Receiving Nicaea Today

Global Voices from Reformed Perspectives

Hanns Lessing, Daniel Rathnakara Sadananda

• Publisher: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9783374079759
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

The 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea is an invitation to both re-encounter the triune God and re-examine the covenantal faithfulness of the Church in a wounded and waiting world. Reformed churches celebrate the Nicene faith – but not uncritically. Receiving is not passive acceptance, but radical engagement. For the Reformed tradition, the anniversary is a call to interrogate, discern, and renew the very grammar of our faith. Reformed hermeneutics receives such anniversaries not as closures of doctrinal certainty, but as openings where theology can be re-tested in the fire of Scripture, re-voiced in the cries of the wounded, and re-shaped in the pulse of mission.
[Nicäa Heute Empfangen: Globale Stimmen Aus Reformierter Perspektive]
Der 1700. Jahrestag des Konzils von Nicäa ist eine Einladung, den dreieinigen Gott neu zu entdecken und die Bundestreue der Kirche in einer verwundeten Welt zu prüfen. Reformierte Kirchen feiern den Jahrestag – aber nicht unkritisch. Die reformierte Tradition empfängt die christliche Glaubensüberlieferung nicht passiv, sondern verlangt radikales Engagement. Das Gedenkjahr ist ein Aufruf, dogmatische Gewissheiten zu hinterfragen und den christlichen Glauben neu zu entdecken. Die Reformierte Glaubenshermeneutik versteht das Jubiläum nicht als Feststellung dogmatischer Gewissheiten, sondern als eine Öffnung, in der die Theologie im Feuer der Schrift erneut geprüft, in den Schreien der Verwundeten neu zum Ausdruck gebracht und im Puls der Mission neugestaltet werden kann.

