Creed and theology

Abstract

"Contemporary scholarship has stressed both unity and diversity in the docu- ments of the NT. The source of the unity has been located in a common commit- ment to the apostolic tradition of the words and deeds of Jesus to which the several church centers were heirs.1 Whatever differences Paul may have had with the Jerusalem apostles or the leadership of the Jerusalem Church, he insists that the message he preached was identical with the gospel proclaimed by those who had been authorized by Jesus to bear witness to him at the time of his resurrec- tion (1 Cor 15:1-4, 11). Allowing for the particular expression characteristic of Paul or of any one of the Jerusalem apostles, there can be recognized in the early preaching a common core of redemptive truth on which all agreed. On the basis of 1 Cor 15:3-4 it can be said that this core was creedal in character and represented an irreducible minimum to which all the churches gave assent. It furnished the substance of preaching and teaching and was celebrated in confession of faith and hymns when the church gathered for worship"