How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels <\/a> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=leithartcom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0061730572\")
) claims that \u201cthe creeds were remarkable, a unique postbiblical innovation to meet a fresh need. They have functioned as the badge and symbol of the Christian family . . . for a millennium and a half. They are more than merely a list of things we happen to believe. Saying we believe these things marks us out as standing in continuity with those who went before us as well as with those around the world who today, in other places very different from our own, share this common faith and life\u201d (256). <\/p>\n But he has reservations about contemporary calls for a revival of \u201cNicene Christianity\u201d: <\/p>\n
\u201cThe creeds,\u201d he argues, \u201csimply do not <\/em> \u2018let Scripture come to its natural two-testament expression\u2019 [quoting Christopher Seitz]. Indeed, for many who has said the creeds down the years, the Old Testament has remained a largely closed book. There are many who would be horrified to have their status as catholic, creedal Christians questioned, but in whose life, worship, teaching, prayer, and Christian thinking the scriptures of Israel play no visible part\u201d (256). They live out a \u201ctruncated, quasi-Marcionite Christianity.\u201d <\/p>\n Creedal Christianity has not only missed the history of Israel, but in doing so has, in Wright\u2019s view, missed the central thrust of the work of Jesus that the creeds summarize: \u201cthe great majority of people in today\u2019s church who consider themselves to be firmly \u2018creedal\u2019 Christians, affirming the Trinity, the incarnation, the atonement, the resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the second coming, have never imagined for one moment that the gospels are telling the story of how God became king <\/em> . . . . there is a kingdom-shaped gap at the heart of their implicit story.\u201d The problem is that this failure changes everything in the story \u201cever so slightly but significantly.\u201d Without the kingdom, creedal Christianity misses the \u201ccentral piece of the jigsaw puzzle\u201d (257). <\/p>\n Christians of earlier ages \u201csaw things we did not, and we must learn from them.\u201d At the same time, both they and we \u201cstand under scripture itself, appealing to it, being judged by it\u201d (258). <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wright ( How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels ) claims that \u201cthe creeds were remarkable, a unique postbiblical innovation to meet a fresh need. They have functioned as the badge and symbol of the Christian family . . . for a millennium and a half. They are more than merely a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology-soteriology"],"yoast_head":"\n
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