Notes by David Monyak. Last update Oct 14, 2000

A copy of these notes in the form of the handout passed out at the meeting can be downloaded from the Download Page.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

The Apostles' Creed

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son*.

With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.

He has spoken through the Prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

The Nicene Creed

* "and the Son" - the filioque clause. This was not part of the original Nicene Creed. It was later inserted into the Creed by the Western Church in part in reaction to Arianism. By the 9th century the addition was nearly universal in the Western Church. However, the addition was never accepted in the Eastern Church.

Topics

(Questions and topics from chapter 5 in Credo. The Apostles' Creed Explained for Today. Hans Küng. Doubleday. New York. 1992:)

1. Who is the Holy Spirit?

2. Is Pentecost an historical event?

3. What is the church?

4. The apostolic church: authority grounded in service?

5. What does catholic mean today? What does evangelical mean?

6. Is the church "holy"?

7. What does "communion of saints" mean?

8. What does "forgiveness of sins" mean?

1. Who is the Holy Spirit?

1.1. Introduction

(from Küng: Credo)

• Holy Spirit is God 

• "of one substance with the Father and the Son" 

  • i.e. of the same essential nature as the Father and Son

• God's invisible activity

• tangible yet intangible 

• invisible yet powerful 

• as important to life as the air we breathe 

• laden with energy like the wind, the storm

• the personal nearness of God to us 

• God nearness to the world

• not a third element, a something between God and us

spiritus (Latin - masculine) 

ruach (Hebrew - feminine) 

pneuma (Greek - neuter)

1.2 The Holy Spirit in the Bible

1.2.1. The Spirit in the Old Testament

(from Owen Thomas, Introduction to Theology, pages 195-196)

The Spirit of God as the personal presence and power of God:

• cooperates in the work of creation

  • ruach is the breath or storm of God which moves over the waters

• guides rulers and king

• inspires the prophets

• sanctifies Israel

1.2.2. The Spirit in the New Testament

(from Owen Thomas, Introduction to Theology, pages 195-196)

• the Spirit is the manifestation of the power and presence of God

  • at Jesus' conception 

  • at Jesus' baptism

  • at the beginning of his public ministry

  • in his works of healing

• After the Resurrection:

  • Spirit given to the community of the church

  • guides and empowers the mission of the church

  • in Paul

    • Spirit is the way Christ is present in the church

    • is present in each individual

    • helps each individual to produce the fruits of the Spirit, esp. love

  • In John:

    • counselor

    • bears witness to Christ

    • confirms Christ teachings

1.3. How does the Holy Spirit relate to the Father and the Son? The Filioque Controversery

(from McGrath, Christian Theology, An Introduction, pages 302-306)

1.3.1. History of the Filioque Clause

• Original Nicene Creed: 

  • Spirit proceeds from the Father only

• by 9th century, Western churches added routinely:

  • "Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son" 

  • filioque = Latin for "and from the Son"

1.3.2. Eastern View of the Trinity

Greek patristic fathers: there is only one source of being within the Trinity: Father alone was the sole cause of all things, the sole source of divinity

• Son is "begotten" (Greek gennesis)of the Father 

• Spirit "proceeds" (Greek ekporeusis) from the Father (both derive from the Father in different ways)

Imagery: 

• Son is the Word of God. The Spirit is the Breath of God

• Father pronounces his word and at the same time breathes out to make his word capable of being heard

Distinction critical: if no distinction, then the charge could be made the Father had two Sons

1.3.3. East versus West

• Eastern / Greek Church: 

  • To say Spirit proceeds from the Son also compromises fundamental principle that the Father is the source of all divinity

• In Western church Augustine had taught

  • the Spirit must proceed from the Son also

  • John 20:22 (post-resurrection appearance of Jesus) "When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" (NRSV)

  • Western Image: Father and Son together breathe the Holy Spirit

• Compromise (too late to heal schism):

  • Council of Lyons 1274: "The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, yet not as from two origins but as from one origin"

