The Nicene Creed in the Thirty-nine Articles

When Matthew Barrett left the SBC to become Anglican, one of the major reasons why was the SBC’s rejection of the Nicene Creed’s inclusion in the Baptist Faith and Message, resulting in a dangerous lack of creedal accountability. In this new episode of the Credo podcast, Matthew Barrett shares why Anglicanism becomes so life-giving with its historic confession, The Thirty-Nine Articles, and its clear, explicit commitment to the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasius Creed.

Matthew Barrett sits down with Anglican theologian and historian Gerald Bray to discuss the history of the Articles and why Thomas Cranmer was so instrumental. With great expertise on the Articles, Gerald Bray considers why this commitment to orthodoxy in the Articles has become an enduring mark of Anglicanism, providing the church with a creedal accountability to the bishops and the councils from which creeds like Nicaea first originated.

Gerald Bray is Research Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School and the author of many books, including The Doctrine of God in the “Contours of Christian Theology” series (of which he is also the general editor). He served as editor forThe Anglican Canons 1529–1947 and Tudor Church Reform, which contains the Henrician Canons of 1535 and the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, and for three volumes in the Ancient Christian Commentary Series. He is the editor of the Anglican theological journal Churchman. Bray is a minister in the Church of England.

Matthew Barrett is Research Professor of Theology at Trinity Anglican Seminary. He has been appointed the McDonald Agape visiting scholar at Dominican House of Studies and the Thomistic Institute. He is the founder of Credo. He is the author of award-winning books like Simply Trinity and On Classical Theology. Currently he is writing a Systematic Theology with Baker Academic. He is the theologian-in-residence of Anselm House at St. Aidan’s Anglican Church. Subscribe to his newsletter to receive updates on his writing.

Image credit: Antony McCallum