Christian History Magazine on the Council of Nicaea

The latest issue of Christian History Magazine is devoted to: ‘Debating Jesus’s Divinity: Revisiting the Council of Nicaea on its 1700th Anniversary’.

From the blurb:

‘In 2025, Christians around the world celebrated the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. This historic council of the early church (a story which Christian History first told in issue #85) dealt with a conundrum that the modern church sees as a settled matter – Jesus is God, but how? What does it mean when the Bible says he is begotten? Are there degrees of divinity? How is Jesus both God and man?

‘In this refreshed issue of CH, discover the discussions and debates that reached a boiling point in the fourth century between church leaders concerning this all-important question of Jesus’s divinity. Meet the major players at the council and discover how their involvement led to the creation of the Nicene Creed.

‘You’ll also see how the Nicene Creed wasn’t exactly the “be all, end all” of church doctrine at the time, and how more councils, creeds, and conflicts followed in the decades afterward. But from this chaos emerged the clarifying work of pro-Nicene church fathers who led the church to a strongly trinitarian consensus, giving us the legacy we treasure today.’

The whole magazine is available as a 5.33 MB pdf here.

Southwestern Journal of Theology 67, 2 (2025) on Creed, Confession, and Cooperation

The latest volume of the Southwestern Journal of Theology contains the below essays on the theme of ‘Creed, Confession, and Cooperation’, with summaries taken from the Editorial.

The entire issue is available as a pdf here.

Editorial

David S. Dockery

Southwestern: A Century of Conviction, Cooperation, and Collaboration: A Time for Remembrance, Thanksgiving, and Recommitment

The first essay, preached by our President, David S. Dockery, during our Spring 2025 Convocation, sets the stage for the subsequent essays, all of which were commissioned to stress a truth emphasized in that important address.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III

Baptists Who Confess the Nicene Faith

The second essay… focuses on the universal Christian faith defined by the Nicene tradition as it has been received and affirmed by Baptists generally and by Southern Baptist theologians of the Southwest more particularly.

Michael D. Wilkinson

Baptist Convictions: The Cost of Being Baptist

The third essay… considers our Baptist convictions. Leading Baptists have courageously maintained these common convictions at great personal cost.

D. Jeffrey Bingham

Evangelicalism, the Word of God, and the Spirit

The fourth essay… considers what “Evangelicalism” means as a movement that treasures the divine Word with the divine Spirit. Engaging Martin Luther and his context, Bingham’s essay reminds us of the multivalent meanings attached to the term, “Evangelical,” alongside its core commitments to Scripture and its central place in Southern Baptist theology. 

W. Madison Grace II

Cooperation: A Baptist Essential

The fifth essay… demonstrates why cooperation is not merely a matter of convenience but an essential element of Baptist ecclesiology.

Ashley L. Allen

Collaboration for Christ

Dr. Allen’s essay on “collaboration” demonstrates its biblical basis and rightly argues that we work better when we work together

Book Reviews

Credo 11, 3 (2021) on Confessions

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the topic of the ‘We Believe: Confessions Every Christian Should Read’.

Here’s the blurb:

‘If holy scripture is sufficient and authoritative, why do we need confessions? Retrieving the time-tested wisdom of the church’s confessions does not contradict but complements a high view of scripture. Confessions, at their best, serve to keep the church faithful, holding both the layman and pastor alike accountable to scriptural truth. In our biblically illiterate society, the historic confessions can help us regain and retain biblical orthodoxy, the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It is to our peril if we ignore the witness of the past, inviting the heresies of yesterday into the church of today. But when we declare these confessions together, we identify ourselves with our family history, a faithful lineage of believers who have fought hard to offer a mature articulation of the faith. In this issue of Credo Magazine, readers are introduced to some of the most important Protestant confessions and summoned to listen with humility for the sake of our present and future fidelity.’

Individual articles, along with interviews and book reviews, are available to read from here.

Credo 11, 2 (2021) on Creeds

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the topic of the ‘We Believe: Creeds Every Christian Should Read’.

Here’s the blurb:

‘If evangelicals are anything, they are a Bible people; a people of the book who hold the Holy Scriptures as sufficient and authoritative. This is undoubtedly a good thing. But must this high view of Scripture lead to a depreciated view of the Church’s historic creeds? Too often, evangelicals are tempted to answer this question in the affirmative. This is a grave mistake, however, for while the Scriptures are authoritative and sufficient in their own right, they still must be interpreted. At their best, the creeds have functioned as faithful interpretations of the Scriptures; well-forged articulations of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The creeds are the collected wisdom of Christ’s Church, and confessing them is a way for evangelicals today to take Christ at his word when he promised that he would build his Church, and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. When we read and confess the ancient creeds, we are self-consciously identifying ourselves with our family history. In this issue of Credo Magazine, readers are invited to listen to the past and to be reminded of the best early creeds of the Christian faith.’

Individual articles, along with interviews and book reviews, are available to read from here.

Credo 10, 3 (2020) on the Nicene Creed

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the topic of ‘The Nicene Creed’.

Here’s the blurb:

‘The doctrine of the Trinity is foundational to Christianity. Without it, we have no Christianity at all. For that reason, the church fathers of the fourth century labored to protect the church from those in their midst who undermined the equality of the Son and Spirit with the Father. With great scriptural care, they affirmed the Son’s eternal generation and the Spirit’s eternal spiration not only to distinguish the persons of the Trinity but to safeguard their consubstantiality and divine simplicity. Unfortunately, many have never read the Nicene Creed let alone considered its importance for the preservation of biblical orthodoxy today. This issue of Credo Magazine introduces readers to the Nicene Creed to ensure the next generation is equipped to confess the faith once for all delivered to the saints.’

Individual articles, along with interviews and book reviews, are available to read from here.

Michael Bird on The Apostles’ Creed

I wrote the following mini review for EG, the quarterly magazine produced by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine through The Apostles’ Creed (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016)

For Michael Bird, a creed is ‘not simply a checklist of things I’m supposed to believe, but a synopsis of the entire sweep of redemptive history that narrates a sequence including God, creation, redemption, and consummation’. As such, creeds can both refresh our faith in God and provide an anchor in what’s truly central – in that which has been recited and believed by Christians across all streams over many centuries.

The bulk of this book is devoted to a careful exposition of each clause of the Apostles’ Creed, showing its value for Christian faith and practice. Bird is one of the most prolific evangelical scholars of our day, but writes accessibly and in a way that seeks to serve the church. This would be a great book to work through with someone else or in a small group.

John Morris’ Contemporary Creed

The revised edition of John Morris, The Contemporary Creed: Reasonable Pathways through the Problems of Christian Beliefs and Ethics (Alresford: O-Books, 2012) is available to read online here.

Applauded by, among others, John Sentamu, John Polkinghorne, and Michael Green, and written for believers and non-believers alike, the author tackles some of the big questions of faith and life, flowing out of his own life experience.

He writes:

‘My 100-word creed, composed in 1999, was not written to replace the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds. They omit the problem of suffering which keeps many from any religious belief: “Where is God in a world of natural disasters?” – including children like my grandson, Daniel, born profoundly handicapped in 1999, and who stays with my wife and me on alternate weekends and holidays. My creed hints at an answer developed at length in the book.’