1.4. How can we think of the Holy Spirit?

1.4.1. Perichoresis

(from McGrath, Christian Theology, An Introduction, pages 302-306)

Perichoresis or circumincessio or "mutual interpenetration" 

• each person of the Trinity shares the life of the other two 

• each penetrates the others and is penetrated by them

1.4.2. Appropriation

(from McGrath, Christian Theology, An Introduction, pages 302-306)

All three persons of the Trinity are active in all actions of God, but it is "appropriate" to think of some actions as being the work of one of the persons of the Trinity

Examples: 

• It is appropriate to think of Creation as the distinctive work of the Father (even though all, Father, Son and Holy Spirit mutually interpenetrating each other and sharing each other's lives are present and active) 

• It is appropriate to think of redemption as the distinctive action of the Son (even though all, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, mutually interpenetrating each other and sharing each other's lives are present and active)

1.4.3. Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ

(from Küng: Credo and McGrath, Christian Theology, An Introduction, pages 302-306)

we can think of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus within us, for:

• The Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all mutually interpenetrate each other

• Jesus is therefore present through the Spirit, in the Spirit, as the Spirit

1 Cor 15:45 "Thus it is written, 'The first man, Adam, became a living being'; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit." (NRSV)

1.4.4. Holy Spirit is Love

(from McGrath, Christian Theology, An Introduction, pages 302-306)

Augustine's doctrine of the Trinity:

• The Spirit is the bond of union between the God and the believer

• The Spirit is the bond between the Father and Son in the Trinity

• That bond is Love

2. Is Pentecost an historical event?

2.1. The Church began as an "event"

• The Church, a sense of community distinct from Israel, began as an "event," not through a formal act of institution or foundation

• There is no saying of Jesus in any of the gospels calling for a foundation of church 

2.2. The Pentecost "event"

Described only in Luke as:

• the day on which the promised Spirit of God descends on humankind 

• the hour of birth of the Jerusalem community

2.3. Did Pentecost actually take place?

Küng: it is plausible:

• Penetekoste = Greek for "fiftieth day"

• this was the harvest festival day on the Jewish festival calendar 

• many pilgrims came to Jerusalem

• there was also a tradition of a spirit led mass ecstasy in Jerusalem on the Jewish festival harvest day

• reasonable to suppose a first "assembly" of the followers of Jesus mostly from Galilee had come to Jerusalem on this day

• Jesus' mother and brothers were also described as being there

3. What is the Church?

3.1. Images of the Church in the New Testament

(from Owen Thomas, Introduction to Theology)

Four images of the church in the New Testament:

• The congregation of the faithful

• The body of Christ

• The fellowship of the Spirit

• The community of hope

3.1.1. The congregation of the faithful

• emphasizes faith is the basis of Christian life in the church

• Paul's teaching about salvation: 

  • salvation is by grace received through faith and not by any works of the law

• the classic Protestant emphasis on the nature of the Church

3.1.2. The body of Christ

An image in Paul's letter to the Ephesians

Body is used a metaphor: 

emphasizes Christian life is a participation in the Christ through the Spirit. 

The church is the body of Christ because:

• it is the community in which the Spirit of Christ dwells

• the Spirit of Christ gives gifts to members of the church, allowing them to function like part of a whole body

• the life and well-being of the community depends on the service and function of all its members, just as the function of a body depends on the function of all its parts

• membership is gained and sustained by the sacraments, which are related to the true body of Christ

  • baptism to death and resurrection of Christ

  • Eucharist to the body and blood of Christ

• Christ is the head of the community or body

This is the classic Catholic emphasis on the nature of the Church

3.1.3. The fellowship of the Spirit

• Possession of the Spirit is the decisive mark of being a Christian

  • Romans 8:9: "But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him." (NRSV)

  • 1 John 4:13: By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." (NRSV)

• the presence of the Holy Spirit is what makes the Church what it is

This image is related to the above:

