The Nicene Creed – Podcast
I regularly listen to the weekly BBC In Our Time podcast with Melvyn Bragg. It’s a podcast that covers a huge range of topics from a historical perspective. The usual format is Melvyn accompanied by two or three experts who then spend about 40 minutes dissecting whatever the topic du jour is.In the past he’s covered things like the Fibonacci sequence, oxygen, guilt, Socraties, hell, Zoroastrianism, relativism, tea… the list just goes on and on. If you are into diversity then I thoroughly recommend you check it out.
The point of this post is that next week he’s going to be addressing the topic of the Nicene Creed which, to be honest, has me positively squirming with excitement. The reason for my excitement is that it’s very difficult to find a neutral and informed conversation on this topic and I’m looking forward to hearing what his panel of experts have to say about it.
Going by the usual gold standard he sets with regard to the quality of his experts this will be a must for anyone who’s ever heard of the Nicene Creed. (If you haven’t heard of it before it’s to do with how the Bible was originally compiled about 1600 years ago and the politics that surrounded the task).
[edit] As pointed out by Dale in the comments, the creed is quite different from the council where they compiled the list of books for the Christian Bible.
Also, I was away on holiday when this aired and I’m unable to download the archived version so if anyone has an mp3 copy of this show please let me know!
Tags: BBC, Bible, Christianity, Melvyn Bragg, Nicene Creed, podcast
Hi Damian,
Is the broadcast going to discuss the Nicene ‘Creed’ or the Nicene ‘Council’ (more specifically, the 325 one — there are others)?
The Creed (a set of agreed beliefs) emerged from the Council (the meeting and discussion itself).
I just mention this because the ‘Creed’ has little or nothing to do with ‘how the Bible was originally compiled’. The main reason for calling the Council of Nicea in 325 was to sort out the official church teaching on how (not ‘if’, but ‘how’) Jesus was divine. The basic question was ‘Is Jesus of the same substance (homo ousia) as the Father?’ or is Jesus himself ‘created’?
As for the Bible coming together, the correspondence between the Church Fathers from at least a century before the 325 Council of Nicea show that the large majority of books from what we now call the New Testament were being quoted from often and considered authoritative for guidance in Christian doctrine (teaching). Early controversies like that of the Montanists helped solidify the need for an authoritative corpus of texts.
Further, the 325 Council of Nicea did not finalise the books to be included in the Bible. This was finalised centuries later at another Council which I can’t remember the name of (maybe even a later Nicene Council?)…
Yes, Constantine did some absolutely horrible things (forced conversions upon threat –all-too-often carried out!– of death), but he is often thought of as solely responsible for choosing the books of the New Testament!
Must run…
Cheers for now,
-d-
Hi Dale. I didn’t realise that there was a difference between the Creed and the Council. I’ve just got back from holiday and have read the show notes and, yes, this appears to be about the set of beliefs about the divinity of Jesus rather than the origins of the books of the NT.
Unfortunately it’s been and gone while I was away and I can no longer download it. You haven’t managed to get a copy of it by chance? And, if so, would you be able keep a copy for me? We’ll have to do lunch again at some stage too.