In the Christian sense it is the public manifestation of one’s faith, with life and with words. When the occasion arises, it is necessary to be willing to confess the faith with courage and clarity, even to the risk of giving one’s life for that confession.
Christianity has always had a special veneration for martyrdom. And it is due to the explicit message of Jesus in the Gospel: “Whoever confesses me before men, I will acknowledge him before my Father; and whoever denies me before men, I will deny before my Father.” (Mt. 10 33 and Lc. 12. 9)
For this reason, the authenticity of the faith demands an occasional confession when the case arises, but above all the public and permanent confession with one’s own life. The testimony of faith is one of the implications of the evangelical message.
An excellent criterion of Christian education is to train the believer so that he does not hide his faith, but rather manifests it with more or less decision, but always without cowardice. Human respects, practical secularism, shyness are signs of weak faith.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
(v. martyrdom, profession of faith)
(ESQUERDA BIFET, Juan, Dictionary of Evangelization, BAC, Madrid, 1998)
Source: Dictionary of Evangelization
1. Old Testament
The confession is a very condensed formula of faith that conveys the experience of a community that summarizes its vision of the sacred and defines the spiritual boundaries of believers. One can already speak of a confession of faith in religions that have a certain dogmatic or normative content. More precise is the confession of faith in the Israelite experience.
(1. Introduction. Religions. We distinguish three types of religions: cosmic, mystical and prophetic, (a) Cosmic religions solemnly proclaim the supremacy of a certain God who has defeated Chaos and begins to reign over the universe. The acclamations of Marduk* in Babylon (cf. Emana Elish IV, 5; V, 110) or of Ba’lu (Baal*) in the religion of the Canaanites, so close to the Israelites, follow this line: Mlkn aliyn BU (Our King is the mighty Ba’lu!; cf. Queen Yahweh! or Our king is Yahweh!’. Sal 93,1; 97,1; 99,1). (b) The mystical religions, which properly speaking lack positive (historical) revelation, have not felt the need to formulate their faith in a creed. This is how Hinduism is generous: everything that expresses an experience of opening towards the mystery can be considered as a sign of true faith: some Hindus highlight the confession of the identity of Atman (inner life) with Brahman (the divine absolute); others may accentuate their connection to a quasi-personal figure of God considered as the supreme being (Vishnu or Shiva). For their part, certain Buddhist groups emphasize the doctrine of the three jewels: Mc refuge in Dhamma! (I accept the universal, divine law, which in Sanskrit literature is often called Dharma); Mc refuge in Budha! (illuminator or teacher who has revealed salvation); Mc refuge in Sangha! (ie, in the community of monks who assume and walk together the path of salvation), (c) Prophetic religions. Strictly speaking, only the Abrahamic religions ask their faithful for a confession of faith, since they assume that there is an orthodoxy: a straight and normative way of expressing one’s faith, in the church. The central confession of Judaism is the Shema (Dt 6,4-5) which implies two articles: only Yahweh is God, and Israel is his people, called to love God. The official confession of Christians consists of three articles: I believe in God the Father, I believe in Jesus Christ and I believe in the Holy Spirit. Muslims somewhat universalize and simplify the Jewish confession of faith in their Saltada or basic creed: “I bear witness that there is no god besides Allah and that Muhammad is the prophet of Allah”; this confession also consists of two articles: the first is God-Allah, the second focuses on Muhammad, prophet of Allah.
(2) Israelite confession of faith and experience. (a) Yahweh is King, cosmic lordship. Israel had not known a strict confession, nor an exclusive way of understanding the experience of God and the believing commitment of the people, but rather maintained different tendencies and formulas, which have only been delimited later (whether in rabbinic Judaism*, or in the Christianity*). On the other hand, Israel’s confessions of faith express more a way of acting (orthopraxy) than a way of thinking (orthodoxy). I want to present the most significant ones, beginning with the one in which the cosmic lordship of Yahweh is highlighted. The Israelite God, linked to the memory of the ancestors and the experience of Horeb-Sinai (cf. Ex 3-4), also appears as King of the cosmos: thus he displays his lordship in the storm and thus we see him riding on the chariot of clouds , very firm on his Throne, venerated by the faithful who welcome his manifestation and acclaim: “Glory! Yahweh establishes himself as eternal King” (cf. Ps 29,10). In this context, the introductory sentence of the royal psalms is understood: Yhavé Malak, “Yahvé reigns” (Sal 93,1; 97,1; 99,1; cf. 47,3.9). Because he has defeated the primordial chaos, because he ratifies his power over the earth, in the storm and rain, and because he acts as supreme Judge, Yahweh is King or Lord of everything that exists. This is how his faithful confess him, close in principle to those of Baal* or Marduk, but with a difference: the Israelites assure that only Yahweh is the only Lord and that his faithful must worship him exclusively, rejecting the other gods or lords of the earth (cf. Ps 16,2-3). Confession therefore implies exclusion from other gods and separation from the Israelites.
