Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor and theologian, writes that she thinks that believing in every word of the creeds isn’t the point, that the creeds are recited collectively because on any given day you might only believe in a few phrases, but someone else may only be able to bring themselves to believe in a few different phrases, but when you add it all up across a congregation, every part of the creed is believed by someone in the room.
My relationship to my Christian traditions is I think even shakier than that, but the idea of traditional prayers being consecrated by use over generations feels like a similar thing.
I really love this, thank you for sharing it. It reminds me of an exchange that a friend and I shared recently on faith... I've shared this idea, gleaned from Cupid & Psyche, that maybe faith is not a prerequisite for miracles, and then of course later I wonder how true it is or useful. My friend was feeling short on faith I pretty full and so we figured that--even if we do need faith to be "blessed," whatever that means really, and I'm not sure--between us we had what we needed. Thank you again for sharing, and thank you for reading.
Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor and theologian, writes that she thinks that believing in every word of the creeds isn’t the point, that the creeds are recited collectively because on any given day you might only believe in a few phrases, but someone else may only be able to bring themselves to believe in a few different phrases, but when you add it all up across a congregation, every part of the creed is believed by someone in the room.
My relationship to my Christian traditions is I think even shakier than that, but the idea of traditional prayers being consecrated by use over generations feels like a similar thing.
I really love this, thank you for sharing it. It reminds me of an exchange that a friend and I shared recently on faith... I've shared this idea, gleaned from Cupid & Psyche, that maybe faith is not a prerequisite for miracles, and then of course later I wonder how true it is or useful. My friend was feeling short on faith I pretty full and so we figured that--even if we do need faith to be "blessed," whatever that means really, and I'm not sure--between us we had what we needed. Thank you again for sharing, and thank you for reading.