| RELIGIOUS RITES |
|
| 4 THE CONCEPT AND FORMS OF RITUAL |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Creeds and confessions
of faith are authoritative formulations of the beliefs of religious
communities (or, by transference, of individuals). The two terms are
sometimes used interchangeably, but when distinguished a "creed"
refers to a brief affirmation of faith employed in public worship or initiation
rites, while a "confession" is generally a longer, more detailed, and
systematic doctrinal declaration; the latter term is usually restricted to such
declarations within the Christian faith. Both creeds and confessions were
historically called symbols, and the teachings they contain are termed articles
of faith or, sometimes, dogmas. |
|
|
The role of belief within religion is
interpreted differently in the various empirical disciplines and by the
proponents of particular theological or philosophical positions. Traditionally,
it has been considered the primary factor in religion, but some modern scholars
often regard beliefs as rationales for ritual,
that is to say, as secondary expressions of religious experience or as a
posteriori ideological sanctions for social and cultural patterns. The present
article follows a current anthropological and sociological tendency to define
religion as a symbolic system in which ideas and their concomitant attitudinal
aspects and actions provide to an individual or group a model of itself and its
world. From this perspective, every religion involves distinctive views or
beliefs regarding the nature of ultimate reality. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
These beliefs, however, need not be
explicitly articulated but may be wholly embedded and transmitted in rituals,
myths, and social structures and practices. This is especially true in primitive
religions. Even when differentiated from other factors, beliefs are
frequently not stated in creedal form but are diffusely expressed in sacred
writings, legal codes, liturgical formulas, and theological and philosophical
reflection. This was true in the ancient cultural religions of Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, and in traditional Hinduism, Confucianism, and
Taoism. When, however, a religion is transmitted from one culture to another (as
from Semitic to Hellenistic; i.e., Palestine
to Rome) or claims some degree of universal or exclusive truth, formal creeds
often develop as aids in maintaining continuity and identity. They serve this
purpose because the relative abstractness, comprehensiveness, and concentration
of the verbal expressions of beliefs enable them to serve better than most other
forms of religious symbolism as stable identifying marks in pluralistic,
changing, proselytizing, and missionary situations. |
|
|
Creeds in the full sense are therefore
found only in so-called universal religions, such as Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and certain modern Hindu movements (e.g.,
Brahmo Samaj). Even here they are of variable importance, with some groups
rejecting all formal creeds. Confessions are less common. They function to
define the distinctive beliefs of opposing or uniting groups within a given
religion or to formulate doctrines appropriate to new circumstances, and are
chiefly a Christian phenomenon during the period from the Reformation to the
present. |
|
|
|
|
|
Related to creeds in the full sense are
certain words and phrases which have partially creedal functions. Terms like tao
(literally, the "way") in Taoism
or li (rules of propriety) and hsiao
(filial piety) in Confucianism
summarize fundamental emphases of the religious systems of which they are a
part. The endlessly repeated mantra(evocative sacred syllables) of magic invocation, Om mani padme hum ("O, the jewel in the lotus"),
especially popular in Tibetan
Buddhism, is in one sense a profession of belief in the Avalokiteshvara
(jewel's) presence in the world (lotus). Various Hindu mantras, most notably the Gayatri prayer from the
Rigveda (Rgveda) (3.62.10) that is learned as part of the initiation
rites of Brahmin youth, also serve in part as professions of faith. Indeed, it
is primarily through liturgical utterances (e.g.,
the Lord's Prayer in Christianity), that religious identity is signalized
and faith confessed in most religions. |
|
|
More specifically creedal is the early
thrice-repeated tri-ratna of Hinayana
Buddhism: "I take my refuge in the Buddha. I take my refuge in the dharma
(doctrine). I take my refuge in the sangha
(monastic community)." |
|
|
|
|
|
Even earlier perhaps are such
Zoroastrian formulations as "I profess myself a Mazdah-worshipper, a
Zarathustrian, enemy of the demons, servant of the Lord" (Yasna
12,1), whereby the believer declared himself a monotheist, a member of a
specific community, and a dualist. (see also
Zoroastrianism) |
|
|
|
|
|
The intensely anti-polytheistic faith of
Islam is summed up in the shahadah"there is no God but God; Muhammad is the Prophet of
God." This is proclaimed in the daily calls to prayer from every mosque,
and every Muslim must recite it aloud with full comprehension and assent at
least once in his life, and profess it without hesitation until his death.
