Introduction
I was being interviewed on an American radio show about the importance of creeds. ‘So why do we use creeds, then?’ my host asked. I did what I always do on these occasions. I told him about the need to be able to summarize the key theme of our faith and make sure that we don’t leave out anything that’s really important. I asked my audience to imagine that they had been asked what Christians believe about God, and made the point that the creeds give us a checklist of things that we need to talk about. ‘Like the Holy Spirit?’ my host asked.
‘Sure,’ I replied.
‘That’s the bit I always prefer to leave out,’ he told me. ‘It’s just too hard for me.’
I know what he meant. A lot of Christians feel that parts of the creed are obscure or difficult and steer clear of them, and many find the Holy Spirit especially difficult to manage. Some even go as far as to develop their own personal ‘creeds’, which are the bits of the real creeds that they especially like or feel that they can cope with. But one of the reasons the creeds are there is to challenge us to go beyond our personal comfort zones – to explore what the Church has believed down the ages, and not rest content with what we personally find attractive or manageable.
In the first three volumes of this series on the basic themes of the Christian creeds, we have looked at the nature of faith, the Christian understanding of God, and the identity and significance of Jesus of Nazareth. In this fourth volume, we move on to the next major set of beliefs presented, asking what the Apostles’ Creed means when it speaks of ‘the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, and the forgiveness of sins’.
These themes are reflected in the title of this volume – The Spirit of Grace – that reminds us, first of all, that God is active in the world. The creeds make it clear that the Holy Spirit brings life and renewal to believers and the Church. Second, the creeds affirm the graciousness of God, seen especially in the forgiveness of sins. And, finally, the creeds remind us of the importance of the Church as the community of faith. We will be exploring these three interconnected ideas in the following pages, and considering what impact they may have on how we live and think as Christians.
For many Christians, the Holy Spirit is one of the more puzzling aspects of both the creeds and the Christian faith. But as we saw earlier in The Living God, the rich Christian experience of God demands that we think of God as a living presence in the world and in our lives. The rise of the Charismatic movement in many parts of the Christian Church is a telling sign of the rediscovery of this aspect of the nature of God. Faith is not just about ideas; it is about a growing relationship with God, enabled by the Spirit. As William Temple (1881–1944), a former Archbishop of Canterbury, put it, ‘Faith is not only the assent of our minds to doctrinal propositions: it is the commitment of our whole selves into the hands of a faithful Creator and merciful Redeemer.’1
Part of our journey of faith is exploring its landscape in greater detail. I often find it helpful to think of faith as embracing something that we know we don’t fully grasp. We realize that we stand on the brink of something that is vast and deep, which needs to be explored and appreciated. That’s why it’s so important to talk about growing in faith. Christianity is indeed about salvation and redemption, in that God brings us to a place of safety and abides with us. It’s like people fleeing from persecution arriving on a beautiful island that offers them safety. And as they settle into their new home, they begin to explore it and appreciate its richness and beauty. The creeds are an excellent basis for that journey of exploration, signposting the riches of faith that we need to discover and appreciate.
Up to this point, we have not really considered the Christian understanding of human nature, although we could perhaps have discussed this when we were thinking about the doctrine of creation. However, I feel it makes more sense to consider this concept in connection with the Holy Spirit. One important reason for taking this course is that it allows us to do justice to the theme of God ‘breathing life’ into humanity – not merely in creation, but throughout our lives. If we are to understand the important place of spirituality in the Christian faith, we need to grasp both the idea that humanity has been created in order to relate to God and the role of the Holy Spirit in enabling and sustaining that relationship. This naturally leads us on to the idea of grace, which many see as lying at the heart of the Christian faith. To say that God is gracious means that God acts for our good in a way that is undeserved: a way that reflects God’s love and generosity rather than our achievements or status.
And so we come to the creeds’ statements about the Church. Many Christians are perfectly happy to attend church, although they may have little understanding of it or its role in the Christian life. What, indeed, do we mean when we speak about ‘the Church’? And how may we think of the Church as nourished and sustained by the Holy Spirit? The final two chapters of the book help us reflect on the role of the community of faith in nurturing individual believers’ lives. I will map out some basic positions and issues to help you think this through. You will have to make up your own mind about which way of thinking about the Church seems best!
As before, I take great pleasure in being able to dedicate this book to the people of the Shill Valley and Broadshire benefice in the diocese of Oxford, consisting of the churches in the Cotswold villages of Alvescot, Black Bourton, Broadwell, Broughton Poggs, Filkins, Holwell, Kelmscott, Kencot, Langford, Little Faringdon, Shilton and Westwell. This book, like the others in this series, is based on sermons I have preached in those village churches.
Alister McGrath