The Church’s Common Confession
The Ecumenical Creeds
The whole church’s earliest confessions, received by the Reformed churches as faithful summaries of biblical truth.
The Apostles’ Creed2nd to 4th c.Full text
The oldest and simplest of the church’s confessions, the Apostles’ Creed grew out of the baptismal formula and the early rule of faith. It isn’t the literal work of the twelve apostles, as the medieval legend held, but a faithful digest of their teaching that reached its received form in the West by about the eighth century. Trinitarian in shape and built on living facts rather than abstract definitions, it remains the creed most often confessed in Reformed worship; the Heidelberg Catechism expounds it article by article.
“As the Lord’s Prayer is the Prayer of prayers, the Decalogue the Law of laws, so the Apostles’ Creed is the Creed of creeds.”Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. I
The Nicene Creed325 / 381Full text
Forged in the church’s long struggle with Arianism, the Nicene Creed confesses the Son as very God of very God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father. Its first form came from the Council of Nicaea in 325; the fuller text we now use, which adds the deity of the Holy Spirit against the Macedonians, was completed at Constantinople in 381. Schaff notes that its precise terms are so many trophies of orthodoxy won in that conflict, and that it is honored across East and West alike.
“The Nicene Creed is the first which obtained universal authority.”Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. I
The Athanasian Creed5th to 6th c.Full text
Named for Athanasius but not actually written by him, the Athanasian Creed (the Symbolum Quicunque) arose in the Latin West from the school of Augustine. It gives the fullest and most exact statement of the Trinity and the Incarnation in the ancient church, gathering the decisions of the first four ecumenical councils into short, rhythmic sentences. Schaff prizes its artistry even as its solemn warnings against rejecting the faith have long drawn comment.
“It is a musical creed or dogmatic psalm.”Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. I
The Chalcedonian Formula451Full text
The Definition of Chalcedon, adopted by the fourth ecumenical council in 451, completes the church’s confession of Christ’s person. Against Nestorius, who divided Christ, and Eutyches, who confused his natures, it confesses one Christ in two natures, “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” Schaff judges that it substantially completes the orthodox Christology of the ancient church, holding the true mean just as Nicaea did for the Trinity.
“As the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity stands midway between Tritheism and Sabellianism, so the Chalcedonian formula strikes the true mean between Nestorianism and Eutychianism.”Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. I
The Three Forms of Unity, the Westminster Standards, and the early Reformed confessions and catechisms, gathered in one place.
Summaries draw on Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. I: The History of Creeds (1877), now in the public domain. Each creed is hosted here in full. Prepared and set for the web by Reformed Dogmatika.
