As previously explained, I've enrolled in the University of Notre Dame's Satellite Theological Education Program (STEP) to pursue their Certificate in Doctrine. I've already taken three of the six required courses, plus I digressed from the course list to pick up the course on Catholic Social Teaching. Now I'm back on the Certificate pathway taking my fourth course. This time it's The Creed. Our text is Bernard L. Marthaler - The Creed.
Week 3 reflection question:
Refer to the sections of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds below. Is one or the other preferable to you? How significant to you are the differences between the two?
| Apostles’ Creed | Nicene Creed |
|---|---|
| I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. | 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. | |
| He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. | For us men and our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. |
I'm not convinced the differences matter very much today. As Marthaler relates (83ff), the additional language in the Nicene Creed does not reflect a change in doctrine but rather a rejection of heresy. They elaborated the Church's theology of the Trinity and the Godhead by making it more precise, albeit at the cost of complexity. "Begotten of the father" rebuts the heresy that claimed there was only one God with three names or modalities. "God from God" affirms that Christ's nature was fully divine, as does the statement that Christ was "begotten not made," which reaffirms that he is God and not a creature. "Became man" confirms that Jesus was also fully human, while simultaneously being fully divine.
These debates have been settled in mainstream Western Christianity for a very long time, so today both Creeds can be understood as stating a consistent doctrine.
The principal difference I see is that the Nicene Creed provides a test of orthodoxy while the Apostle's Creed is probably better suited for teaching new converts and the young, since it gets across the basics without getting to deeply into into the complex mysteries of the Trinity.