Doctrinal disputes have contributed to the development of additional creedal
formulations called 'aqa`id (singular,
'aqidah), but these do not divide Islam
into clearly marked confessional groupings or denominations such as exist in
Christianity. |
|
|
|
|
|
In Judaism,
the central affirmations of belief are parts of worship; e.g.,
the confessions of the oneness of God in the Shema (Deut. 6:4 "Hear, O
Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord") and of the resurrection of the dead
in the amidah (standing prayer). Of
the various medieval attempts to formulate creeds, the most enduring has been
Maimonides' Thirteen Principles of
Faith, but these have never become formally binding. The Reform
movement's doctrinal declarations, such as the Pittsburgh Platform (1885), have
been without lasting influence. The reason for this paucity of creeds is that
Jewish identity has been chiefly defined in terms of the observance of the
commandments and of the Oral Law, not the acceptance of doctrines. |
|
|
|
|
|
In Christianity,
in contrast, there are over 150 officially recognized creeds and confessions. In
part this is because the church was from the beginning doctrinally oriented,
making the acceptance of a specific kerygma (proclamation) a condition for
membership. The faith of the community was expressed in acclamations such as
"Jesus is Lord" (e.g., Rom.
10:9, I Cor. 12:3) and in longer, partly stereotyped summaries of essential
beliefs (e.g., I Cor. 15:3 ff.) For the New Testament community, in contrast
to some Christian groups in later times, a creedless Christianity was
inconceivable. |
|
|
Fully formed creeds first developed for
use in baptismal rites and
catechetical instruction. They generally had three sections concerned with God
the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, but were variable in wording and
content and only gradually became standardized. (see also
Trinity) |
|
|
This process culminated in the West in
the Apostles' Creed, which is
now almost universally recognized by Western churches, and is still used in
baptismal rites as well as public worship by Catholics and most Protestants.
This creed is wholly derived from New Testament affirmations, but the
5th-century legend that the Twelve Apostles were its authors is without
foundation. Not until the 8th century is it quoted in its present wording. Its
sources, however, are to be found in earlier baptismal creeds, most probably in
the Old Roman Symbol, which appears to go back in its essentials to the 2nd
century. As is true of other creeds, it is in part intended to exclude heretical
views. For example, against Gnosticism
and Marcionism (dualistic heresies), it emphasizes that God, not an evil
demiurge, is the creator of the world, and against docetic views that Jesus was
a heavenly being with a phantom body, it insists that he was born of the Virgin
Mary and actually suffered and died and was buried. |
|
|
The Nicene
Creed exists in two versions and represents a new type of doctrinal
statement. It was first formulated at Nicaea in 325 by the first of the
universal, or ecumenical, councils, after Christianity became the official
religion of the Roman Empire, and was designed not as a baptismal confession but
as a binding standard of orthodox teachings. Its second version has become the
most fully ecumenical of Christian creeds, accepted in East and West alike,
including the major Protestant bodies. In Eastern churches, it is regularly
employed in both Baptism and eucharistic worship; in the West, only in the
Eucharist, and chiefly by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans. |
|
|
The first version of this formulary is
that promulgated at the Council of Nicaea in 325, but the second version, the
"Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed," which has everywhere become
standard and is generally referred to as the Nicene Creed, was affirmed at the Council
of Chalcedon (451) as the Nicene "faith of the 150 fathers" (i.e., the Council of Constantinople of AD 381). In 4th-and
5th-century usage, "the Nicene faith" did not refer to the creed of
Nicaea as such, but rather to its teaching. |
|
|
Both versions make the same fundamental
affirmations against the Arian heresy that denied the equality of the Father and
the Son, asserting that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is homoousios
("of one substance") with the Father. They are also both derived
from Eastern baptismal formulas, though which ones is in dispute. (see also
Arianism) |
|
|
The filioque
clause, affirming that the
Spirit proceeds "from the Son" as well as the Father, was inserted
