Modern Affirmation

Modern Affirmation

We believe in God the Father, infinite in wisdom, power and love, whose mercy is over all his works, and whose will is ever directed to his children’s good.

We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of man, the gift of the Father’s unfailing grace, the ground of our hope, and the promise of our deliverance from sin and death.

We believe in the Holy Spirit as the divine presence in our lives, whereby we are kept in perpetual remembrance of the truth of Christ, and find strength and help in time of need.

We believe that this faith should manifest itself in the service of love as set forth in the example of our blessed Lord, to the end that the kingdom of God may come upon the earth.

Amen.

 

Background and Source:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Methodists-957/2009/6/Modern-Affirmation.htm

“The Modern Affirmation”, which is found at 885 in the back of the current United Methodist Hymnal, can also be found in both hymnals of the prior Methodist church dating from 1966 and 1935.  Before that, the “Modern Affirmation” first appeared in 1932 in the “Book of Service” of the Methodist Episcopal Church (in the North).  It was written by Professor Edwin Lewis (1881 – 1959), who was a well-known and respected Methodist Theologian and Professor of Theology at Drew University in New Jersey.

A product of the Boston Personalist movement in early 20th century liberal theology, he rebelled against the movement and “rediscovered the bible” while editing the “Abingdon Bible Commentary” in the late 1920s.  In his 1934 book: “A Christian Manifesto,” professor Lewis offered a harsh criticism of “modernism,” and of the liberal theological establishment within the Methodist Episcopal Church in particular. In its place he reaffirmed the importance of many of the classical Christian doctrinal positions, like the transcendence of God, the fallen state of humanity, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and the forensic and objective concepts within substitutionary atonement.

Lewis’ “Modern Affirmation,” reflects this conservative movement within Lewis’ thinking during this period.  As such, this Affirmation’s importance is beyond estimation because it impacted the theological development of a whole generation of Methodist Theologians, including Michalson, Outler, and Oden.”

 

Analysis and Critique:

This creed was generally well received among parishioners in the focus groups I conducted in the spring of 2016, despite leaving out many of the traditional elements like the Jesus narrative, the Virgin Birth, the Holy Catholic Church, etc. What it does very well is incorporating the importance of God’s grace and love in the creedal formulation. It does so without adding a lot of extra paragraphs and addendum.

This creed follows the traditional Trinitarian structure. It offers some interesting alternative formulations which are worth considering. For instance, in the first paragraph it avoids the oft-controversial phrase “Almighty” and replaces it with “infinite in wisdom, power and love,” thus balancing the tougher attribute of power with softer qualities such as love and wisdom, creating a more wholesome image of God. The addition of other divine attributes of biblical origin continues in the same sentence: “whose mercy is over all his works and whose will is ever directed to his children’s good.” The emphasis on “all his works” allows for explicit mentioning of God’s interest in the welfare of his human children without the message becoming anthropocentric. The tone of the paragraph reminds me of the statement in 1. John 1:5: “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” Although I appreciate the positive message, I also find it a bit problematic – in the same way I sometimes find John’s dualism problematic. Does this reflect the bulk of the biblical witness? Is there not more mystery (and a bit more darkness) surrounding God in the stories of the Bible? I personally prefer creedal statements that leave more room for individual interpretation and don’t define God as tightly.

The second paragraph is short. It offers two main images for Jesus: “gift of the father’s unfailing grace” and “the ground of our hope.”  I find the pairing a bit odd and the images not quite satisfactory. While the first expression achieves to incorporate God’s unfailing grace in the creed, it becomes more a statement about the nature of the Father than Jesus. I also don’t think that “gift” is a strong enough term for what Jesus means to Christians. And the second expression, “ground of our hope,” seems to come out of nowhere. I don’t disagree with it. But why is Jesus ground of our hope? The images in this part of the creed come fast and unexpected. I think they will be appreciated by Christian insiders who know the story, able to connect the missing dots, but they may be a bit confusing to others. The expression “promise of our deliverance from sin and death” only adds to the line of indirect expressions, which to me could be worded a lot more directly. Isn’t Jesus more than a mere promise to us? Although the second paragraph begins with the powerful “Son of God and Son of man,” the continuing images reveal Jesus only as a messenger who holds the keys to our salvation, but one is left to wonder: does he deliver? Or does his delivery depend on the strength of our faith? (Pelagius nods his head here!) That would be totally unacceptable to me in theological terms.

The third paragraph continues this line of indirect faith speech. Again, I am struck by the expression “whereby we are kept in perpetual remembrance of the truth of Christ.” Is this a flowery way of saying that the spirit’s job is to remind us of the teachings of Christ? Or will the Spirit connect us with Christ directly? Or perhaps just with the truth about Christ? I find the expression too complicated, as if connecting with Christ through the spirit, one needs to go through stages of remembrance and truth acknowledgment. It only strengthens my suspicion that the author makes salvation depend on the spiritual and intellectual practices of those who confess it.

The final paragraph is a nice addition because it includes the response of the faith community in acts of service and love as an integral part of our faith. This is a decidedly modern approach, one that is not found in the ancient creeds, adding an important element to the profession of our faith (see paragraph on orthopraxy over orthodoxy).

There is no eschatology in this creed.

Andreas Wagner, 2016

Skills

Posted on

December 30, 2016

2 Comments

  1. David Melton

    I remember reciting this creed in my youth (1970s and 80s), but my church added the line “we believe in the word of God, as contained in the old and new testament, as the sufficient rule, both of faith and of practice”. I winder where this line came from, under whose authority it was added to our creed, and why it was removed?

    Reply
    • Steven L Miller

      David, I believe you are mixing two different creeds that were both in the United Methodist Hymnal–The Korean Creed and the Modern Affirmation. It is the Korean Creed that contains the quote concerning the Word of God.

      Reply

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