The Evangelical Necessity of Creedal Confession in the World of Empire • Winston D. Persaud 357

Outside the Theme

The Evangelical Necessity of Creedal Confession in the World of Empire1 By Winston D. Persaud

Abstract: The author argues that in the world of Empire where greed, violence, and idolatry pervade, the Church is challenged to recognise that it exists to witness to the radical, liberating message of the gospel of the crucified and risen Lord, Jesus Christ. The Church is challenged to recognise and acknowledge how it is a beneficiary of Empire, but that its focus is to be on the Lord Jesus Christ and not the ‘Caesars’ who cannot give the life, healing, and forgiveness that only God can give. Faithfulness to the gospel calls for creedal-confession that becomes both inevitable and necessary because the church’s confession is communal. The community in Christ needs one another in order to be faithful through mutual creedal-remembering and reminding of the identity of the God of Jesus Christ.

Key Terms: Empire, Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, theological surplus, superior and inferior peoples, Caesars

Creed and Empire many of the churches. In a special way this is true of the Ecumenical Creed of Nicea and Constantinople (381) in distinc- tion from other creeds of regional authority. When I speak of creedal confession, I call to mind And, even in churches where the ancient creedal paragraph eight of the Introduction in Confessing statements are not regularly used, the faith to the One Faith, which is the culmination of a study which they bear witness is confessed and lived.2 project of the World Council of Churches that be- gan 1981–82: In the Preface to the Revised Edition, Mary Tan- ner, D.B.E. soberly notes, “The challenges of the The central affirmations of the apostolic contemporary world are not identical to those of faith were set out in a particular way in the 1980s. But there could hardly be a time in the creedal statements of the early Church. history when the world is more in need of hearing These ancient creeds continue to function a confident and united voice proclaiming the good within the context of the life of faith of news of Christ for all people.”3

Rev. Winston D. Persaud, PhD, is Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Center of Global Theologies, and is the Holder of The Kent S. Knutson & United Evangelical Lutheran Church Chair in Theology and Mission, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, U.S.A.

C 2013 Wiley Periodicals and Dialog, Inc. 358 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 52, Number 4 • Winter 2013 • December

I begin this article with an autobiographical Historically, religions have both served the inter- note. I was born in a colony, British Guiana, in the ests of empire and challenged its power, authority, waning years of the British Empire, whose breakup, and influence. Indeed, the histories of religions and scholars argue, was speeded up with the end of secular ideologies, which have functioned as quasi- World War II. It was in the context of this Em- religions, are filled with a mixture of teachings, pire that my great-grandparents were brought as practices, and stories that highlight progressive, indentured emigrants from northeast and north In- liberating, humanizing thrusts as well as teachings, dia, specifically from the areas of what today are practices, and stories that enslave, dehumanize, the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (and other and point to and bear the demonic. We turn now neighboring states), to British Guiana to work on to a consideration of the theme of empire as a the sugar plantations. I knew three of my grand- historical reality and as a concept in today’s world. parents: both my maternal grandfather and grand- mother, and my paternal grandmother. One time, when I was a young boy, I asked my mother about Empire as a Historical Reality which of her grandparents had she known. In her and as a Concept response, she said that she had known only her maternal grandfather. In response to my question about whether her grandparents had had broth- In Day of Empire, How Hyperpowers Rise to Global ers and sisters and had she known any of them, Dominance—and Why They Fall, Amy Chua ar- she told me this story about her maternal grandfa- gues that Rome’s tolerance led to its greatness; it ther who, as a youth, had come to British Guiana was also what led to its eventual downfall, for it from India. One day, back in India (perhaps in the embraced ‘barbarians’ from the north and north- mid-1890s), when he and two of his brothers were west who were never assimilated into the empire. playing by the river, a ship came by and they could Christianity, for its part, was a persecuted sect be- hear music playing that was attractive and alluring. fore Constantine’s conversion in 312 C.E. and the He and one of his brothers were lured onto the promulgation of the Edict of Milan in 313 C.E. ship while the other brother ran home. It turned When it became the ‘official’ religion of the empire, out that the two boys were taken to the port of it practiced and promoted its own forms of intol- Calcutta from which they sailed with others to the erance against heretical Christians, other religions Caribbean, specifically to British Guiana. He and and sects. Whenever racial and ethnic-cultural iden- his brother were separated when they got there and, tities were not transcended by ‘Roman’ identity, or, as the story has come to us, they never saw each later, by the Church’s declaration that all are one other again.4 in Christ, those identities—Roman and Christian— that were de facto promoted by imperial interests and practices, the Christian faith came to be associ- 5 Power and Religion in Empire ated with violence against the religious other. This ambiguity leaves us with the unavoidable question: how do we find and lift up alternatives to that When we think about empire, we cannot but history of distortion of the gospel? notice its power to determine how the peoples Given this mixed history, Joerg Rieger argues it rules, conquers, and controls—including those that we are to look for “theological surplus” that is whose lives are spared—will live, where they will liberating. Writing about today’s context and the re- live, what opportunities for a better future for lations of Christianity and empire, Rieger declares: themselves, and especially for their progeny, will be offered, promoted or allowed, or denied. How What is new in this context is that we people are classified, divided and ruled reflect the are beginning to understand that the rela- power of empires, even the power of life and death. tions of Christianity and empire are more The Evangelical Necessity of Creedal Confession in the World of Empire • Winston D. Persaud 359

