It’s not carved in stone that we must read the Apostles’ Creed, or for that matter the Nicene Creed, as a fixed,
final, immutable statement of ultimate truth.
Instead, we might view either Creed as representing the best the Church Fathers could do to summarize
their understanding, at that time, of the God in whom they placed their trust.
The Church Fathers were not infallible
deities. True, the church believes they were inspired by the Holy
Spirit. But it’s a safe bet that their understanding of that
inspiration might have been incomplete. It might even have be mistaken
(just as ours could be). That doesn’t mean the Fathers are any less deserving
of our respect and gratitude, and our admiration for their willingness
to put their trust in God.
Consider an analogy: Suppose the astronomer Ptolemy were to
materialize before us, along with his almanacs and astronomical
instruments. Over the next few hours, he goes outside, shoots some
sun sights, and announces that the sun will rise tomorrow morning at
approximately 6:21 a.m. Our own, modern almanac confirms that this will indeed
be the time of sunrise.
In getting to know our "new" friend, we learn he thinks the sun
will literally rise in the sky tomorrow morning. That’s because in his
mental model of the universe, the earth is at the center, with the sun
(and stars and planets) revolving around it. We, on the other hand,
have a different mental model; we are pretty confident that tomorrow
morning the sun will do nothing of the sort.
Few would scorn our visitor just
because we have a different explanation of what we (still) call
"sunrise." True, our explanation indisputably works better: it
accounts for more of the available evidence, and it generates better
predictions. But we still would acknowledge our debt, and our gratitude,
to Ptolemy and the other astronomers of old. Like us, they sought the
truth. Like us, they didn’t have all the answers. Like us, some of their
understandings were wrong. We’ve traveled farther on the path than
they, but only because of the preparatory work they did before us.
We can consider the beliefs of the Church Fathers in a similar
light. When we reassess their creedal assertions, we don’t reject them
as brothers and sisters. Neither do we disparage their faith. Quite
the contrary, we’re trying to build on the “prep work” they did. Our
purpose, like theirs, is to learn what we can of God, his works, and
his will, and to enhance our trust in him. To paraphrase Sir Isaac
Newton, we’re standing on the shoulders of giants, in the hope of
seeing a bit farther than they could.
Today we still speak in the language of sunrise and
sunset, even though that language is technically wrong. Likewise, we can still speak in the language of the Creed,
regardless whether we doubt its technical accuracy.
And no matter whose language we use, we must remember something important: However we choose to describe God, he is what he is. When we describe God as being X or Y or Z, that doesn’t make him so.
(Harvested from this earlier posting.)
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