When we lived in Columbus we became friends with a Unitarian Universalist pastor and scholar, (Rev. Dr.) Mark Belletini. Mark told and taught us many things, but two stories have stuck with me and influenced my own ponderings for 18 years now. One was about his Jesuit teacher’s view on the existence of a place called hell. The other was about how Mark knew it was time to leave orthodox Christianity: he was in a church reciting the Nicene Creed and realized that the only words he could say with conviction were the prepositions.
Creeds are intended to be brief statements delineating a system of belief and practice. The problem with creeds is that they get used as tests, or as finely drawn complete expressions of one’s principles. They cannot serve as either effectively, because they are abbreviations: quickly transmitted outlines of a much larger system of belief and practice.
I learned the western version* of the Nicene Creed as a child growing up in the Episcopal Church. Still I can mostly recite it from memory, though my tongue tends to trip over the beginning of “by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,” which is probably due to both linguistic clumsiness and youthful doubt.
The Nicene Creed rings an ancient bell in my soul. Somehow it ties me to two thousand years of earthly Christians, all around the globe, as well as to the eternal Church that exists whether there are any earthly Christians or not. I experience it as a sacrament: a sacred and mystical act that both instantiates something and represents something far greater. The concepts each word represents are far deeper and richer than it seems; it is that depth that allows me to say more than Mark’s Nicene Prepositions. Still, given my understanding and experience of God, I’ve been playing with the language a bit. Not to soften its historical pealing, but to allude to that depth more fully.
Here is what I have today. What do you think? What changes would you make?
The version I learned as a child
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
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,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
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.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Today’s attempt
We believe in one God,
the [Father], almighty
Keeping “Father” because that is the relationship God has to Jesus of Nazareth; it is the relationship into which we are adopted through Jesus.
creator of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus
Son of God, eternal Christ,
begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
birthed, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
[Through him all things were made.]
Not sure what to do with this. Translating διά as “through” suggests a sort of utility that I don’t think is intended in the Bible, as if, without Christ, the Father couldn’t have managed creation.
For us and for our salvation
he came out of heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to [judge] the living and the dead,
“Judge” has a connotation of condemnation in modern English that distorts its meaning, but the denotation is good. Grumble.
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who goes out from the Father.
*I’m with the eastern Christians on “and the Son.”
“Proceeds” has a sense of “created by” that is not in the Greek; “goes out” is clumsy but…
With the Father and the Son she is worshiped and glorified.
She has spoken through the Prophets.
So many reasons for “she” among them being the gender for “spirit” of the biblical languages.
We believe in one eternal, universal and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.