The Early Rule-Of-Faith Pattern As Emergent Biblical Theology

57 The Early Rule-of-Faith Pattern as Emergent Biblical Theology Tomas Bokedal Lecturer, University of Aberdeen [email protected] This article discusses the Rule of Faith ( regula fidei ) as a normative hermeneutical tool that promotes the textual and theological unity of the Old and New Testament Scriptures. It is argued that the close con - nection between the Rule of Faith and scriptural interpretation in Ire- naeus, Clement of Alexandria and other early church teachers may be understood as expressions of an incipient biblical theology. Two edito- rial characteristics of Christian Scripture appear to be linked to this notion of regula fidei : the triadic system of nomina sacra (”God,” ”Je sus” and ”Spirit” written in contracted form) and the bipartite OT–NT arrangement. Such textual–interpretative features, as well as creedal and ritual practices associated with baptism, are presented as integral to the early church’s Rule, or Rule-of-Faith pattern of biblical reading. Key words: Rule of Faith, regula fidei, biblical theology, nomina sacra , creed, baptismal teaching, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria major function of the early namely: Scripture interpretation (focus - church’s Rule of Faith ( regula fi - sing on the nomina sacra practice and the Adei ), largely synonymous with the bipartite OT–NT arrangement), creedal Rule of Truth or Ecclesiastical Rule, 1 was formulation, and the rite of initiation. It is to guarantee that the faith community argued that these basic textual, 5 creedal 6 ”read the Old Testament as the promise and ritual expressions 7 of early Christian of the Gospel and the Gospel as the fulfil - existence shaped common features of the ment of that promise.” 2 As a key to such majority church’s emergent biblical theo - a reading of old and new Scriptures as a logy. ”Biblical theology” is here under - unified whole, the regula fidei was used as stood in broad terms as the distinct Chris - a summary of the faith, 3 or as the teach - tian theology held to be contained in the ing foundation for Christian belief as re - Jewish (OT) and specifically Christian vealed by Christ and handed down by the Scriptures (NT) when perceived jointly as apostles. 4 a textual unity. Following an introduction to the early Due to their defining qualities, Scrip - Christian notion of a regula fidei , and a ture and Rule of Faith emerged within the brief comment on a few passages in Ire - faith community – to use the German nae us ( Haer . I, 8.1-10.1; III, 1.1-2; Dem . theo logian Karlmann Beyschlag’s phra - 6), this essay explores certain practices sing – as ”two sides of one and the same integral to the church’s Rule of Faith, norm” ( zwei Seiten einer Norm ). 8 As Theofilos Supplement vol. 7 nr. 1 2015 58 The Early Rule-of-Faith Pattern as Emergent Biblical Theology such, the regula fidei could even be seen Faith include adherence to apostolic ori - as a property of sacred Scripture, empha - gins, 18 close association with defining sizing the arrangement of the Old and monotheistic belief and other creedal ma - New Testament texts into a whole, with terial ( Haer . I, 10.1), as well as with bap - special attention given to reading biblical tismal teaching and confession ( Haer . I, passages in their intra-scriptural context 9.4). 19 (Clem. Strom . VI, 15.25.3; Iren. Haer . I, However, in a manner similar to Cle - 8.1-10.1). 9 Alternatively, when associated ment of Alexandria, the bishop of Lyons more with baptismal confession or apo - evinces a Rule that teaches the church to stolic tradition in the broader sense, the read the Scriptures as a literary unity with regula could be viewed as a scripturally a particular sequential ordering and tex - de fined or aligned Rule. 10 Applied to tual arrangement ( Haer . I, 8.1-10.1). 20 various types of scriptural exegesis, this Irenaeus employs the classic hermeneuti - Rule of Faith, or Rule-of-Faith pattern of cal rule of the parts relating to the textu - biblical reading, occurs around AD 200 al whole, and vice versa , in one of his in Irenaeus of Lyons, 11 Tertullian of famous illustrations in Against Heresies . Carthage and Clement of Alexandria, as He likens the arrangement of the biblical well as in other early Christian writers. 12 material to a beautiful mosaic of a king – in contradistinction to an unappealing Introductory Remarks fox, where the textual bits and pieces of the artwork have been misplaced, as in Regula fidei and the Mosaic of the Gnostic Valentinian Scripture inter - Scripture pretation ( Haer . I, 9.4). 21 Christ himself is said to be the originator of the Rule in Tertullian (ca. AD 160- Scholarly Views on the regula fidei 220) and Clement of Alexandria (ca. AD The regula fidei attained a multivalent 150-215/21). 13 Clement describes the func tion during the period we are looking Eccle siastical Rule in a frequently quoted at, and could be equated with Scripture, passage as ”the agreement and unity of baptismal confession, or apostolic tradi - the Law and the Prophets and the Tes ta - tion more broadly. 