complex than has been acknowledged to possible on a long-term basis only so long as subject date. Christianity does not easily escape peoples remained alien and inassimilable. The ques- empire—understood as massive concentra- tion of identity, what determined who was a subject tions of power which permeate all aspects and who was a citizen, is essential to understanding of life and which cannot be controlled by the true nature of empires, and to their history.”10 any one actor alone. This is one of the basic Parsons is not convinced by the use of the terms marks of empire throughout history. Empire seeks to extend its control as far as possi- empire and imperial rule to describe new global net- ble, beyond the commonly recognized geo- works of power and transnational sovereignty. He graphical, political, and economic spheres, to writes: include the intellectual, emotional, psycho- logical, spiritual, cultural, and religious are- Yet the nation was not the end of history. nas. The problem with empire is, therefore, Indeed, the accelerated expansion of global that no one can escape its force field com- networks of culture, commerce, investment, pletely. Nevertheless, the good news is that and migration in the second half of the at the same time empire is never quite able twentieth century provided a powerful coun- to extend its control absolutely. Whatever terweight to the nation-state. Some scholars the extent of its influence, no empire has have gone so far as to argue that global cap- ever managed to co-opt Christianity entirely. ital now constitutes a new, more powerful Mindful of this fact, we embark on a search form of sovereignty that has eclipsed the na- for theological surplus in the Christian tional variety. Transnational forces have also tradition that resists empire and provides created new forms of pan-national identity alternatives.6 that give like-minded groups of people ad- ditional means to challenge, if not thwart, the agendas of national governments, multi- In his illuminating work, TheRuleofEmpires, national corporations, and would-be empire with its suggestive sub-title, Those Who Built Them, builders. Those Who Endured Them, and Why They Always Fall, Timothy H. Parsons rejects the notion found Although the era of formal empire is con- among “critics [today who] often link imperial am- clusively over, policy debates, particularly af- bition with capitalism.” Parsons points out that ter the terrorist attacks of 2001, frequently “the most stable and long-lived empires belonged revolved around imperial themes. Critics on to the pre-modern era, when local communities the left indicted the United States for behav- were more isolated from imperial demands for trib- ing imperially in adopting an aggressive for- ute and labor after the initial phases of conquest eign policy, while right-wing revisionists and 7 neoconservatives sought to rehabilitate em- and plunder.” Here Parsons notes a critical dis- pire to demonstrate that military force was tinction between pre-modern empires and mod- the most effective way to impose order and ern European empires, when he writes, “This also stability on a global scale. No one in the meant that they had less cause to resist because Bush administration seriously aspired to ac- the weight of their subject hood was comparatively quire when they invaded Iraq in 2003; even lighter.” This contrasted decisively with a central the most ardent imperial apologists knew reason why modern European societies “became that this was simply no longer possible or unsustainable ...[:] the combination of impe- politically defensible. Rather, the architects rial avarice and radicalized nationalism made them of the Iraqi occupation believed that they could use authoritarian methods to replace unbearable.”8 Parsons repeatedly states his basic ar- an enemy regime with a liberal protester gument that empire was built on “greed and self- government. Like earlier generations of con- 9 interest.” querors, they continued to believe that hard Parsons insightfully notes, “Empires needed per- power could be used creatively to persuade, manently exploitable subjects, not rights-holding inspire, and reeducate a defeated “inferior” citizens, to remain viable. Lucrative extraction was people.11 360 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 52, Number 4 • Winter 2013 • December

