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JUBILEE TEACHING

The Nicene Creed

JUBILEE TEACHING FOR MARCH 2, 2008 | FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

The Catholic canon is based on the beliefs of the church. The creed formulated at the Nicaean Council, which is called the Nicene Creed, is composed of 12 articles of faith and incorporates the most basic beliefs found at the heart of Catholicism. The authoritative wording of the Nicene Creed has guided the church for 1,600 years and forms the expression of faith that Catholics say during baptism, as well as during the liturgy of the Mass.

The formulation of the creed was a defining moment for the church, and it came about as a reaction to the rising tide of a heresy called Arianism, which threatened the unity of Christians in the fourth century by denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. To deal with the growing controversy, Emperor Constantine, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, called a council of bishops to Nicaea.

The Nicaean Council, which met in A.D. 325, developed the Nicene Creed from the Apostles’ Creed, which is still recognized by the Catholic Church as an important corollary to the Nicene. Until the 1500s, the Apostles’ Creed was believed to be a summary of the apostles’ faith, since it was neatly comprised of 12 articles of faith, the same number as God’s chosen disciples. During the 1400s, though, historians discovered its true origin as an adapted version of the old Roman Creed. (The Apostles’ Creed remains the most important creed of most Protestant religions.)

The Nicaean Council refined the wording of the Apostles’ Creed so that Jesus’ divinity — in addition to his humanity — was plainly expressed and proclaimed. A second ecumenical council that convened in Constantinople in A.D. 381 approved and finalized the work of the first council, giving us what we now know as the Nicene Creed.

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