into the text in Spain during the 6th century and gradually spread to all
Western churches, but was probably not used in Rome itself until 1014. Eastern
Christians continue to reject this addition, though now they do not generally
regard it as heretical, especially if it is understood in the sense of
"through the Son." |
|
|
The Athanasian Creed, also called the Quicumque
vultfrom its
initial words, is the last of what in the West are regarded as the three
catholic or ecumenical creeds. It has received some slight recognition in the
East, but only since the 16th century. While officially accepted in the Roman
Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran communions, its liturgical use has greatly
declined in recent centuries. In part this is because it is in form more a
theological exposition than a creed, and in part because of the damnatory
clauses that exclude from salvation all those who do not accept every detail of
its teaching. The main themes are the nature of Christ and the Trinity, and
these are developed in opposition not only to Arianism but also apparently to
later heresies such as Nestorianism and Eutychianism. While its doctrine can in
general be attributed to the 4th-century Church Father Athanasius, he was not
its author. It probably originated in southern France about 450-500, although
there is no scholarly consensus on this point. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Official doctrine has chiefly developed
during later periods of church history by the formulation of confessions of
faith, rather than new creeds. This process did not begin, however, until the
16th-century Reformation.
During the Middle Ages, dogmas evolved slowly, almost unconsciously, and then
were ratified from time to time by decisions of the church councils, such as the
decision on the seven sacraments at the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1439. The
Protestant Reformers, however, were confronted with the need to define and make
legitimate their views over against the established system, and thus issued
comprehensive manifestos that, much more than the early creeds, were not only
catalogues of beliefs but also interpretations and apologies for them. The Roman
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches responded with their own confessional
statements. |
|
|
|
|
|
The Augsburg
Confession (1530) was the first of these statements, and still remains
the most authoritative standard in Lutheran churches. It (as well as the Apology
of the Augsburg Confession of 1531) was written by Philipp Melanchthon
and approved by Martin Luther, and presents an irenic statement aiming to show
that the pope and his allies, not the Reformers, had departed from Scripture and
the tradition of the early Fathers. Luther's Small
Catechism also enjoys official status in all Lutheran churches and has
been determinative for most Lutheran preaching and instruction. The Formula
of Concord (1577) further defined the Lutheran position in reference to
controversies both within and outside the ranks. These four writings, together
with the Large Catechism (1529), the Schmalkald
Articles, and the Treatise were assembled into the Book of Concord (1580), which
has official status in many Lutheran churches. (see also
Lutheranism, "Treatise
on the Power and Primacy of the Pope," ) |
|
|
|
|
|
In the Reformed tradition stemming from
John Calvin (1509-64) and Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531), each national church
produced its own confessional documents. No one of these is authoritative for
all, though some (e.g., the Heidelberg
Catechism; 1563) are widely esteemed and used. In Switzerland, the First (1536)
Helvetic Confession and the Second (1566) Helvetic Confession are the most
generally accepted. The French Gallican Confession of 1559 is much admired, and
in the Low Countries, the Belgic Confession of 1561 is important. The
Netherlands was also the site of the international Synod of Dort (1619) that
presented an especially rigid statement of Calvinism against Arminianism (a view
that asserted the compatibility of God's sovereignty and man's free will). This
same emphasis, combined with Puritan covenantal theology, is reflected in the
English Westminster Confession of 1646 that in Scotland replaced the Scots
Confession in 1560, was adopted with modifications by Congregationalists and
many Baptists, and still remains standard for American Presbyterian
churches, though with some revisions. |
|
|
|
|
|
The Thirty-nine
Articles (1563) is the only doctrinal formulation other than the early
creeds recognized in the Church of England and its offshoots, but its authority
is not great. In the Anglican Communion, The