Parsons continues to explicate his argument origins, is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in- that imperial rulers’ conviction that their rule was herently a colonizing creed that promotes accom- premised on a liberal concern for the good of their modation to imperial rule, even now in the twenty- subjects was na¨ıve and pretentious. Among the fac- first century?13 Further, we need to ask additional tors he repeatedly notes is the structural, prejudi- questions such as: How is the dialectic of its cial subjugation of the conquered and the refusal christological-trinitarian center and boundaries of of the imperial ruling class to allow subjects to the Christian faith to be viewed? Should they be become citizens and be the equals of the ruling narrowly exclusivist? Or, should they be viewed class. For example, on the “effective” occupation of as providing evangelical openings to insights from large areas in Africa by a European power, and the other ways of understanding Christian faith—even deception involved in the legal arrangements, Par- heretical ones—and insights from other religions sons writes: “In practical terms, this meant direct and, also, secular views of reality? What is the administration and treatises in which the ‘natives’ worldview of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed? agreed to accept foreign protection. In many cases, Imperial? Does it contain or offer an intrinsic cri- the prominent local individuals who signed off on tique of imperial interpretation? Are reading and these protectorates did not realize that they were interpreting the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed surrendering their sovereignty under European law. today inevitably Constantinian? How did Christians Instead, African leaders expected to be treated as in the early church and through the centuries ne- equals and often hoped to use the foreigners against gotiate the empire(s) of their day? local rivals.”12 The dichotomy between the status The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed was for- of superior and inferior peoples fostered resentment mulated to combat the Arian heresy and to preserve and led to disastrous, even tragic, consequences. and promote witness to the gospel. At stake was not simply the “true” faith of the learned and sophis- ticated believers but “true” faith of all believers in The Gospel, Creed, and Empire Christ in a world in which they are to witness to the new life, forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation with God through the life, death and resurrection The gospel is first and decisively about being and, of Jesus Christ. Even when a select group in the then consequently, about doing. There is no neutral hierarchy of the church formulates the response to witness to the gospel. Every proclamation presumes heresy, the Creed and Confession are meant to serve structuresoflifethatarelarvae Dei, for they are the faithful and reflect their faith in Jesus Christ masks of God, who judges and redeems. Witness- in the very ordinariness of their lives. Scholarly ing to the gospel necessarily both gives support to reflection and careful formulation of the ensuing structures of life and ethical and moral decisions responses are not ends in themselves; they are to and ways of being, as well as critiques and rejects serve the faithful in their piety and confession in structures of life and ethical and moral ways of their day-to-day lives. being, whether personal or communal, local, na- tional, or global. Of course, there are structures of life and ethical and moral decisions to which the Systematic Theology as gospel leads us to say both yes and no. The ques- Explication of the tion of idolatry is always a real question, which Nicene-Constantinopolitan refuses to go away. The guiding theological question that shaped my Creed thinking in this article is this: How might one in- terpret the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the twenty-first century to speak theologically to the Engaging in the discipline of systematic theology question of empire? This leads to an even more as an explication of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan critical question: Given its Constantinian-imperial Creed does not place the Creed above Scripture; The Evangelical Necessity of Creedal Confession in the World of Empire • Winston D. Persaud 361 rather, it reads Scripture through a creedal lens, vidual and communal, is about center and bound- which is