Saturday, April 20, 2013

The Nicene Creed a Parable? continued...



THE NICENE CREED A PARABLE? It was intended, I think, to set a boundary, and provide a criterion of exclusion. But what if we were to perceive it as a “parable”? Conference Leader Rob Voyle told the clergy of the Diocese of Michigan this past week that Jesus’ teaching in the gospels was calculated to “create confusion” in people’s minds, to introduce a “new map” for understanding reality. He said nothing about the Nicene Creed… that is a rambling of my own creation. Rob Voyle did say that the interpretation/application of parables varies greatly from one context to another. In contrast, creeds are supposed to always mean the same thing. But do they?  

The Nicene fathers did not, I assume, think of themselves as tellers of destabilizing anecdotes. But is it possible God regards them as such? Is it possible God looks upon them the same way God looks upon us, as bumbling but loveable co-conspirators on a mission to reinvent the world?
Who says God looks upon us as such? Who says God “looks upon” anything in any which way? After all, the Nicene Creed says nothing about God’s having “eyes”. It does say, however, that God “enanthropesanta”, that is, “became truly human.” I guess that imputes a version of “eyesight” to God, and would constitute, in my eyes, the last word in parables, except that, when it comes to parables, there is no such thing as a “last word”.  



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