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Monday, January 5, 2015

Confessional doxology

Continuing to appreciate the anti-celebrity of Carl Trueman:
To many modern evangelical ears, the idea of a confession of faith sounds just too cerebral and propositional to have much to do with the idea of Christian praise and doxology. Indeed, given the way in which confessions are most obviously significant in confessional denominations, that is, as judicial documents for deciding who can belong and who cannot, it is easy even for those who delight in them to forget that doxology or praise is a vital aspect of their function. Indeed, we might go further and say that not only is this doxological dimension crucial to their use today; it is also vital to an understanding of how they came to be formulated in the first place. Historically, one could make the argument that Christian theology as a whole is one long, extended reflection upon the meaning and significance of that most basic doxological declaration, "Jesus is Lord!" and thus an attempt to provide a framework for understanding Christian praise. If we fail to make this connection, then our appreciation of the creeds and confessions of the church will be dramatically impoverished as, I would argue, will be our understanding of Christian worship itself. 
(The Creedal Imperative, p. 135)

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