Adopting a creed or a liturgy as fad. . .

Apparently four Southern Baptist theologians and pastors have decided enough is enough and are asking messengers to this year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting to adopt the Nicene Creed as part of the denomination’s official faith statement.  Baptists, however, have prided themselves on being “not a creedal people.” A historic declaration taught in Baptist seminaries for centuries is that Baptists “have no creed but the Bible.”  Their rationale?

• “The Nicene Creed authoritatively articulates the primary doctrines of the Christian faith from the Christian Scriptures.”
• “For nearly two millennia Christians have universally used the Creed for both teaching and worship.”
• “The Creed is a robust and indisputable summary of orthodox Christian belief in the two most central and indispensable dogmas of the universal Christian faith: God the Trinity and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The things that is missing is their intention to be fully orthodox, catholic, and apostolic in doctrine and faith.  Sure, it would be a good thing for the Baptists to adopt the Nicene Creed if they meant what it says but this creed does not stand in isolation from the liturgical and catechetical life of the Church from her earliest days.  To embrace the Nicene Creed but stand outside this liturgical and catechetical tradition is to adopt an idea which is still a stranger to worship and life.  That is not good.

A few years ago there was a move on the part of non-liturgical churches to adopt liturgical forms because they felt like people were interested in them and they were interested in those people.  It sounds noble and good but it is no different than Baptists and the Nicene Creed.  The form or symbol does not stand alone outside its liturgical, confessional, and catechetical tradition and life.  The churches interested in liturgical forms and creeds should also be interested in the whole package.  Without this, it is as if they are willing to put different clothes on the same bodies and welcome the stranger who is looking not for a new visual but the whole package.

I think it would be great if Baptists were so inclined to begin to reassess their low view of the Sacraments, their rejection of baptismal regeneration, their refusal to affirm the Real Presence, and their non-liturgical worship along with the acceptance of the Nicene Creed.  Without that, I do not attach as much significance to their interest in the creed as some.  For what it is worth, the Baptists still leave autonomy to the local congregation and while they might affirm the idea of a creed, it would be very hard to change the culture that has worked against Baptists being anything more than an association of folks with some important things in common.