Book of Common Prayer plays
the identity-sustaining role served by confessions in Lutheran and Reformed
churches. The Thirty-nine Articles, abbreviated to 25, are also the chief
doctrinal standard in the Methodist churches, but their authority is uncertain. |
|
|
|
|
|
Confessional documents are of little
significance for most of the radical groups (e.g., Anabaptists) coming out of the Reformation. To be sure, the
Anabaptist Schleitheim Confession (1527) was historically important, the
Dordrecht Confession (1632) still has some standing in Mennonite churches, and
various Baptist and Congregationalist statements could also be mentioned. The
general tendency in these churches, however, has been to oppose formal creeds
and confessions for fear of stifling the workings of the Holy Spirit or
imperilling the sole authority of the Bible or, in theologically liberal
circles, endangering freedom of thought and conscience. |
|
|
|
|
|
Roman
Catholic doctrinal statements are not usually called
confessions, but the presentation of the distinctive points of Catholic dogma in
the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent (1564) is as fully elaborated as
are Protestant confessional writings. The dogmatic constitutions of the first
Vatican Council (1869-70) and papal definitions of the dogmas of the Immaculate
Conception (1854) and of the Assumption (1950) also have some of the character
of confessions. |
|
|
|
|
|
Eastern
Orthodoxy responded to Protestant and Roman Catholic
challenges with the confessions of Peter Mogila, Metropolitan of Kiev, in 1643
and of Dosítheos, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, in 1672, both adopted by
the Synod of Jerusalem (1672), as well as with the Catechism of Philaret,
Metropolitan of Moscow, revised and approved by the Holy Synod in 1839. The
Orthodox, however, place little emphasis on these documents, for they regard
only the Nicene Creed with its Chalcedonian additions as fully authoritative,
and in practice also treat their historic liturgies as doctrinally more
important than later statements. |
|
|
|
|
|
Recently new types of confessions have
begun to emerge. With the decline of state churches, confessions are no longer
legally established norms and can once again regain their original function of
witnessing to basic convictions. Especially notable in this respect is the Barmen
Declaration, formulated in 1934 by a group of Reformed and Lutheran
churchmen in opposition to the Nazi-influenced "German Christians."
Because of the advance of the ecumenical movement, recent confessional
statements have usually been unitive rather than divisive. The doctrinal basis
of the World Council of Churches
is limited to the affirmation that it is "a fellowship of churches which
accept our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior" (1961). Preparation of
joint Protestant and Roman Catholic official translations into English of the
Apostles and Nicene Creeds commenced in 1969. Another characteristic of
contemporary doctrinal statements, such as those of the Roman Catholic second
Vatican Council (1962-64) and the Presbyterian (U.S.A.) Confession of 1967, is
the attempt to reformulate traditional beliefs in ways appropriate to modern
circumstances. |
|
|
Despite these developments, creeds and
confessions are losing influence in both Christian and non-Christian groups.
They are, among other things, often attacked as obstacles to the individual's
freedom of thought. This objection applies with special force against a
fideistic attitude, such as is illustrated in extreme form by the well-known
saying attributed traditionally, though not altogether correctly, to the
2nd-century North African Church Father Tertullian, credo quia absurdum est, "I believe because it is absurd."
It is less applicable to another ancient and theologically more common approach
summed up in the 11th- and 12th-century theologian Anselm's (and, in a somewhat
different wording, Augustine's) classic phrase, credo
ut intelligam, "I believe in order that I may understand." The
latter view claims that true faith promotes rather than suppresses inquiry and
intellectual liberty. |
|
|
Yet, whatever the merits of such views,
doctrinal convictions are clearly weakening, even in traditionally creedal and
confessional bodies. The search for creedless religion is widespread. There is
the possibility, however, that this trend may be eventually reversed because the
quest for religious community is also strong, and may require the formation or
re-affirmation of community-identifying beliefs; i.e., of creeds or confessions. (G.A.L.) |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
