Truly I believe. I just wish this creed was still recited, or at least given more recognition than it has been given.

sacerdos@hotpop.com), August 28, 2002

Answers

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Creedo

-- (sacerdos@hotpop.com), August 28, 2002.

Thanks Sacerdos do you know when it was written and by whom by chance?

-- Kiwi (csisherwood@hotmail.com), August 29, 2002.

Google to the rescue.

"But the Athanasian Creed is the classic statement of trinitarian theology. It was not written by St. Athanasius, but was later named after this great saint who fought (almost singlehandedly at times) against the Arian heretics of the fourth century, who denied the Trinity. Its authorship and precise dating are, strangely enough, shrouded in mystery, but scholars believe it probably originated in the middle of the fifth century in southern France (by literary deduction, it can almost certainly be dated no earlier than 415, nor later than 542).

The Creed is clearly Augustinian in influence and character, and is in fact directly derived in several places from St. Augustine's work On the Trinity (c.415), as well as St. Vincent of Lerins' Notebooks (c.434), and Excerpta (c.440). Accordingly, St. Vincent, or perhaps an admirer of his, have been considered by some as possible authors. In the context of its historical period, the Athanasian Creed was written in opposition to the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies. It does not allude to the Monophysite and Monothelite errors (which fact offers a strong indication as to its date of composition). In a general way it opposes Unitarianism, tritheism, and Arianism.

Protestant church historian Philip Schaff comments on it with the following glowing words:

Beyond [the Athanasian Creed] the orthodox development of the doctrine in the Roman and Evangelical churches to this day has made no advance. This Creed is unsurpassed as a masterpiece of logical clearness, rigor, and precision; and so far as it is possible at all to state in limited dialectic form, and to protect against heresy, the inexhaustible depths of a mystery of faith into which the angels desire to look, this liturgical theological confession achieves the task . . . The Athanasian Creed . . . clearly and concisely sums up the results of the trinitarian and Christological controversies of the ancient church . . . The anathema is to be referred to the heresies, and may not be applied to particular persons, whose judge is God alone.

{History of the Christian Church, v.3, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974 (orig. rev. ed., 1910), p.690,697}"

-- (csisherwood@hotmail.com), August 29, 2002.