Nicene Creed – a Manual for Trainee Ministers

J.J. Lias [1834-1923] set out to present candidates for the ministry with a systematic exposition of the Nicene Creed. My thanks to Book Aid for providing a copy of this book for digitisation. This title is in the public domain.

John James Lias [1834-1923], The Nicene Creed. A Manual for the use of Candidates for Holy Orders. London: Swan Sonnenschein / London: The Macmillan Co., 1897. Hbk. pp.439. [Click to visit the download page]

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Introduction

1. The Position of Faith in the Christian Scheme
2. The Grounds of our Belief in God
3. The Essential Nature of God
4. The Revelation of God in the Person of Jesus Christ
5. The Redemptive Work of Jesus Christ
6. I Believe in the Holy Ghost, &c.
7. The Catholic Church
8. The Resurrection of the Dead, and the Life of the World to come

• Index

Introduction

The importance of Creeds in the system of the Universal Church depends upon two considerations. The first is the position of faith in the economy of salvation; the second is the necessity, in an organised society, that each member of that society should give his adhesion to the truths the society was established to maintain and propagate. The first will be discussed in the following chapter. The second may very reasonably be taken-for granted. But it is desirable, before proceeding further, that a brief historical account should be given of the actual place of Creeds in the system of the Church.

The Creed was originally, there can be little doubt, an expansion of the Baptismal formula. Each person, on his or her entrance into the Christian Church, was expected to make a profession of faith in the Existence and Nature of the Being with Whom he or she entered into union, and in certain results of that Being’s working in the corporate society and in the individual spirit….