derived from Scripture. Further, in the ary, and is determined and defined by both ‘distinc- context of worship, it calls attention to the heart tive’ and commonalities. The relationship between of the Christian faith through a dialectical engage- the two is a dialectical one. This is particularly ment of the principle: the ‘rule of prayer is the true (of course, not only so), Jaroslav Pelikan points rule of faith or belief’ (lex orandi, lex credendi). This out, in relation to The Definition of the Council of means that the faith is learned and confessed in Chalcedon in its critical “function as a formula of and through worship, and that worship is informed, concord.”15 corrected, and grounded in the gospel through crit- ical reflection on worship. To illustrate what such an approach might in- Confession as a Political Act clude, let me share a pedagogical practice that I have been using. Over the last several years in There is no getting around the fact that confessing teaching a course on documents of the Lutheran- the faith is a political act. In one section, titled, Roman Catholic Dialogue, USA, using the Joint “Confessing as a Political Act,” Pelikan provides a Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification as the pri- persuasive discussion of this theme, opening with mary hermeneutical lens, participants and students this sentence: “It is not an accidental feature in the have been asked to close their weekly online post- genesis of creeds and confessions, nor is it an inci- ings from their critical, meditative, and contem- dental factor for their interpretation, that so many plative reflection on the readings with a prayer of them bear the designation of political ‘powers that is prompted by the readings. This practice that be’, such as a nation, state, city, or ruler.”16 Pe- is grounded in the conviction that one’s prayer re- likan is quick to point out that “[I]n some instances flects what one actually believes. I was reminded that designation is no more than the identification how our prayers, including the ones we were for- of the geographical venue where the confession was mally taught, shape our faith and piety and reflect issuedorwherethecouncilmet....”17 But to end our faith and piety, when I worked on a sermon the discussion here would be misleading, for, as Pe- on the text on manna, John 6:51-58 (Pentecost 12, likan notes, “More often, however, the geographical 19 August 2012). I kept recalling the post-lunch identification of a creed or confession is its political prayer we had learnt at Redeemer Lutheran School identification as well.”18 in the 1950s and prayed throughout the time the Any positing of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan school was owned by the church: “We thank Thee Creed as normative for faithful articulation and Lord for this our food, but most because of Jesus evangelical confession of the gospel has to engage Christ. Let manna to our souls be given, the bread the question of imperial involvement in its formula- of life sent down from heaven. Amen.” Creeds tion and unmistakable promotion of the Creed for and confessions are historically grounded, for they the good of the empire. It must be added, imme- are responses to particular challenges to the verac- diately, that the principle of separation of state and ity of the faith. Thus, the intertwining of various church, a hallmark of the US system, was not oper- factors—not all religious—in the processes through ative in the Roman Empire after the Edict of Milan which “the formulation of doctrine and dogma in in 313. Scholars have recognized Constantine’s and 14 creeds and confessions of faith has taken place” other emperors’ use of imperial power and status must be kept in view. in service of The Nicene Creed. Here is a glimpse Creeds and Confessions are inevitable and nec- of this history, in the words of Pelikan, where he essary, given the unavoidable need for groups and posits both the normative character of the Creed communities, religious and secular, to make clear and the decisive role of Emperor Constantine I: what is the essence of their belief, which makes each group or community distinctive—even when Already in the issuance of the first creed or there may be significant commonality in beliefs statement of faith ever officially adopted to with other groups and communities. Identity, indi- be binding on the universal church rather 362 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 52, Number 4 • Winter 2013 • December

