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Question: A) Show your knowledge and understanding of the origins of creeds in the Early Church as central to Christian life and worship (30)
B) Explore the claim that the early church still faces problems despite the initiation of creeds (15)
Answer: The emergence and practice of creeds evolved during the history of the early church, beginning with relative simplicity in its earliest sources to the tendency of increasing complexity, regulation and ceremonialism found in its later sources. JND Kelly concluded that Christian creeds are a ‘fixed formula summarizing the essential articles of [the Christian] religion and enjoying the sanction of ecclesiastical authority’. This ‘doctrine’ of creeds referred to teachings that extracted the meaning and significance of creeds and how they were to be understood, for example, in the case of catechumens in the baptismal process; it provided a useful summary of the Christian faith for the inquiring outsider.The ‘practice’ of creeds refers to the administration of creeds i.e. how they should be adhered to which progressed more deeply and at length during the first centuries of its dev...(short extract)
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- Subject: Theology and Religious Studies
- Course: Theology and Religion
- Level: Degree
- Year: 1st
- Mark: Not available
- Words: 2743
- Date submitted: March 07, 2013
- Date written: Not available
- References: No
- Document type: Essay*
- Essay ID: 4545
