Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site duke.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!mcnc!duke!nlt
From: nlt@duke.UUCP (N. L. Tinkham)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: the need for correct doctrine
Message-ID: <6448@duke.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-Oct-85 16:54:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: duke.6448
Posted: Thu Oct 10 16:54:08 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Oct-85 08:21:58 EDT
Organization: Duke University
Lines: 39

[*]

   In response to my statement that

>>    [I]t would be worthwhile, if it could be achieved, to have
>> a council write a creed which expresses a 20th century understanding of the
>> issues addressed in the Athanasian creed.

and my insistence that any such council, to be regarded as authoritative,
in the sense of representing "the" beliefs of the 20th century church,
must be ecumenical, Tom Bennet writes

> Are you sure that such a council could ever reach an agreement on any document
> that actually said anything?  Such councils result, at best, in a statement of
> the intersection of the beliefs of the various groups, which is often the
> empty set.... 
> It is foolish to think you can have one document that says
> "what the 20th century church believed."  It would give a much more real
> picture of things to collect creeds from each major denomination.

   Apparently I understated my skepticism as to the possibility of such an
event.  I am far from being "sure that such a council could ever reach an
agreement..."; I do not expect any such council even to be held, much less
to be successful, as long as the present denominational divisions exist.
And, to anticipate the next question, I do not expect a re-uniting of the
church to be easy; it may not even be possible, given our bitter and bloody
history.

   However, I maintain that councils which are not ecumenical cannot claim
to speak for the entire church and thus cannot give the authority of
"this is the belief of The Church" to creeds they produce.

   I agree that it is important, for an understanding of Christian belief,
to study the creeds of the various denominations, just as it is important to
study theological works other than the creeds.


                                       N. L. Tinkham
                                       duke!nlt