Credo

As I alluded to in the previous post, I will post a basic ‘statement of belief’. This will inherently be over-simplified and brief to a fault; for that reason, rather than a summa or full-fledged creed I might prefer to consider this as a trajectory or framework for thought. Please excuse the length, I promise they won’t all be this long. So, here goes:

Statements of belief traditionally begin with “I” (as in “I believe”). This should be considered more a convention than a foundation. There is not cause to begin with the self as if the self is the center or foundation of knowledge and truth. One begins with “I” for a number of reasons that are less than epistemological. The “I” signifies that belief is a speech-act of which I am the embodiment. So, we’ve hinted at the concept “believe”. To say “I believe” is to do something as much as it is to say something. For this reason, little more can be said about belief without the object of belief. Belief designates the form of life and cognitive functions belong to the object. In this sense, one believes from within a context and tradition and into a reality and lifestyle.

The context and tradition within which I locate myself and my believing is the Wesleyan Christian tradition. This tradition places emphasis on four “authorities”: Scripture, Tradition, Experience, Reason. I want to briefly consider the relationship of these “authorities”. Scripture, Christians generally maintain, is the original authority. Historically, via historical-critical method, we understand that there would be no “Scripture” without “tradition”. Already then, we recognize that Scripture and Tradition are intimate allies in authority. In my understanding of the function of Scripture as authority, Scripture could perhaps be characterized as a family of language-games.

Excursus: “Language-games”, in the Wittgensteinian sense, are self-sufficient language systems which have rules for use (grammar), practical aims (telos/teloi), and forms of life (narratives). This, Scripture as a family of language-games, means that Scripture has arisen out of the interaction of God and Israel/Church. The Scriptures have the function of identifying the divine and human interlocutors and establishing the grammar, telos, and forms of life of these interactions.

Because God is identified by and in the Scripture, we see that tradition is not the only contributor to the canon of Scripture; God is an active agent. In light of this, experiences of God should continue among the post-biblical community: we who are formed by the grammar of the Scripture also experience God in those terms. Thus, Experience is an “authority”. Reason, on the other hand, is somewhat a misfit because it cannot be easily located as an agent of authority, but we can recognize that the conclusions of tradition, experience, and Scripture should be confronted if they prove unreasonable or irrational. Consequently, Reason does function authoritatively in the life of the Church and the Christian. So, I believe from within the Wesleyan Christian tradition and into God.

If Scripture presents the grammar and forms of life inherent in the language-game that develops between God and man, then the form of belief is not merely concerned with information (about God and man) but with forms of life and faithfulness to the reality of God. Therefore, I believe in God. This statement of belief requires faithfulness for it to be truthful (thus, the believer’s life and world should be shaped by the God witnessed to in Scripture). So, I believe in one God. The tradition has interpreted from Scripture that the affirmation of the one God (and the experience of interaction with God) includes the three personae of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Karl Barth’s words: “God reveals Himself. He reveals Himself through Himself. He reveals Himself.” (Barth, Church Dogmatics, I.1) In my supplementary words, this says not only that man finds his existence in God (Father/Creator) and his future in God (Spirit), but that we can live our present life with God through Christ.

Therefore, I believe in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Future posts could be considered “experiments” in this creedal statement.

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* Picture found here.

MAKING  A STATEMENT: A modern rendering of a Latin version of the Nicene Creed. Copyright James Matthew Farrow (1995)