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I suppose this is relevant on account of it being Easter. Growing up Catholic, we always said the Nicene Creed during Mass, which kind of enumerates the standa

I suppose this is relevant on account of it being Easter. Growing up Catholic, we always said the Nicene Creed during Mass, which kind of enumerates the standard Catholic beliefs. I never thought much about it, but a non-Christian friend who joined me one time said thought it was creepy and cult like, us all standing there saying it in unison. I appreciated a universal, orthodox set of beliefs determined to be "correct" by experts, rather than the Wild West of Protestantism where it seemed every church was more unique and centered around its pastor. I was pretty surprised to learn the Council of Nicaea wasn't until a few hundred years after the ostensible start of the church, and remember thinking it was strange how it was all topsy turvy right after the supposed events around Jesus, and went several generations when no one original was still around before it settled down. The history of the early Church is pretty interesting from a political / anthropological perspective.

tomrod 3y ago
[flagged]
freitzkriesler2 3y ago
Protestants still recite the nicean creed assuming they have a high church setting. With modern worship , all bets are off.
- tialaramex 3y ago
  The creed recited in both a Catholic and various non-Catholic churches as the "Nicene creed" isn't actually the one agreed at the First Council, there's a Wikipedia page explaining the substantial differences. The creed does explicitly say it's about believing in "one holy catholic and apostolic church" but by that it doesn't mean the Roman Catholic church specifically. It's talking about a hypothetical church (in the sense of a group of Christians, not a building) which is united. Christian Churches which don't claim there's a hypothetical united Christian church in which it just happens they got all the details right and everybody else didn't are outliers. Ecumenical discussions (typically between Roman Catholics and other large Christian sects) tend to carefully avoid trying to figure out who is right, instead trying to find matters on which they can agree. So e.g. exactly what's going on with Transubstantiation? Point of disagreement, best to not mention it. Do people sin? Yes. Is this old church building nice? Yes. Should we get a tax break? Yes. Easy stuff. The Nicene Creed is thus in this easy category.

tomrod 3y ago

[flagged]

freitzkriesler2 3y ago

Protestants still recite the nicean creed assuming they have a high church setting. With modern worship , all bets are off.

tialaramex 3y ago
The creed recited in both a Catholic and various non-Catholic churches as the "Nicene creed" isn't actually the one agreed at the First Council, there's a Wikipedia page explaining the substantial differences. The creed does explicitly say it's about believing in "one holy catholic and apostolic church" but by that it doesn't mean the Roman Catholic church specifically. It's talking about a hypothetical church (in the sense of a group of Christians, not a building) which is united. Christian Churches which don't claim there's a hypothetical united Christian church in which it just happens they got all the details right and everybody else didn't are outliers. Ecumenical discussions (typically between Roman Catholics and other large Christian sects) tend to carefully avoid trying to figure out who is right, instead trying to find matters on which they can agree. So e.g. exactly what's going on with Transubstantiation? Point of disagreement, best to not mention it. Do people sin? Yes. Is this old church building nice? Yes. Should we get a tax break? Yes. Easy stuff. The Nicene Creed is thus in this easy category.