than merely on a local or a regional church, are viewed as God’s instruments for the promotion the creed promulgated at the first ecumenical and safeguarding of the gospel. This complex pro- council, the Council of Nicaea in 325, under cess of evangelical witness is intensified when we the watchful eye of the recently converted consider not only the reality that Creeds and Con- Emperor Constantine I, the accompanying fessions in relation to the gospel may depend and warnings and canons make it clear that “the have depended on political rulers for support, but catholic and apostolic church anathematizes” any and all those so-called Christians who also that Creeds and Confessions do and are to in- presume to deviate from this creed or who fluence the realms of both church and society. Let take it upon themselves to alter it. Going me hasten to add that I am not arguing for the beyond his predecessor Constantine in back- gospel to be made into a blueprint for how society ing the authority of The Creed of Nicaea with is to be organized, thereby making the gospel into the police power of the Roman empire, Em- a new law. Pelikan writes: peror Theodosius I in an edict issued on 27 February 380 equated that creed of the The influence of the politics of religion year 325 with the very “faith which we be- on the formation of creeds and confessions lieve to have been communicated by the has had, as its counterpart, the influence of apostle Peter to the Romans and maintained creeds and confessions on the formation of in its traditional form to the present day.” politics, which is only part of all the vari- Thereby he was ascribing to Nicene ortho- ous political, economic, and social influences doxy a massive and unbroken continuity of exerted by the church. The New Testament catholic and apostolic tradition, which went writings do not deal in so many words with back three centuries to the authority of the the possibility that political power could prince of the apostles, Simon Peter, and end up in the hands of Christian believers. through him to Christ himself, and which Instead, the commandment in the Gospel, was intended to be preserved unchanged for “Render therefore to Caesar the things that as many more centuries into the future as are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are the world and the church militant might God’s,” as well as the commandment in the stand. Moreover, Emperor Theodosius for- epistles, “Let every person be subject to the bade any change or deviation from this apos- governing authorities. For there is no author- tolic and Nicene faith, at pain of both tem- ity except from God, and those that exist poral and eternal punishment.19 have been instituted by God,” [Rom 13.1] pertain to the “Caesar” and the “governing Down through the centuries to today, in the authorities” of the pagan Roman Empire, ‘empire’, Christian confession that Jesus is Lord, not and in the latter case probably to Emperor Nero. It was in opposition to the claims of worship of the ‘Caesars’ who emerge in the pub- the Caesars to be divine “lords [kyrioi]” and lic and private arenas, is to have primacy. However worthy of divine worship that Christian mar- the various Creeds and Confessions emerged, their tyrs such as Polycarp confessed the supreme formulators and confessors believed that they were lordship of Jesus Christ as the one Kyrios. confessing Jesus as Lord. Of course, such confes- As The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed de- sion has political and other consequences, includ- clares, “[We believe] in the one Lord, Je- ing the fate of martyrdom. Yet at the same time, sus Christ,” with no one else, not even the we need to keep in mind that throughout the cen- emperor whether pagan or Christian, being turies down to the present in the early twenty-first fully worthy of that title, except derivatively. But what would happen to such confessions century, confession that Jesus is Lord may not be with the advent of the unforeseen eventu- seen as a protest against known, identifiable and ality of Caesar’s becoming a Christian—and identified “lords,” that is gods, who compete for even acquiring the title “equal to the apostles our trust. Admittedly, discerning between faithful [isapostolos]”? The Theodosian Code, includ- confession of the gospel and idolatry is made dif- ing the edict of 380 endorsing The Creed ficult when Christian leaders, political and other, of Nicaea, illustrated what could and did The Evangelical Necessity of Creedal Confession in the World of Empire • Winston D. Persaud 363