• congregation of the faithful

  • faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit

  • 1 Corinthians 12:3: "Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says 'Let Jesus be cursed!' and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit." (NRSV)

• body of Christ

  • presence of the Holy Spirit makes the Church the body of Christ

3.1.4. The community of hope

The church is also a "fellowship" of the end-time:

• powers of the age to come are already at work, but not yet fully present

  • life of the church is a foretaste of what is to come

  • the church is not now fully what it is meant to be

    • 1 John 3:2: "Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is." (NRSV)

    • Romans 8:22-23: "We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies." (NRSV)

• looks forward to the return of Christ and the fulfillment

3.2. The Essential Church versus the Outward / Empirical Church

3.2.1. Is the church of the Creed the essential, invisible church or the outward, visible church?

• Essential Church

  • invisible church

  • those who genuinely belong to Christ

  • defined by faith

  • in the doctrine of predestination, it is the invisible community of the "elect", some of whom are in the visible church and some who may not be

• Outward or Empirical Church 

  • visible church

  • defined by baptism, subscription to a Creed, submission to a particular bishop (see section on limits below)

Modern theologians tend to reject the idea that the church talked about in the New Testament and the Creed is the invisible church. The church of the New Testament is:

• a visible community of specific fallible human beings with names and addresses

• just as Israel in the Old Testament was always the visible community

3.2.2. What are the limits of the church? What are the conditions for membership?

• in the New Testament:

  • baptism in name of Jesus

  • confession of faith in Jesus as Lord

  • participation in the Eucharist

• added in 2nd and 3rd centuries:

  • affirmation of rule of faith

  • being in communion with a bishop

    • later: bishops had to be in communion with the bishops of Rome

      • not true in the East after the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western churches

• the Reformers

  • proper preaching of the word

  • proper administration of the sacraments

  • Anglicans add communion with a bishop standing in apostolic succession

3.3. The Church as "horizontal" community versus "vertical" community

3.3.1. Is the reality of the Church a fundamentally "vertical" community?

• an event now between God and humanity

• a community continually being created anew now through the hearing of the word

• the traditional Protestant emphasis 

3.3.2. Is the reality of the Church a fundamentally "horizontal" community?

• a body continuous in history

• an institution stretching back to the founding of the church by Christ and the apostles, united through the continuities of sacrament and church order

• the traditional Catholic emphasis

Anglicans share a sense of the church as both a "vertical" community and a "horizontal" community

3.4. What is the nature of the unity of the church?

The New Testament and the Creeds speak of one church

• Ephesians 4:4-6: "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. . ." (NRSV)

• Nicene Creed:

  • "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church"

If we believe the church of the Creed is the visible community, then clearly:

• the church is not one, but divided

• there are many churches

• many will not share the Eucharist with each other

The disunity of the church comes out particularly in the image of the church as the Body of Christ. The "parts of the body" are clearly not working together for the whole in cooperation. We must therefore profess "We believe in only holy catholic Church" with pain.

If however you believe the church of the Creed is an invisible, essential community, then you can argue the unity of the church is spiritual and invisible

4. The apostolic Church: authority grounded in service? 

4.1. The need for human authority and structure

Church is a community of people who are free and equal: Galatians 3:28: "neither slave nor free, neither man nor woman"

However, the church still needs human authority organization, structure

4.2. What kind of authority and structure?

• structures of church

  • best thought of as ministries, callings

• authority and power in the church

  • power (authority) must be delegated, but should be grounded in service, not rule, not force, not privilege

• government of the church

  • Word of God, Jesus Christ must rule the Church

  • a monarchy, a hierarchy, or the democratic vote of the people: none can be presumed to be substitute or a guarantee of revelation

  • a democratic church = can describe only how it organizes and structures in service under God's Word, through the Holy Spirit

4.3. Apostolic succession: a division between clergy and laity?

apostolic succession 

• not a special privilege of the called but a task of the whole church

• a call to live in accord with the testimony of the apostles

• it is made concrete in the exercising of the apostolic ministry

• is an invitation to all Christians in the church to become "more apostolic" = strive to be loyal to the origin of the church

