Creed

Profession of Faith

The Ichthus is an ecumenical, inter-denominational Christian publication.  We are Catholic and Protestant and Orthodox; we are liberal and conservative and neo-orthodox; and we are committed to being a body of believers and thinkers seeking Veritas together, drawing on the breadth and depth of the Christian tradition.  We will be a space where Christians of all traditions and backgrounds can come together to think critically about their faith and engage God with their minds.  Make no mistake, though: We are fully and unapologetically concerned with the lordship of Jesus Christ and its implications for our lives and world.

We adopt the Nicene Creed as our basic profession of faith:

WE BELIEVE in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation,
he came down from heaven:

by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.

For our sake he was crucified
under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered died and was buried.

On the third day he rose again
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the
Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy
catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one
baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

~~~

Statement of Faith

1. What does it mean “to believe”?

Faith is man’s response to God, who reveals Himself and gives Himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life.

2. How do we believe?

We do not believe in formulas, but in those realities they express, which faith allows us to touch. All the same, we do approach these realities with the help of formulations of the faith which permit us to express the faith and to hand it on, to celebrate it in community, to assimilate and live on it more and more.

3. Why do we communicate our faith to others?

Faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. We have not given ourselves faith as we have not given ourselves life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus Christ and for our neighbor impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believers. We cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith we help support others in the faith.

4. Why do we write about our faith?

In defending the ability of human reason to know God, we are confident in the possibility of speaking about Him to all men and with all men, and therefore of dialogue with other religions, with philosophy and science, as well as with unbelievers and atheists.

5. On the limitations of writing about our faith.

Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language about him is equally so. We can name God only by taking creatures as our starting point, and in accordance with our limited human ways of knowing and thinking. Our human words always fall short of the mystery of God.

*Adopted from The Catechism of the Catholic Church