CREED

   from the Latin credo

   "I believe." Creeds are a distinctive feature of CHRISTIANITY. Athough well developed creeds do not occur in the BIBLE, rather rudimentary creedal forms found there provide models for later statements; e.g. Deuteronomy 26:5-9; 1 Corinthians 15:3-5; Romans 1:3-4; and 10:9-10. In CHRISTIAN HISTORY three creeds have achieved particular prominence

   1) the APOSTLES' creed was supposedly written by the Apostles;

   2) the NICENE creed which embodies in altered form, and without the anathemas, the CHRISTOLOGICAL teaching of the Council of Nicaea adopted in answer to ARIANISM and probably rests on creeds from Jerusalem and Antioch;

   3) commonly called the ATHANASIAN creed and is popularly attributed to ATHANASIUS but it is thought to be a fourth or fifth century Canticle of unknown authorship. As a direct statement of Trinitarian belief it became the test of ORTHODOXY and competence of the clergy in the West from the seventh century on.

   The REFORMERS valued it highly while the ANGLICANS made liturgical use of it. But the Eastern, or GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH, refused to recognize it.