happen, particularly with its ominous that and bears witness to the life-giving truth: the threats. But The Theodosian Code contained Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit faced many other provisions as well, including leg- the powers of sin and destruction to the point of islation about both the church and the fam- dying so that God’s love for the world may be true. ily, that showed the marks of their origin in Christian confession and practice.20

The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed calls for Endnotes a radical rejection of any deification of anything created, including political, economic, and other 1. This article is a revised version of a lecture given on the occa- institutions and structures. To believe in “one sion of the inauguration of the Kent S. Knutson and United Evangelical God,” which is confessed in the very opening of Lutheran Church Chair in Theology and Mission, April 22, 2013, Wart- burg Theological Seminary. Professor Persaud was installed into the Chair the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, means that on that occasion. Christians are to reject any allegiance to political 2. World Council of Churches, Confessing the One Faith, revised ed. realities alongside of God or in place of God. In (Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2010; emphasis added), xxi. our postmodern world, discerning what this means 3. Ibid., viii. is both simple and complex. Such a posture is po- 4. The practice of kidnapping unsuspecting recruits was a feature of Indian indentureship. See Walton Look Lai, Indentured Labor, Caribbean litical, though grounded in religious commitment. Sugar, with Introduction by Sidney W. Mintz (Baltimore, Md.: The John It is intrinsic to the gospel that it does not Hopkins University Press, 1993), 28f. prescribe any cultural or political expression as in- 5. See Amy Chua, Day of Empire, How Hyperpowers Rise to Global herently more fit to bear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dominance—and Why They Fall (New York: Anchor Books, 2007), xix- xxxiv, 29–58. “What was remarkable was that nationality and ethnicity The question needs to be asked today: Does the did not affect one’s ability to be Roman. It was Rome’s willingness and Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed violate this fun- ability to incorporate and assimilate an endless stream of new peoples into its empire that held the secret to its greatness” (48). “Rome thrived damental tenet of cultural and political diversity? so long as it was able to enlist, absorb, reward, and intermix peoples of diverse ethnicities, religions, and backgrounds. At the Roman Empire’s peak, Africans, Spaniards, Britons, and Gauls alike could rise to the highest echelons of power—indeed, could even become emperor—as long A Theological Surplus as they assimilated. The empire sank when it let in peoples that it failed to assimilate, either because they were unassimilable or because their culture and habits exceeded the limits of Roman tolerance. Out of a mixture of religious and ethnic intolerance, Rome sparked wars and internal rebellions it could not win. It was precisely when the empire In the world of empire, the Christian confession sought to maintain the “purity” of Roman blood, culture, and religion— replicating the mistake that Claudius and later Gibbon imputed to ancient in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, “We be- Athens and Sparta—that Rome spiraled downward into disintegration and lieve in one God . . . We believe in one Lord, oblivion” (58). Jesus Christ. . . . We believe in the Holy Spirit, 6. Joerg Rieger, in Empire, eds. Kwok Pui-Lan, Don H. Compier, the Lord, the giver of Life . . . ”21 is a radical, and Joerg Rieger (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2007), 3f. life-giving alternative to the variegated idolatries 7. Timothy H. Parsons, The Rule of Empires. Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, and Why They Always Fall (Oxford and New of creating life and meaning through violence and York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 13f. destruction; through seeking and grasping power 8. Ibid. over others to reduce them to less than God 9. Ibid., 204. intended—people for whose salvation Jesus Christ 10. Ibid., 15. “came down from heaven [and] was incarnate of the 11. Ibid. Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made 12. Ibid., 298. 22 human.” In the world of empire, the Nicene- 13. Douglas John Hall, Thinking the Faith (Minneapolis: Augsburg Constantinopolitan Creed offers “theological sur- Fortress, 1989), writes, “A still more provocative consequence of the es- tablishment for the theology of the church is implied with the men- plus in the Christian tradition that resists empire tion of Nicaea. Both the councils of Nicaea (325) and Chalcedon (451) and provides alternatives.”23 In this world where took place under the conditions of Christian establishment . . . .Indeed, Nicaea was convened by Constantine personally, with the express pur- idolatry is touted and promoted as life-giving; pose of putting a stop to Christian differences which only further di- where greed reigns, the church catholic is reminded vide an already disunited empire. The decisions arrived at in these two 364 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 52, Number 4 • Winter 2013 • December

pivotal councils were to determine orthodoxy in Theology and Christol- 15. Ibid., 204. ogy up to and including our own time. This is a staggering observation, 16. Ibid., 218. and from our present perspective we must ask: How would it have influenced the Christian church’s conception of God, and even more 17. Ibid. explicitly its Christology, if decisions in these key areas of belief had 18. Ibid., 219. evolved under the conditions of diaspora and persecution rather than those under the establishment?” (203). For a positive evaluation of the 19. Ibid., 9f. Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed “as a sign of the unity of the faith and confession of the church” (121), see Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic 20. Ibid., 229. Theology,vol.3,trans.GeoffreyW.Bromiley(GrandRapids:WmB. 21. World Council of Churches, “The Texts of the Creeds,” in Eerdmans, 1998), 119–122. Confessing the One Faith, xxx. 14. Jaroslav Pelikan, Credo. Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds 22. Ibid., xxx-xxxi. and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003), 91. 23. Joerg Rieger, in Empire,4. Copyright of Dialog: A Journal of Theology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.