Creeds in general, and the Nicene Creed in particular, answer the ontological longings within mankind. To argue this, I will first take an interdisciplinary overview to situate anthropology, virtue, theology, culture, and creeds. This section is largely synthetic. Research has revealed the threefold dimensions of the heart: cognition, affection, and volition (Pierre). The theological virtues of faith, hope, and love have been evident ever since Paul penned his epistles (1 Thes 1:3; 1 Cor 13; etc.), and something similar can be said for the transcendentals: truth, goodness, and beauty (Aquinas). More recently, religious systems have been found to have three components at their base: metaphysics, ethics, and liturgy (Geertz). Lastly, although many have tried to address what the Creed does (Harnack, Kelly, Turner, Osborn, Young, Blowers), I will present my own framework: the Creed is doctrine, salvation history, and testimony.
Synthesizing these insights and using the Nicene Creed as a case study, I will show that creeds primarily serve to metaphysically orient the faithful and secondarily to undergird their ethics and liturgy. Thus, to answer man’s cognition with truth, God has given him faith through the metaphysical doctrines laid out in the Creed. To receive beauty into his affections, man has hope instantiated in the liturgy that makes him a participator in the divine story. To fill his volition with goodness, the Church’s ethics, which are corollaries from her Creed, guide man to love and live out the Creed, actualizing salvation history in himself. The conclusion will invite similar research to be undertaken on the Ten Commandments and Sermon on the Mount for ethics as well as the Lord’s Prayer for liturgy.