Jesus. But in stating that he was crucified—an atrocious death reserved for slaves and criminals and for politically dangerous persons — the creed tells us what is most important: Jesus’ message, way of life and love for humanity were a radical and tremendous challenge, as they still are, to all systems that seek to thwart the genuine good of God’s children.

On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures...

Important to keep in mind: The Resurrection does not prove the truth of Christianity. The Resurrection is an object of faith; it is not "historically" verifiable. Nobody saw it happen. History only testifies to the faith of the first witnesses. This is evident if we consider how various are the accounts of the Gospels: They differ about how, when, where and to whom Jesus first appeared. No effort was made to tidy up these often conflicting details, no doubt, because the experience of the Resurrection they were trying to relate was an experience that transcended all normal human limits. It was an experience of the presence of Jesus, the same Jesus who had died but now presented himself to them transformed. It was an experience of conversion and an awareness of the ultimate, definitive meaning of his life and death.

It was a vision of Jesus that transformed their lives and launched the Church. In fact, the reason Christians began worshiping on Sunday is that it was the day of the Resurrection. The belief that Jesus truly is risen and present among us becomes the central motivating force of our faith.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right band of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

The risen Jesus now lives with his Father and watches over and guides his Church. We are reminded of this regularly in the Eucharist when we pray, "You plead for us at the right hand of the Father."

Fundamentalists, in a literal interpretation of Scripture, pictorialize Christ’s Second Coming on clouds with angels blowing trumpets summoning all the risen dead before his throne of judgment. The imagery is no doubt derived from the apocalyptic (end-of-the-world) literature of Christ’s time and is not essential to the basic message intended—namely, that the purpose of God revealed in Christ will be fulfilled, the Kingdom of God will be fully realized and his Gospel will stand forever as the standard by which we all will be measured.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.

Paul, above all, testifies to the reality of the Holy Spirit as one of the three persons of the Trinity when he says that the Spirit works in a unique way in believers through the gifts it imparts to each. Through the Spirit; faith in Christ is made possible while hope is sustained. And the Spirit builds up the Church through the love it pours into each heart. The distinction of the Spirit from Christ is suggested by the fact that the Spirit "dwells" in the believers now while the Lord will only return in the future (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The insight here somewhat faintly indicated—that, in the interim before the End, the Spirit is given to the Church in the absence of Christ—gradually led the Fathers of the Church to the formation of the doctrine of the Trinity.

Devotion to the Holy Spirit is changing the lives of many Catholics today and is the hallmark of the charismatic movement, one of the most visible signs of the current Catholic renewal. The charismatic movement has spread widely throughout the world, as I realized last summer in Borneo. The charismatic movement is very strong among the native peoples there. Missionaries told me how their previously rather unresponsive parishioners Were stirred up by what appears to be almost a new Pentecost. People who previously refused to participate actively in the liturgy are now entering into it with great gusto, singing and clapping and joyfully praising the Lord, "puji Tuhan," as they say in their native Iban language.

The charismatic movement is only one manifestation of the way the Spirit is renewing the Church today. We see the Spirit alive in many other areas of the Church as well: in those taking courageous stands on issues of peace and justice; in those laboring quietly for Christian unity; in those seeking more effective forms of liturgical renewal, to name a few. The Holy Spirit continues to be the "giver of life" to the Christian community today through a great variety of gifts.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

These are the four main "marks" or qualities of the Church (one, holy, catholic, apostolic) according to the venerable tradition. The meaning of these marks seems obvious at first view but historically they have been interpreted in very diverse ways. Older Roman Catholics will remember how the word Church here was identified with one visible institution—the Roman Catholic Church. The marks accordingly were interpreted in a visible, concrete, statistical way to show that only the Roman Catholic Church clearly possessed all four of them and therefore it was the only true Church. For example, it alone was supposed to be one (unified under one visible head, the pope); it alone was catholic (that is, universal or spread throughout the world); it alone was apostolic (or able to trace its leaders back to the apostles).

The Second Vatican Council, however, moved away from this narrow view of the nature of the Church. In the Council’s teaching the Church that Christ founded subsists in the Catholic Church and the four "marks" are shared to some degree by other Church communities. No one community has a "monopoly" on the marks to the complete exclusion of all other communities.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

Christian Baptism is derived from the baptism of Jesus. We may recall that when he was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, Jesus was anointed by God’s Spirit which descended in the form of a dove. The Spirit possessed him entirely, indicating Jesus’ permanent unity with the Father. A voice from heaven proclaimed him God’s Son in terms that suggested he would carry out the role of God’s suffering servant, as described by Isaiah in his four "suffering servant" songs (chapters 42-53). Through his suffering

The baptism of Jesus thus symbolized the new relationship that -would be established between God and the human family through Jesus’ saving work. With that work fulfilled, his followers are baptized to show their response in faith to this work of reconciliation prefigured in his baptism. The Sacrament of Baptism also accomplishes union with Christ and forgiveness of sins because it brings one into the Church, which is his Body.

We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

One of the most exciting adventures on my recent trip to Borneo was my visit to the caves of Niah located deep in the jungle. There in one of the caves were discovered the remnants of small canoe-like boats used as coffins, and-nearby on the walls some paintings 40,000 years old. Depicted in these paintings are people sitting in these coffin-like boats and crossing a river to the next world. The paintings indicate a belief in some shadowy form of life after death a belief found in most ancient cultures and reflected faintly in the earlier parts of the Old Testament.

In. the Hebrew Scriptures the idea of life after death only gradually came into focus as Judaism arrived at an understanding that communion with God would not be broken even by death. It is only in the Christian Scriptures, however, that this belief is fully revealed by Christ. Jesus proclaimed it when he said, "God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph. He is not the God of the dead but of the living." Faith in resurrection was given conclusive force by Jesus’ own resurrection. As Christians we believe we will share in this resurrection and glory.

In conclusion, the creed reminds us that what we believe is important. Historically, the Christian Churches almost without exception have insisted on the necessity of correct belief. But, on the other hand, one can become too concerned with orthodoxy (right belief) and forget that orthopraxis (right living) is important also. Christ, after all, came not only as the truth but also as the way and the life. And he said we would be finally judged by how we carry out his great commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with your whole mind....[And] you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37; 39).

CATHOLIC UPDATE Edited by Fr. Jack Wintz, O.F.M.; designed by Julie Lonneman
© 1985 St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1615 Republic St., Cincinnati, OH 45210 Revised in 1991

Thomas Bokenkotter is pastor of Assumption Church in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio. Father Bokenkotter teaches theology at Xavier University and is the author of several books, including A Concise History of the Catholic Church (Doubleday Image, 1979) and, more recently, Essential Catholicism (Doubleday, 1985).

Posted by permission of St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1615 Republic Street Cincinnati Ohio 45210.
Published with ecclesiastical approval