Confessions, Book of

Confessions, Book of

▪ religious work
      compilation of creeds and confessions that was prepared by a committee of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and was adopted by that church in 1967. It includes the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, the Scots Confession (1560), the Heidelberg Catechism (1562), the Second Helvetic Confession (1566), the Westminster Confession and the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1648), the Barmen Declaration (1934), and the new Confession of 1967.

      The union that formed the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in 1958 had stipulated that the new church would draft “a brief contemporary statement of faith.” The assumption had been that this new statement would be a brief and simple version of the Westminster Confession. The committee that began work on the project in 1959 soon found, however, that a simplified version of a 300-year-old confession would not suffice as a statement of faith. The committee then secured permission to develop a Book of Confessions that would deal adequately with the problem of continuity and tradition and would include a new creed.

      The Confession of 1967 was designed explicitly to presuppose, continue, and supplement the historic creeds of the Book of Confessions without repeating their contents. Comprising three major sections, “God's Work of Reconciliation,” “The Ministry of Reconciliation,” and “The Fulfillment of Reconciliation,” the new creed was primarily concerned with the task of the church, Presbyterian or any other, in the modern world. Reconciliation in Christ, the confession asserted, must mean the willingness to reexamine even the contemporary church's conceptions of right and wrong. The confession illustrates this point briefly by reference to the modern problems of racism, war, poverty, and the breakdown of personal relations. The Confession of 1967 also expresses clearly the church's conviction that critical study of the Bible is an aid to, rather than an attack upon, the use of the Bible in the church.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister —   …   Wikipedia

  • Confessions (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) —   Author(s) Jean Jacques Rousseau Original tit …   Wikipedia

  • Confessions of an English Opium-Eater — (1821) is an autobiographical account written by Thomas De Quincey, about his laudanum (opium and alcohol) addiction and its effect on his life. The Confessions was the first major work De Quincey published and the one which won him fame almost… …   Wikipedia

  • Confessions of an Heiress — Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue in Chic Peek Behind the Pose   …   Wikipedia

  • Confessions of a Yakuza —   Author(s) Junichi Saga Original title …   Wikipedia

  • Confessions (film) — Confessions Directed by Tetsuya Nakashima Written by Tetsuya Nakashima Kanae Minato (original nove …   Wikipedia

  • Confessions of a Book Reviewer — is a narrative essay published in 1946 by the English author George Orwell. In it he discusses the lifestyle of a book reviewer and criticises the practice reviewing almost every book published which gives rise to this lifestyle. Contents 1… …   Wikipedia

  • Confessions of an Eco-Warrior — is a book written in 1991 by Dave Foreman. Dave Foreman was the New Mexico lobbyist for The Wilderness Society in the 1970s. Disillusioned by the lack of progress in safeguarding the environment in the United States, particularly after a… …   Wikipedia

  • Confessions of a Young Man — (1886) is a memoir by Irish novelist George Moore who spent about 15 years in his teens and 20s in Paris and later London as a struggling artist. The book is notable as being one of the first English writings which named important emerging French …   Wikipedia

  • Confessions of a Thug (novel) — Confessions of a Thug   Author(s) Philip Meadows Taylor …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”