Understanding our Faith

A Creed is not a Catechism

A creed does not try to explain the Christian faith.  Its purpose is not to explain everything about the faith or to cover every one of its aspects, but to lay down the basis of the faith to which all are called to adhere.  So the two creeds in use in our liturgy are common to all the major Christian churches.  They are expressions of the foundations of the Christian faith.  So we should not expect of creeds more than they are intended to achieve.

A Catechism is something quite different.  A Catechism sets out to explain the Christian faith and to apply it to the particular circumstances of time and place in which it is to be used.  Many of us would remember the old ‘penny catechism’ set up in terms of set questions and answers which many of us were urged to learn by heart.  The more recent Catechism of the Catholic Church, published during the Papacy of John Paul II, in one of its major sections, took up the creed and explained the various statements of the creed at length. 

Given that both creeds were written a very long time ago, there are within them the signs of the time in which they were written.  This is particularly so in the longer Nicene Creed which was written in the fourth century when the Church was greatly troubled by heresies which denied the divinity of Christ and so did not believe in the Trinity.  So we find in that creed terminology such as “consubstantial with the Father” which is their way of speaking about the unity of the Father and the Son.  An earlier translation of the creed spoke of Christ as “one in being with the Father”.

The issue of the creeds being formed in another time and another culture is an issue we will come back to as this series of short articles on the creed continues.  We also need to look at some of the interpretations of the creed which are not necessarily expressed therein.

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin

Published: 8 December 2023