Hi Sandy,

I am often reminded of a comment I heard from someone who noted that none of the creeds include any reference to the love of God. This apparent oversight is not even addressed by appealing to the 39 Articles, it would seem, for they too fail to explicitly make reference to God’s love!

It is a reminder that the creeds were framed to redress heresy (and God’s love was not formally in doubt in any of the major heresies), a fact which highlights the inherent inadequacy of the creeds — they are incomplete summaries of biblical belief and necessarily need to be augmented. That’s not to say there’s no value in reciting them, just that they need both explanation and elaboration.

Hi Martin and Lionel, thanks for your encouragement.

I have never thought before about the absence of any mention of love.

I see it implied in the phrases “for us”, “for our sake” and the mention of forgiveness.

A quick search of the 39 Articles confirmed it does not speak of God’s love, although mentioning our love for God. They do however speak of God’s mercy, grace and good will towards us.

However I see your point as a very strong argument indeed for reciting <i>Two Ways to Live</i> together as a quasi-creed at church (who’d have thought it), since 2WTL mentions God’s love in box 1 and box 3!

Great stuff, Sandy.
I reckon the best example of explaining the key concept of the NCC I have seen is this:

At one point in its Creed, as is well known, the Council of Nicaea clearly went beyond the language of Scripture, in describing Jesus as “of one substance with the Father.” Both in ancient and modern times the presence in the Creed of this philosphical term, “of one substance,” has given rise to major disputes. Again and again it has been suggested that it indicates a serious departure not only from the language but also from the thought of the Bible. We can only answer this charge if we ascertain precisely what it actually says. What does “of one substance” really mean? The answer is this: the term is used solely as a translation of the word “Son” into philosophical language.

Josepf Ratzinger, Behold the pierced one: an approach to a spiritual Christology

That is EXACTLY right: both in terms of the historical context of the Creed; and in capturing the nub at which the Creed re-expresses the biblical conception of the second person.