This year’s St Aidan’s Lectures will be given by the Rev Canon Prof Michael Hull, Pantonian Professor of Divinity and Principal of the Scottish Episcopal Institute, who will discuss Credal Christianity.
Monday evenings-4, 11, 18, and 25 November from 7.30pm GMT on Zoom.
The Scottish Prayer Book includes three Creeds—the Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian—commonly called the ‘catholic’ or ‘ecumenical’ creeds. According to the Articles of Religion, they ‘ought thoroughly to be received and believed: for they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture’ (Article 8).
Creedal statements are as old as the New Testament. Indeed, we know of no Christianity without them. The St Aidan’s Lectures 2024 revisit early credal Christianity in four sessions to show why the three Creeds are important for our contemporary life of faith, not only in terms of liturgy, where we find especially the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds, but in theological reflection upon the mystery of God’s revelation in Christ. First, Christianity’s earliest credal statements in St Paul’s Epistles and the Didache. Second, the Apostles’ Creed and its roots in the Old Roman Creed. Third, the Nicene Creed and its origins at Nicaea I (325) and Constantinople I (381), as well as its interpretation at Chalcedon I (451). Fourth, the Athanasian Creed, having nothing to do with St Athanasius (d. 373), but having widespread appeal in Western Christianity from the fifth century.
You can watch recordings of the four sessions on YouTube.