5. What does catholic mean today? What does evangelical mean?

5.1. What does "catholic" mean?

• the universal, entire church as distinct from the local church 

• does not denote any confessional church

  • "Roman Catholic" is strictly speaking a contradiction, combining a particular and universal

• to be catholic means to be concerned with the whole, universal, world-wide church

5.2. What does "evangelical" mean?

• a church primarily orientated on the evangelium Christi = the gospel of Jesus Christ

• does not exclude tradition, but subordinates it to the gospel

  • submits all traditions, doctrines, practices to the light of the gospel

5.3. An opportunity for ecumenism

There is nothing mutually exclusive about "catholic" and "evangelical"

• a baptized Catholic can also have a truly evangelical disposition

• a baptized Evangelical (Protestant) can show a truly catholic breadth

6. Is the church "holy"?

6.1. What is holy?

• holy = being set apart by God for God

• there is no mention in the New Testament of "institutional holiness"

• the only holiness is the holiness of the individual = total orientation on the will of God

6.2. In what way can the church be holy?

A church can be holy only to the degree the individuals making it up are holy. 

Since all individuals are also fallible and therefore sinful, we must say:

• the community calling itself the church is holy and sinful at the same time

• the church is part of the battlefield between God's Spirit and evil in the world

  • front runs not only through the holy church and the unholy world

  • but also through the middle of the human heart

7. What does "communion of saints" mean?

the community of believers = another description of the church

8. What does the "forgiveness of sins" mean?

8.1. Guilt 

• no one is spared experiences of helplessness, failure, guilt 

• everyone is entangled in complex histories of guilt they would like to repress or deny 

• there is a modern tendency to deny/repress/reduce guilt to what can be proven legally

8.2. Jesus' intent: liberation from guilt 

Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God calls for metanoia = turning back from a false, sinful way

Küng: means: 

• "to invite them to an inner, radical and total conversion and homecoming of the whole person to God" 

• "to a life lived for fellow human beings"

invitation is for: 

• "the pious and righteous who do not think that they need repentance" 

• "those criticized, rejected and repudiated by the pious: the lost sons and daughters"

8.3. Means of liberation: the forgiveness of sins 

Jesus promised forgiveness of sins, claiming what in Judaism is a province of God alone

forgiveness is:

• the offer of God's grace given without condition 

• makes liberation possible 

• purpose of all metanoia, repentance, "penance": create new positive possibilities 

• "put a line under it; you are forgiven"

8.4. Ways we are forgiven

Ways in which forgiveness of sins is possible: 

• baptism 

• preaching of the gospel 

• general absolution in liturgy 

• absolution from any believer 

• special absolution of ministers 

  • norm in the Catholic church

8.5. The need that God's forgiveness be passed onto others

Forgiveness of guilt between people is not "natural"

Divine forgiveness is tied to forgiveness between human beings 

"there can be no reconciliation with God without reconciliation in the interpersonal sphere"

This is central in Jesus' teachings:

• Matt 6:12: "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (NRSV) 

• Matt 6:14: "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (NRSV)

• Parable of the generous king who forgives his minister a giant debt

demand is: 

• not a new "law" 

• a moral appeal to

  • human generosity and warm-heartedness 

  • individuals 

  • representatives of state

References

Christian Theology. An Introduction. Second Edition. Alister E. McGrath. Blackwell Publishers. 1997

Credo. The Apostles' Creed Explained for Today. Hans Küng. Doubleday. New York. 1992

Introduction to Theology. Revised Edition. Owen C. Thomas. Morehouse Publishing. Harrisburg. 1983

 

The Creed   1. God the Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth 2. Jesus Christ, the Son of God 3. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus 4. The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus 5. The Holy Spirit, the Church, the Communion of Saints 6. The Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Life 7. Epilogue on the Creed: Father Joe's Perspectives and Answers to Questions