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6 - The rule of faith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Lawrence S. Cunningham
Lawrence S. Cunningham
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Every religious body has some kind of standard of belief that is frequently reducible to a core statement that attempts to capture the essence of what that body stands for. For Buddhism, it consists of the “Four Noble Truths” about suffering and its remedy, while for Jews it is the daily repeated prayer or act of faith, drawn from the Torah, known as the Shema: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deut. 6:4). In Islam, the basic creed is simplicity itself: “There is but one God (Allah), and Mohammad is his prophet.” Behind those simple formulas, of course, is a fuller body of doctrine that answers questions of inquiring minds: What does this or that phrase mean? Why should it be believed? How does it apply to our daily lives, etc? In other words, simple statements of belief cannot be seen in the abstract. They are uttered by real people in real circumstances and have behind them a complex of rites, convictions, ideas, and moral imperatives.

The earliest writings of the Christian community, the various letters that Saint Paul wrote to Church communities, already reflect disputes about what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. Did these followers have to follow the prescriptions of the Jewish law? Did they have to be circumcised if they were male?

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Chapter
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An Introduction to Catholicism , pp. 124 - 146
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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References

Ayo, Nicholas, Creed as Symbol (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1989). A highly readable study of the development of the creed and its meaning.Google Scholar
Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York, N.Y.: Paulist, 1994). The Vatican's universal catechism which serves as the authoritative template for Catholic catechisms today.
DeLubac, Henri, The Christian Faith (San Francisco, Calif.: Ignatius, 1986). A classic study of the Apostles Creed and an exposition of it.Google Scholar
T, Johnson Luke., The Creed (New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 2003). A popular apologia for creedal Christianity and an exposition of the creed.Google Scholar
Kelly, J. N. D., Early Christian Creeds, (3rd edn, New York, N.Y.: McKay, 1972). The standard history of creeds.Google Scholar
Pelikan, Jaroslav, Credo (New Haven, Conn.: Yale, 2003). A masterful study of the creeds from both an historical and a theological point of view.Google Scholar
Pelikan, Jaroslav and Hotchkiss, Valerie, Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003). An exhaustive collection of creedal statements from antiquity to the present.Google Scholar
Ratzinger, Joseph, Introduction to Christianity (San Francisco, Calif.: Ignatius, 2004). An introduction to the Catholic faith based on the creed by the current pope, Benedict XVI.Google Scholar
Seitz, Christopher, Nicene Christianity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brazos, 2001). An ecumenical exposition of the creed known as the Nicene Creed.Google Scholar
Tanner, Norman, ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils (2 vols., Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1993). A collection of all the decrees of the ecumenical councils with the original language(s) of the councils and their English translation. Invaluable work.Google Scholar
Balthasar, Hanrs Urs, Credo (New York, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1990). A profound meditation on the articles of the creed.Google Scholar

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  • The rule of faith
  • Lawrence S. Cunningham, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
  • Book: An Introduction to Catholicism
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800825.007
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  • The rule of faith
  • Lawrence S. Cunningham, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
  • Book: An Introduction to Catholicism
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800825.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The rule of faith
  • Lawrence S. Cunningham, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
  • Book: An Introduction to Catholicism
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800825.007
Available formats
×