Three Creeds, Four Councils, Five Centuries (Andrewes’ Principle Pt. 2)
We continue with our second in a series on Lancelot Andrewes’ principle of Anglican belief (read the first installment here):
One canon reduced to writing by God himself, two testaments, three creeds, four general councils, five centuries, and the series of Fathers in that period—the centuries, that is, before Constantine, and two after, determine the boundary of our faith.
Lancelot Andrewes
The section of Andrewes’ quote we will now focus on moves us from Biblical studies to Church History and provides the necessary guardrails to the teaching of sola scriptura. Too often, our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters tell us that having Scripture as our sole infallible rule deteriorates into Scripture being our only rule. This is more than a mere play on adjectives: there are enough cult-like churches in America to show what happens when we divorce Scripture from those who have interpreted it before us. We affirm that Scripture, and Scripture alone, is from God; now we must seek to answer the question, “What does it mean?”
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Three Creeds
Andrewes provides us with aid here. He affirms that we are not the first Christians to attempt to articulate how Christ is both God and man or what it means to “believe in Jesus.” We rest on the shoulders of giants, whether we understand that or not. Andrewes draws our attention to the three great Creeds of the Early Church: The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Nicene-Constantinoplian Creed. (We could also add the Athanansian Creed as if we are feeling extremely Anglican!). These creeds, taken together, present no greater summary of “Mere Christianity” on the planet.
The Protestant Reformation saw a flurry of creedal statements on both sides. The Reformed Church crafted such documents as the Westminster Confession, the Belgic Confession, and the Heidelberg Catechism; the Roman Catholic Church conducted the Counsel of Trent that produced multiple ruling canons and a catechism. It would do both sides of the Tiber River well to return to the fundamentals of the faith shared by all. The three great Creeds of Christendom focus us as believers on the core of our faith, the chasm that separates an atheistic worldview from a Christian one. We must have our intramural debates and continue to press for and grow into our unity.
Four General Councils
Andrewes’s claims about church history continue in his following statement. He states that the Anglican Way holds to the first four general councils. The key reference here is to those councils’ doctrinal and dogmatic formulations, such as the creeds referenced in the previous section. It also invokes something unique in the Anglican tradition: Andrewes clearly limits how much is borrowed from these early councils while maintaining open respect for them.
Historically, the magisterial Reformers (i.e., Luther, Calvin, Bullinger, etc.) all held to the early Church’s councils in a limited fashion. They affirmed with the council of Chalcedon, for example, that Christ is one person with two natures; they affirmed with the Nicene Creed that Christ is “God from God, Light from Light.” While this has dropped out of favor among recent Protestants, Anglicanism holds it firm, claiming that the last three councils do not rise to this level of authority. The reasons are obvious after examination: these later councils, especially the second council of Nicea, upheld such practices as venerating icons, something Anglicans would deem to be against Scripture.
The balance retained from Anglicanism’s Protestant heritage is clear in this section from Andrewes. The councils of the Church Fathers uphold the traditions of the Church, but they are subordinate to Holy Scripture. We may revere the decisions of men in ages past, but they are not to take the place of God’s own words. We should look upon the beliefs and practices of our Fathers in the faith with the highest respect, and we would do well to check our interpretations of Scripture by theirs. However, we must be willing to look at even councils and say, “They were wrong.”
Five Centuries and the Series of Fathers in That Period
Andrewes closes his definition of the faith by appealing to “the Fathers” of the first five centuries. This refers to the early believers who had a giant part in shaping the face of Christianity. These men were the ones who laid the foundation for every fundamental doctrine. Every significant doctrinal controversy in the Christian Church finds its origin and precedent during this period. The Fathers battled Arianism (a denial of Jesus’s Godhood), Nestorianism (a denial of Jesus’s two natures), Montanism (precursor to Charismatics/Pentecostalism), and Pelagianism (the heart of the Reformation). There is no new controversy today; we merely show our ignorance of what has come before.
The good Bishop Andrewes draws a boundary around the first five hundred years of the Church. It is this time frame, he remarks, that we focus on. These men were at the heart of Christianity: they received the faith from the Apostles, imbibed it every Sunday, and exegeted it in their writings. While it is true that we have devised new formulations for theology and must answer the questions of our times, it is equally true that we never truly move beyond these great men, and when it comes to questions of Christianity’s essence, we would do well to look here. They can help us to navigate the current alphabet soup that, at times, is representative of Anglicanism.
Do we place the weight of Christianity on a premillennial return of Christ? Let us ask Irenaus how important it was for him. Do we think we should reserve the Eucharist for once or twice a year? Let us see what Tertullian thinks. Are we tempted to argue that only those who wear suits and dresses to Sunday worship are the ‘true believers’? We can ask this of Polycarp. While fallible, these men can help us step out of our modern mindset and truly ask ourselves what is really definitional of our faith. There is wisdom in Andrewes’ appeal to them; we would do well to listen to him.
Image: Old fresco on the wall of St. Nicholas Church, Demre, Antalya, Turkey. Photo by tegmen from iStock.
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First drafted by bishops gathered at the Council of Nicaea in 325, the Nicene Creed is now affirmed by all major Christian denominations as a fundamental expression of the faith.
