How to read these texts
Shared faith and particular traditions
A creed is ordinarily a concise profession used in worship, baptism, or teaching. A confession is usually longer and identifies the teaching of a particular church or family of churches. Neither category replaces Scripture for communities that regard Scripture as their highest authority; they record how those communities have understood it.
Texts below are introduced, not reproduced in full. Follow the linked primary or church-hosted editions to read them in their proper form and context.
Early and ecumenical
The creeds most widely shared
Apostles’ Creed standard form c. 8th century, Western
A compact Trinitarian confession associated with baptism in the Western church. It grew from the Old Roman Symbol, a baptismal creed used in Rome in the second and third centuries, and reached its standard wording around the eighth century. The apostles did not write it. It remains central in many Western liturgies and catechisms.
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed 325/381
Confesses the full divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit in language drawn from the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople. It is received across Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, and many Protestant traditions, with a well-known East–West disagreement over the filioque.
What is the filioque? The Latin word means “and the Son.” The creed of 381 says the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father.” Western churches later added “and the Son,” so that Western editions read “proceeds from the Father and the Son.” The Third Council of Toledo used the phrase in 589, and Rome adopted it in the sung creed in 1014. Eastern churches object on theological grounds, holding that the Father is the sole source of the Spirit within the Trinity, and also because the West changed the creed without an ecumenical council. It remains one of the defining differences between Eastern and Western Christianity.
Chalcedonian Definition 451
Articulates Jesus Christ as one person in two natures, fully divine and fully human. It is foundational for Chalcedonian churches. The Oriental Orthodox churches (Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Syriac, Armenian, and Malankara) do not receive Chalcedon; they confess “one incarnate nature of God the Word” and hold it to be fully orthodox.
Athanasian Creed 5th–6th century, Western
Named from its Latin opening words, Quicunque vult (“Whoever wishes”), this Latin creed sets out the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation at length. It was not written by Athanasius. Western churches use it, and the Lutheran Book of Concord and the Anglican formularies count it among the three ecumenical creeds, with the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds.
Reformation-era families
Confessions of the Protestant traditions
Augsburg Confession 1530, Lutheran
Presented at the Diet of Augsburg, this confession sets out an evangelical Lutheran account of inherited catholic teaching and the reforms its authors believed necessary.
Heidelberg Catechism 1563, Reformed
A teaching text arranged in three parts: guilt, grace, and gratitude. Its question-and-answer form and pastoral tone made it influential far beyond its original German setting.
Westminster Confession of Faith 1646–47, Reformed and Presbyterian
A systematic confession produced by the Westminster Assembly. It remains a major standard in Presbyterian and other Reformed churches, though many use editions with local revisions.
How these texts function
Not every church uses a confession in the same way
Worship and baptism
The Apostles’ and Nicene creeds are spoken in worship and used to teach candidates for baptism. Said together, a creed is an act of confession as well as a summary of belief.
Doctrinal boundary
Confessions identify a church’s public teaching and help ministers and members know what unity requires. Churches differ over whether every phrase must be affirmed and how revisions occur.
Teaching structure
Catechisms arrange doctrine as questions and answers for formation. Their language often joins belief, prayer, commandments, sacraments, and Christian practice.
Subordinate standard
Protestant churches normally call confessions subordinate to Scripture. They differ over what subscribing to one means. Some bind ministers to a confession because (Latin quia) it agrees with Scripture; others bind them only insofar as (quatenus) it does.
More traditions in their own words
Standards used across Christian families
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1992, Catholic
A worldwide teaching reference organised around the creed, sacraments, moral life, and prayer. It draws on Scripture, the councils, the liturgy, the church fathers, and later Catholic teaching.
Thirty-Nine Articles 1563/1571, Anglican
Historic articles of the Church of England addressing Scripture, creeds, justification, church, sacraments, and Reformation-era disputes. Anglican provinces relate to them in different constitutional ways.
Articles of Religion 1784, Methodist
John Wesley adapted Anglican articles for American Methodists. Alongside sermons, notes, and later confessions, they anchor Methodist teaching on grace, Scripture, church, and sacraments.
Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Southern Baptist
One influential modern Baptist confession covering Scripture, God, salvation, church, ordinances, mission, and public life. It represents Southern Baptists, not every Baptist body.
Statement of Fundamental Truths 1916, revised, Pentecostal
The Assemblies of God’s doctrinal basis includes salvation, healing, Spirit baptism, spiritual gifts, ordinances, ministry, and Christian hope. Other Pentecostal bodies use different standards.
A necessary distinction
Agreement is real; so are the differences
Shared creeds express substantial common ground. They do not settle every disputed question. Authority, sacramental theology, salvation, church governance, and the role of tradition are treated differently by Christian communions. The next step shows how these beliefs were argued over and defined in history; the last step compares the traditions that differ today.