Are the creeds binding on all Christians in different places and at different times? What is the relationship of the ecumenical creeds of the church to contemporary global theology? Is it possible to be biblical without being creedal? These are some of the questions that this paper seeks to address. There are global theologians who dispense with creedal affirmations as irrelevant for global theologizing, while some others treat creedal theology as merely exemplary for the crucial and bold task of contextual theology. In their contributions to the edited work, Jesus without Borders: Christology in the Majority World, Andrew Mbuvi defends the first position, while Victor Ezigbo advocates for the second approach. This paper will however show that both approaches are inadequate because they view the creeds from a merely socio-cultural point of view rather than a truly theological perspective. As David Yeago has shown in “The New Testament and the Nicene Dogma,” the creeds make the same judgments that scriptures claim about the Triune God. So, drawing insights from the practice of theological interpretation, the paper argues that when interpreted theologically as biblical judgments, the creeds serve as calibrating instruments for both theological and liturgical purposes. In this sense, global Christianity is biblically better and theologically stronger with creedal Christianity than without it.
Some works to be engaged:
Green, Gene L., Stephen T. Pardue, and K. K. Yeo, eds. Jesus without Borders: Christology in the Majority World. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014.
Vanhoozer, Kevin J. Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2024.
__________. “One Rule to Rule Them All? Theological Method in an Era of World Christianity.” In Globalizing Theology: Belief and Practice in an Era of World Christianity. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.
Yeago, David. “The New Testament and the Nicene Dogma: A Contribution to the Recovery of Theological Exegesis.” In Theological Interpretation of Scripture: Classic and Contemporary Readings, edited by Stephen Fowl. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1997.