There is No Nicene Creed in Nicaea

 


If you would like to visit the place where some religious leaders once argued, compromised and finally agreed on the Nicene Creed, the tourist department of Turkey welcomes you. You will not find, however, a Christian church in the city where you can recite the famous creed. They are all gone. 

At the time Christian men gathered in Nicaea to make deals about what the faith is supposed to be about Christian numbers were big there. Then there were wars, Christians were out then they were in and finally out for a long period of time. It is a Muslim city. 

Reciting that creed in still big in some branches of Christianity, ignored in others. That being the case we could expect the creed would rise and fall in importance. Of course, what happened in Nicaea where armies changed the religion is not uncommon either. 

Readers can look up the various versions of the Nicene Creed used by various branches of Christianity. It is a form of oath where a person claims to believe in things that are not believable. I remember mumblings it every Sunday until one day for the first time I noticed what it said. I realized I had been mumbling that I believed things I did not believe. It seems to me the regular requirement in some denominations to perform of the ritual of reciting the creed reduces the pleasure, and thus the attendance, of going to church. 

The Nicene Creed did not keep Christianity in Nicaea. It will not keep Christians in the faith today.      

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