22 Thus, the tension ment delivered at the coming of the posed between Scripture and unwritten Lord.” 14 As such, 15 it provides the key Chris tian tradition in the Western church - hermeneutical guideline for his Scripture es since the Reformation and Counter- principle and biblical theology. 16 Cle - Reformation does not appear in the early ment’s concern to relate the old Jewish Christian centuries, neither in the New and new Christian Scriptures to one anoth - Testament, 23 during the New Testament er may here be concretely linked not only period, nor subsequently. to the Ecclesiastical Rule, but also to the In 1 Clement , an epistle addressed to actual titles of the two major text corpo - the Corinthian Christians towards the ra – ”The Old” and ”The New Testa - end of the first century, the author appe - ment” – introduced by Christian editors als to the church in Corinth to ”conform towards the end of the second century. 17 to the renowned and holy rule of our tra - A couple of decades earlier, in Irenaeus dition” ( 1 Clem . 7.2; τῆς παραδόσεως of Lyons (ca. AD 125-202), standard cha - ἡμῶν κανόνα ). As the equally renowned racteristics of his Scripture-linked Rule of second-century regula fidei tradition Theofilos Supplement vol. 7 nr. 1 2015 Tomas Bokedal 59 became part of central Christian vocabu - – all is comprised by the regula fidei or lary as testified by Dionysius of Corinth regula veritatis . Thus, this regula can be (ca. AD 170), Irenaeus and Clement of equated with one or the other property, Ale xandria, 24 we shall seek to understand however with neither of them being fully their precise intent concerning this novel identical.” 34 expression. 25 Some more recent scholarship has con - Notable scholars of the late nineteenth tinued to emphasize the close relationship and twentieth centuries attempted to pro - between Scripture and regula fidei . Karl- vide answers concerning the regula’s pro - Heinz Ohlig, when reflecting on the can - file. Theodor Zahn held the regula fidei to on-formation process, holds the view that be ”identical with the baptismal confes - ”the Rule of Faith is not an independent sion.” 26 Adolf von Harnack, on the other principle and norma normans beside hand, sought to broaden Zahn’s under - Scripture,” but the usage ”of that which stand ing. He argued that the earliest regu - one already recognized through the ap - la should be defined in terms of the apo - propriated Scriptures, as applied to what stolic tradition rather than baptismal con - was still disputed.” 35 Paul Blowers, who fession per se. 27 Harnack’s position open - understands the connection between re - ed up for clearer association between the gula and Scripture in yet stronger terms, Rule of Faith and the Scriptures. 28 How - writes: ”For Irenaeus and Tertullian alike ever, only with Johannes Kunze’s monu - it is imperative to identify the Canon of mental 1899 study Glaubensregel, Heilige Truth or Rule of Faith as Scripture’s own Schrift und Taufbekenntnis 29 is the scho - intrinsic story-line.” 36 larly horizon helpfully broadened, and a The focus of the present essay is the clearly positive relationship between Chris - regula fidei as incipient biblical theology. tian Scripture and Rule of Faith posited. 30 I thus discuss the Rule of Faith (or Rule- Key aspects of Kunze’s approach have of-Faith pattern of biblical reading) as a been discussed afresh by the Swedish theo - normative hermeneutical tool – imple - logian Bengt Hägglund. 31 With his dis - mented through Scripture, catechesis and tinctive emphasis, Hägglund affirms the baptism – that promotes the textual and early Christian notion of Rule of Faith as theological unity of the corpus of Old and referring ultimately to the revelatory New Testament Scriptures. events themselves, stemming from God and Christ and passed on by the apost - Scripture and regula : Haer . I, les. 32 In the first and second centuries, 8.1-10.1, III, 1.1-2, and Epid . 6 these events were held to be codified pri - To illustrate my primary assertion – that marily in Scripture, apostolic tradition the regula fidei 37 is intimately linked to and baptismal confession. The rather ab - the (emerging) biblical theology of some stract and flexible definition of the regula major early church writers 38 – I shall ap - fidei that Hägglund suggests fits well with propriate the following representative our main source texts discussing the early for mulation of the Rule of Faith (here re - Rule of Faith. 33 Concerning the regula in ferred to as ”the faith”) as phrased by Ire - Irenaeus, Tertullian and Clement, Hägg - naeus in his First Book Against Heresies: lund writes: ”Baptismal confession (as a The church, though spread through out brief summary of the contents of revela - the whole world, ..

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