PREFACE
The word “creed” comes from the Latin credere, or “to believe or to trust.” I emphasize trust, which is something one lives, rather than intellectual acceptance of theological propositions without further impact.
PART ALPHA: GOD
I trust in one God, whose nature exceeds the bounds of human comprehension. The doctrine of the Trinity comes as close as theology can to explaining the divine nature.
I trust that we can and do understand scientifically many of God’s methods of working through nature. As Galileo Galilei insisted correctly, “The Bible tells us the way to go to Heaven, not the way the heavens go.” Science and religion ask different questions, and need not conflict with each other.
I trust that God cannot exist without caring.
I trust that God, the sole deity, encompasses both judgment and mercy.
I trust that human metaphors for God are useful, but that we ought not to fixate on them so much that we fail to focus on the truth behind them.
I trust that the historical figure known as Jesus of Nazareth was God incarnate. We have atonement through his Incarnation, gracious life, execution, and resurrection.
I trust that attempting to predict the timing of the parousia of the Christ is a fool’s errand and a vain pursuit. God’s schedule and our expectations are obviously different.
I trust that we experience God via the method we understand as the Holy Spirit.
I trust that those not predestined to Eternal Life (knowing God via Jesus) can come to Eternal Life through the witness of the Holy Spirit. Those who choose not to do so resist said witness and therefore lack Eternal Life.
I trust that this Eternal Life comes about by the process of being born from above, which might or might not involve a dramatic conversion experience. (It might entail a series of events, only some of which one can recall clearly.) Those who have had dramatic conversion experiences ought not to assume that those who have not had similar experiences need to have them. God works in more than one way.
PART BETA: ETHICS AND AGENTS OF GRACE
I trust that God speaks to us and communicates grace to us via many methods, among them the arts, the seven sacraments, all seventy-three books of the Bible, and nature, God’s creation.
I trust that we are called to minister grace to one another, to be the face of Christ to those to whom God sends us.
I trust that the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist are the literal bread of heaven and cup of salvation, transubstantiated forms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I trust that grace precedes and creates our free will, by which we can respond affirmatively to God, upon whom we depend completely.
I trust that the four canonical gospels are the proper lenses through which to read and interpret the rest of the Bible. Jesus overrides everybody else, and compassion overrides legalism.
I trust that scripture, tradition, and reason are the appropriate factors to consider in matters theological and spiritual, and that we ought to interpret one through the prism of the other two.
I trust that one ought never to fear to ask any serious spiritual question or admit to any doubt. Doubt can prompt one to seek legitimate answers, and to find them, God willing.
I trust that prayer ought to be constant, sometimes even thought or spoken. Prayer and life, orthodoxy and orthopraxy, ought to be like sides of a coin.
I trust that each person bears the image of God. So we ought to treat each other as God-bearers, extending to each other the dignity which corresponds to that status. To do otherwise is to sin.
I trust that all human beings are equal in the sight of God. This ought to compel us to treat each other as equals, loving our neighbors as we love ourselves while we love God fully and seek to enjoy and glorify God forever.
PART GAMMA: THE CHURCH
I trust that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is essential to living as a Christian, for Christianity must play out within the context of community. Jesus-and-Meism is a destructive misapprehension of the Christian faith.
I trust that we, the members of the Church Militant, need to study and learn from our forebears in faith, the members of the Church Triumphant. We ought not neglect our history.
I trust that proper worship is reverent and liturgical, grounded in scriptural readings, the seasons of the Christian year, and the frequent celebration of the Holy Eucharist.
CONCLUSION
Above all, I trust in the power, love, and grace of God, who loves us enough to identify with us and suffer for us. Such a reality demands us to respond favorably to God daily, thereby reaffirming our baptismal vows and our sacred vocations.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.
–Saint Patrick (372-466), translated by Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895)
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 18, 2011 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT LUKE THE EVANGELIST, PHYSICIAN
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 