Table of contents

• Receiving Nicaea Today
• Preface
• Appreciation
• Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Receiving Nicaea Today: Global Voices from Reformed Perspectives
• Reformed Hermeneutics and the Authority of Creeds
• The Hermeneutic of Confessing in the Reformed Tradition
• Reformed Wrestling with the Spirit: Navigating Nicaea 325 and Beyond
• Viewing the Nicene Creed from the Lens of Justice
• Nicaea and the Empire
• Nicaea to Constantinople I: Lessons from Fourth-century Ecclesiastical Politics
• Council of Nicaea: Through the Eyes of Eusebius of Caesarea
• An Asian Perspective on the Council of Nicaea and the Empire
• Creed and Empire: Christian Empires Persecuting Christians
• Towards a Reforming Nicene Ecclesiology: Navigating Reformed Catholicity, the Legacy of Nicaea, and Imperial Power
• The Heresy of Nicaea and the Jesus of Colony
• Scriptural and Theological Hermeneutics of the Nicene Faith
• Listening to the Holy Spirit with(in) Contemporary Reformed Confessions
• “True God from True God”: Speaking Truthfully about God in a Secular Society
• Reclaiming Homoousios as Kenotic Communion
• The Nicene Faith: Theological Roots and Continuing Fruitfulness of Incarnational Theology
• Public Opinion and Power in Nicaea 325 and Modern-Day Samoan Christian Nationalism
• Reading the Nicene Creed with Audre Lorde
• Nicene Influence on Reformed Synodality and Church Governance
• The One and the Many: Synodality in the Orthodox and Reformed Traditions
• Adiaphora, Subsidiarity, Authority: Being a Communion of Churches
• An Orthodox View on Nicaea and the New Culture of Synodality
• Sovereignty, Self-limitation, and Status Confessionis – God, the People and Covenant in the Midst of Ambiguities
• Church Polity from a Nicaean Perspective
• Confessions and Contemporary Witness
• The Enduring Influence of the Nicene Faith on our Reformed Confessions
• “We Believe”: Reformed and Ecumenical Witness in the Age of Capitalocene
• “Mommy, Was Baby Jesus Crucified?” Jesus’ Public Ministry in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and Konfesi GKI 2014
• The Nicene Faith and The United Church of Canada
• Nicene Creed and the Confessional Reforms of the Church of Scotland
• The Legacy of Nicaea: Generous Orthodoxy, Faithful Orthopraxis and Transformative Orthopathy
• The Nicene Creed in Contemporary Catholic Theology: Critical Tensions, Surprising Inspirations
• From Creed to Confessing: Worship, Teaching, and Mission
• ‘We don’t See skeletons Walking Up and Down’: Un-commoning Our Common Faith
• The Nicene Creed: Towards a Confessional Presbyterian Church of East Africa
• Unbelievable? – The Creed of Nicaea Revisited from a Contemporary European Perspective
• From Creed to Life: The Nicene Influence in Thai Christian Education
• Nicene Creed: An African-Jamaican Reformed Missio-cultural Reflection
• A New Song: Nicene Elements in Hymns at ᑭᓄᓭᐤ ᓰᐲᕀ
• Creeds, Catechisms, Confessions
• The Nicene Creed (325)11 Select Library of The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, eds. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, vol. 14, The Seven Ecumenical Councils (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1890–1900), 55, https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214/npnf214.vii.iii.html#fnf_vii.iii-p3.1.
• The Canons of the 318 Holy Fathers Assembled in the City of Nice, in Bithynia (325)11 Select Library of The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of The Christian Church. Second Series, eds. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, vol. 14, The Seven Ecumenical Councils (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1890–1900), 64–147, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.vii.vi.html
• The Nicene Constantinopolitan Creed (381)11 Select Library of The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of The Christian Church, Second Series, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, vol. 14, The Seven Ecumenical Councils (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1890–1900), 163, https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214/npnf214.ix.iii.html.
• The Theological Declaration of Barmen (1934)11 Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD), “The Barmen Declaration,” The Barmen Declaration: An Appeal to the Evangelical Congregations and Christians in Germany, EKD, accessed July 29, 2025, https://www.ekd.de/en/The-Barmen-Declaration-303.htm
• The Belhar Confession (1986)11 [https://kerkargief.co.za/doks/bely/CF_Belhar.pdf]. The synod of the former Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC) adopted the draft Confession of Belhar in 1982 with an accompanying letter. These two documents should always be read together. In 1986 the DRMC adopted the Confession of Belhar in its final version in Afrikaans. The 2008 General Synod of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA), which resulted from the reunification between the former Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCA) and the DRMC, declared the 1986 Afrikaans version to be the original source document. The 2008 URCSA General Synod in addition adopted the English translation that follows here as the official English version.
• The Accra Confession (2004)
• A Song of Faith (2006)11 United Church of Canada, “A Song of Faith (2006),” accessed August 1, 2025, https://united-church.ca/community-and-faith/welcome-united-church-canada/faith-state-ments/song-faith-2006. The Song of Faith was adopted by the General Council of the United Church of Canada in 2006. The Song of Faith was published with a preamble that described the character of the creed: «This statement of faith seeks to provide a verbal picture of what The United Church of Canada understands its faith to be in its current historical, political, social, and theological context at the beginning of the 21st century. It is also a means of ongoing reflection and an invitation for the church to live out its convictions in relation to the world in which we live. […] This is not a statement for all time but for our time. In as much as the Spirit keeps faith with us, we can express our understanding of the Holy with confidence. And in as much as the Spirit is vast and wild, we recognize that our understanding of the Holy is always partial and limited. Nonetheless we have faith, and this statement collects the meaning of our song».
• A Creed for Easter1 1 Richard Bott, “A Creed for Easter,” in Gathering Lent–Easter 2017, 34–35. The United Church of Canada adopted A New Creed in 1968 and has subsequently revised it to make its language inclusive (1979–80) and to add a statement of ecological concern (1995). A New Creed was intended for use in worship and has been used by other churches in different parts of the world. “A Creed for Easter” is an example of how it has been slightly expanded and adapted for Easter worship services in the United Church.
• A New Creed with Actions11 United Church of Canada, A New Creed with Actions - YouTube video, 1:29, posted by United Church of Canada, October 26, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFEZl-hcsMR4.“A New Creed with Actions” is an example of how A New Creed can be given embodied expression in worship. The specified actions symbolize what the words express and add an important physical, active dimension that makes the act of confessing the faith more holistic and lively.
• List of Authors