Jared Ortiz and Daniel A. Keating. The Nicene Creed: A Scriptural, Historical, and Theological Commentary

The seventeenth centenary of the first Council of Nicaea in 325 ce has seen a remarkable outpouring of interest from many different quarters.This book is an addition to the growing body of literature on the subject and is designed to be an introductory text for theology students as well as for church study groups.It is written in a clear style, and its explanations of the different currents that went into the making of the Nicene Creed are remarkable.For many readers, they will clarify issues that are all too easily complicated by technical jargon and historical allusions that are unfamiliar to the average person.For this, the authors are to be commended.They are both experienced teachers and clearly have a way of communicating successfully with their students.The book consists of six chapters, the first of which examines the nature of faith.The next four go on to examine the three persons of the Trinity, with two chapters given to God the Son.This corresponds quite well to the content of the Creed itself, where the Christological section is as long as the rest of it put together.Finally, the sixth chapter looks at the miscellaneous items tacked on to the end of the Creed and considered together here as "life in the Trinity."As far as historical scholarship is concerned, the authors generally respect the current consensus, which says that what we call the Nicene Creed actually comes from the first Council of Constantinople, held in 381 ce.They claim that the Creed adopted at that Council is a revised and expanded version of the one that was composed in 325 ce, and they very helpfully take us through both versions, throwing in the so-called Apostles' Creed for good measure.Whether our Nicene Creed really was proclaimed in 381 is uncertain, since the surviving records do not mention it, and it is by no means clear that it is a simple updating of the 325 text, but in the context of this book, that makes little difference.What comes across is that the fourth century was a golden age of theological definition, much of which was due to controversies the church had to resolve at that time.In that sense, this book is a reliable guide to what happened and why, which its intended readers will find very helpful.The authors are both conservative Roman Catholics, and they make no apologies for that.The book is written for their own constituency, citing