(3) Yahweh Our-God, covenantal confession. From the cosmic lordship we pass to the experience of God’s personal connection with a group of believers: “I (Yahweh) will be your God and you will be my people” (cf. Dt 26:15-19). In this same line, after entering Palestine, the great alternative that Joshua poses to his followers, who must choose between Yahweh or the gods of the earth, is situated. The people as a whole respond by confessing: “Yahweh is our-God and thus we will serve him” (Jos 24,17-18). In Elijah’s time the alternative is repeated again and again the people choose their own God, in a festive choice, with great religious and social consequences: Yahweh liu haElohim (“Yahweh, he is God”: 1 Kings 19,39) . This is a confession of alliance, of a doctrinal and social type. Enlightened by what Yahweh has done for his faithful, the people agree to remain faithful and respond to him.
(4) Memory of liberation, historical creed. It expands the previous experience and explains the origin of Yahweh’s relationship with the Israelites, narrating his action in history and establishing the founding memory, since God’s action binds as a people those who assume the memory of his saving interventions. Thus we come from the royal context (Yahweh reigns!) or simply covenantal (I am your-God, you are my-people!) to the field of history where God acts and says: “I am Yahweh, your God, who I have brought you out of Egypt” (Ex 20,2; Dt 5,6; cf. 1 Kings 12,28; Jr 2,6; etc.). Those introductory words of the Decalogue constitute the clearest expression of Israelite identity and are expanded in a more detailed historical Creed: “My father was a wandering Aramean; he went down to Egypt and resided there with a few men… But the Egyptians mistreated and humiliated us… We cried out to Yahweh, God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice, saw our misery… and brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and brought us to this place…” (Dt 26,5-10; cf. Jos 24,2; Ps 136,78).
(5) Mandate of God, historical-legal confession. “When your son asks tomorrow: what are these commands and decrees that Yahweh commanded you…? You will answer: We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand… to bring us and give us the land that he had promised our fathers. And he commanded us to fulfill all these commandments, respecting Yahweh our God” (Dt 6,20-24). This creed expands and ratifies the previous ones in a formula of faith that each father must transmit to his progeny, thus founding and guaranteeing the fulfillment of the laws that configure and bind all believers; Judaism is a family religion and practical life, and thus each father is a minister of God for his children. This is, perhaps, the most complete of the creeds of Israel, because it links its three great traditions (promises, exodus and covenant), to expand and express them in a commitment to fidelity that defines the lives of men (who must fulfill the commandments ). It is a historical creed, and evokes the sense of the three times of the people: it includes a promise of the land, linked to the memory of the patriarchs; in the center it places the exodus or creative liberation and at the end the pact, which is expressed in the fidelity of Israel, which has to fulfill the Law of God, with its decrees and mandates. This is a family creed, since each parent must teach it to his children, and a social one, since each family is part of the people of those liberated by God, committed to fulfilling his commandments.
(6) You will love your God: affective-pactual confession. It has ended up being the best known and most important for Judaism and is titled shema *, listen (for its first word). The people are born and configured listening to a word from God, which puts them on their feet and enables them to respond by loving, in an open gesture to the community as a whole: “Listen Israel, Yahweh Our God is one God. You will love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength…”.
Cf. X. Pikaza, Monotheism and globalization, Verbo Divino, Estella 2001.
CONFESSION OF FAITH
2.New Testament
The most specific confession of faith of the Church has been fixed in tradition (Apostolic Creed) or in councils (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed). It is a very elaborate confession, of the trimembre (Trinitarian) type, which links the mystery of God with his revelation in Christ and his presence through the Spirit in the Church. In the New Testament there is no confession developed in this way, but there are various models of confession, which remain basic for Christians.
(1) Basic confession. Love God and neighbor (love*). The Gospel tradition has linked the experience of the shema* (loving God with all one’s heart: Dt 6:4-8) with the need to love one’s neighbor, as expressed in the Israelite code of holiness (cf. Lv 19,33), but universalizing the sense of neighbor (cf. Mk 12,28-34), especially where Luke has introduced in this context the commentary on the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10,25-37). In this way, Christians include the love of God and the most needy neighbor in the same confession of faith-messianic life, which is centered on this double and unique credo-commandment: on the one hand, the messianic Israelite (Christian) is told that he must love God with all my heart and all my soul…