Donald Fairbairn - Story of Creeds and Confessions: Tracing the Development of the Christian Faith

In one sense, the origins of this book lie at the University of Cambridge, where both of us did our doctoral studies (Fairbairn in the late 1990s in patristics, and Reeves in the late 2000s in early modern Christianity). It was there that we developed our love for our respective periods of Christian history and the perspectives that we present here. In another sense, this books genesis lies with Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, which brought us together in friendship. We both joined the faculty of Gordon-Conwell in 2010, even interviewing on the same day, and the years since that time have given us opportunities for collaboration in the teaching of church history and theology. It was through our teaching at Gordon-Conwell that we honed the specific ideas that dominate this book.

We believe that the story of creeds and confessions is a single story, in which the latter developments built on earlier ones, and we have tried in this book to allow the consistency of that story to shine through in the midst of the many tensions between East and West, between Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christianity, and between different Protestant traditions. Accordingly, we have sought to write with a single voice throughout the book. At the same time, it should come as no surprise that each of us has taken the lead in the area of his specialty. Chapter 1 and the conclusion to the book are the work of both of us. Chapters 2 through 10 are largely Fairbairns work, and chapters 11 through 18 are mainly Reevess.

Along the way, we have benefited from the help of many people. Special thanks are due to Robert Hosack at Baker Academic, who graciously agreed to allow Reeves to bring Fairbairn into this project, even though a contract had already been issued with Reeves as sole author. Thanks go to Aldo Mondin and Kate Hendrickson for their help reading early drafts of several chapters, and Aldo must also be thanked for his help in selecting images, maps, and other important additions to the book.

At this point, it is appropriate to write a word about where one may find the many creeds and confessions we cite in this book, because Christian creeds and confessions have been collected and printed in many different places. Throughout this book, we cite the documents from modern editions or translations, often in standard series but occasionally in less well-known places. But students and interested laypeople are likely to want a one-stop shop, a single place where they can find many of these documents. For much of the twentieth century, the best such one-stop shop (still readily available and useful) was Philip Schaffs The Creeds of Christendom . A convenient and inexpensive one-volume edition is John H. Leiths Creeds of the Churches . The new library standard is the monumental work of scholarship by Jaroslav Pelikan and Valerie Hotchkiss, Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition ( CCFCT ). In our footnotes, we include not only the citations of the works from which we are quoting but also references to the volume and page numbers of CCFCT where the documents may be found. Of course, many creeds and confessions are also readily available online.