Confessing and Believing: The Apostles' Creed as Script For the Christian Life

Publisher Description

In Confessing and Believing, Trevor Hart takes readers on a guided tour of the Apostles' Creed, one of the most ancient, universally recognized, and important statements of faith ever penned by the Christian Church. The Creeds' lasting value is not owed simply to its age--it has identifiable roots in the earliest baptismal ceremonies of the earliest Christians--but because, as Hart's careful interpretation demonstrates, the Creed is as comprehensive in its scope as it is concise in its testimony. While the Creeds' intrinsic values make it ideal for regular use in worship, Hart capitalizes on the Creed's structure and highly concentrated nature to provide a framework for teaching the essentials of Christian belief. Hart reveals that there is far more to the Creed than ancient statements about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or the Church. Hart employs the Creeds' twelve clauses to reveal the vibrant theology behind, in, and in front of the Creed. His interpretation of the Creed is not just an historical exercise, i.e., to discover what Christians once believed, but to understand "what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all"--and to do so in a way that addresses the intellectual and cultural contexts of the 21st Century. Hart's perceptive analysis reveals why the Creed has been, is, and will continue to be both confessed and believed.