Why Keep the Athanasian Creed?

More from Robert Saler's essay, "Longing for the Longest Creed," found on pages 21-23 of the latest (Summer 2008) issue of Lutheran Forum:

[W]hat theological justifications remain for retaining the creed as a presence in the life of the Lutheran church? Can there be any value in encountering a creed in the teaching or even the liturgy of a congregation, if large segments of that congregation cannot assent to all of its features? I would suggest that it is precisely because the Quicunque provokes such an unsettling encounter between the fidelity of the early church and our contemporary mindsets that retention of the creed is so vital. This is true for several reasons.

First, the creed reminds us that, while Lutherans assert that it is faith that justifies us, we also believe that the faith to which we are called has a content and not simply a form. were one to deny this by claiming, explicitly or implicitly, that the grace of the Holy Spirit calls us to the "life" or form of faith without any specific theological content, then such a denial would constitute a definitive departure from the theologically "thick" faith of the Reformers and the church with which they understood themselves to be in continuity. Such a mentality would exacerbate the unfortunate tendency of many Christians to proclaim that we are saved through faith without further specifying what that faith asserts about itself. The Athanasian Creed is one of the church catholic's most powerful statements that the faith to which grace calls us is faith in the God of Abraham, the God of Jesus Christ, the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It declares that Christian faith is faith in the Trinity. The Lutheran insistence upon sola fide [faith alone] does not erase the so-called "scandal of particularity." If anything, sola fide revels in particularity. So does the creed, and in that sense it is a very Lutheran-friendly document.

Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier?

It's only a footnote in his essay, "Longing for the Longest Creed," in the newest (Summer 2008) issue of Lutheran Forum on the Athanasian Creed, but there Robert Saler packs a whole lot of commentary into just one sentence:

This piece of modalism is all the more vexing since it completely obscures the fact that, according to both the Gospel of John and the Epistle to the Colossians, it is the second and not the first person of the Trinity who is the primary agent of creation.

The answer to the question in this post's title is, "No!"

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

The Holy Trinity

This Sunday is the Festival of the Holy Trinity, which in the Western Catholic Church has been observed on the first Sunday after Pentecost since 1334. It is commonly described as the only festival devoted to a doctrine, but I find that a rather short-sighted description. The day (as well as the doctrine) is about how God has revealed himself to man, so that we might know him and be in relationship with him. That's no dry academic thing, though we often treat it that way.

A liturgical tradition for Holy Trinity Sunday, one that we follow at Zion, is for the congregation to speak the "Athanasian Creed." According to the Lutheran Confessions, this Creed ranks with the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, all three of which appear at the beginning of the Book of Concord -- in front of the Augsburg Confession and the other Confessions. It is named after St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria from 328-373, the most steadfast of the defenders of the Creed of the Council of Nicea in 325 against the Arians, who nonetheless frequently controlled the Church (including exiling Athanasius several times) until the Council of Chalcedon in 381, from which came what we now call the Nicene (or Niceno-Constantinopolitan) Creed. The Arians were the initial evangelizers of Western Europe and remained strong there well into the 5th Century, the latter part during which the Athanasian Creed emerged in Gaul (France) as a meditation (or even hymn) upon the Nicene Creed against the Arians.

The congregation at Zion will be reading it antiphonally following the Sermon, using this elegant translation from the Lutheran Book of Worship -- which is by Prof. Ralph Quere and under the LBW copyright (and not ICET/ELLC as the ELCA website erroneously states). For purposes of this Blog, here is an older version (not under copyright) as found in the (current) 1979 Book of Common Prayer. (Don't need Augsburg Fortress' copyright department coming after me for this!)

To begin to "understand" the Holy Trinity, I recommend that you meditate on this, for it beats all those modalistic children's sermons Pastors (and, yes, I did it myself a couple of times) keep foisting upon their congregations. And Lutherans really do (or at least we have officially said so for 427 years) believe this!

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith.

Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

And the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.

For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.

But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.

The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate.

The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.

The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal.

And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal.

As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.

So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty.

And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.

And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.

So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord.

And yet not three Lords, but one Lord.

For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be both God and Lord,

So are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion, to say, There be three Gods, or three Lords.

The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten.

The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten.

The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.

And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is greater, or less than another;

But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal.

So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.

He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man;

God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man of the substance of his Mother, born in the world;

Perfect God and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.

Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father, as touching his manhood;

Who, although he be God and Man, yet he is not two, but one Christ;

One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking of the Manhood into God;

One altogether; not by confusion of Substance, but by unity of Person.

For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ;

Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead.

He ascended into heaven, he sitteth at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence he will come to judge the quick and the dead.

At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works.

And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.

This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.

The ELCA's "new energy and commitment"

And then there's this news item on the ELCA News Blog:

Lutherans help set world record by "Standing Up" against poverty

by Annie Lynsen, ELCA Washington Office

More than 1,500 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) were among the 110,332 U.S. citizens and 23.5 million people worldwide who stood up during worship Oct. 15 to fight global poverty. The "STAND UP" event set a national and global record in the Guinness World Records for the largest number of people to stand up for a cause.

Lutherans across the United States participated in the event organized as part of "ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History," in cooperation with the United Nations' Millennium Campaign. People stood together to ask their governments to take action to end poverty and inequality and meet the Millennium Development Goals. "Participation of Lutheran congregations in the STAND UP event reflects the new energy and commitment that the ONE Lutheran Campaign has generated at the local level. Our commitment as Lutherans to fighting poverty and disease in the world is part of a global movement with a common goal to end the scandal of poverty that kills," said Kim C. Stietz, ONE Lutheran Campaign coordinator, ELCA Washington Office.

More than 400 people stood up at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Houston, and 250 stood up at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Hinsdale, Ill. Around the world, Lutherans and members of other faith traditions also organized STAND UP events. At Solor Lutheran Church in Webster, Minn., 52 people stood for a moment during worship, 14 of whom participated in a house party later that day. "At the house party, we called our representative, our senators, and our candidates and left messages asking what they've done or what they plan to do about hunger and the Millennium Development Goals," said Carrie Young, a member of Solor Lutheran Church. "We also watched the ELCA World Hunger Video, 'For Such a Time as This,' and we talked about the ONE Campaign." ONE Lutherans across the country joined with other volunteers, students and community members as a part of this movement.

Okay, the ELCA reports 4,850,776 baptized members, 2,256,700 of whom are "communing and contgributing" members of her 10,549 congregations.

In case you're wondering, the ONE Lutheran Campaign is about eradicating poverty in the world, though with this kind of "new energy and commitment," those who make up the campaign will soon be one Lutheran.

Meanwhile, in the 10 ELCA congregations of Peoria County (including Peoria, Bartonville, Chillicothe, Glasford, and Trivoli), more than 1600 people stood up last Sunday to confess the Apostles' Creed. Stop the presses!