A few years ago I gently updated the
English translation of the so-called Athanasian Creed,
also called Quincunque Vult (Whoever wishes) after its opening words in
Latin for a sermon preached at All Saints Highgate. Here it is, formatted for
greater ease of understanding.
Whoever wishes to be saved must, above
all, retain the catholic faith [= the faith held by the whole Church].
Whoever does not keep it whole and
inviolate will doubtless perish eternally.
Now the catholic faith is this: that
we worship one God in trinity, and the Trinity in unity;
neither confusing the persons, nor
dividing the substance [= divine being {what makes God God}].
For the person of the Father is one, that of the
Son another, and that of the Holy Spirit another,
but the deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, is one ― equal in glory, coeternal in majesty.
What the Father is, such is the Son, and
such is the Holy Spirit.
The Father is uncreated; the Son is uncreated; the Holy
Spirit is uncreated.
The Father is unlimited, the Son is unlimited, the Holy
Spirit is unlimited.
The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Spirit
is eternal
― and yet there are not three
eternal beings but one who is eternal,
just as there are not three uncreated or
unlimited beings but one who is uncreated and unlimited.
In the same way, the Father is almighty,
the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty
― and yet there are not three almighty
beings but one who is almighty.
Thus, the Father is God; the Son
is God; the Holy Spirit is God
― and yet there are not three gods but
one God.
Thus, the Father is Lord; the Son
is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord―and yet there are not three lords but one
Lord.
For just as we are compelled by the
Christian truth to confess that each distinct person is God and Lord,
so we are forbidden by the catholic
religion to say that there are three gods or three lords.
The Father was neither made
nor created nor begotten by anyone.
The Son is from the Father alone,
not made or created but begotten.
The Holy Spirit is from the Father
and the Son, not made or created or begotten but proceeding.
Therefore there is one Father, not three fathers;
one Son, not three sons;
one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits.
And in this Trinity there is no before or
after [as to duration],
nor is there greater or lesser [as to degree, power, dignity], but all
three persons are in themselves coeternal and coequal,
so that (as has been stated above) in all
things the Unity in trinity and the Trinity in unity is to be worshipped.
Therefore, who wants to be saved should think
thus about the Trinity.
But it is necessary for eternal salvation
that one also faithfully [with integrity] believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Therefore it is the right faith that we
believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at
once God and a human being.
He is God, begotten from the substance
[being] of the Father before all ages, and a human being, born from the
substance of his mother in this age;
perfectly God and perfectly a human
being, composed of a rational soul [mind] and human flesh;
equal to the Father with regard to his
divinity, less than the Father with regard to his humanity.
Although he is God and a human being, nevertheless
he is not two, but one Christ.
However, he is not one by turning deity
into flesh but by taking humanity into God,
truly one, not by mixing humanity with deity, but by a unity of
person.
For, as [by analogy] the rational soul [mind] and the flesh
is one human being, so God and the human being is one Christ.
He suffered for our salvation, descended
into hell [Hades], rose from the dead, ascended into the heavens, is seated at
the right hand of the Father, from where he will come to judge the
living and the dead.
At his coming all human beings have to
rise again with their bodies and will give an account of their own
deeds.
Those who have done good will go into
eternal life; those who have done evil into eternal fire.
This is the catholic faith; everyone must believe this faithfully and firmly, otherwise they cannot be saved. Amen.
