We believe: group belief and the liturgical use of Creeds

Joshua Cockayne

doi:10.24204/EJPR.2021.3234

We believe: group belief and the liturgical use of Creeds

Joshua Cockayne

School of Divinity

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

5 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The recitation of creeds in corporate worship is widespread in the Christian tradition. Intuitively, the use of creeds captures the belief not only of the individuals reciting it, but of the Church as a whole. This paper seeks to provide a philosophical analysis of the meaning of the words, ‘We believe…’, in the context of the liturgical recitation of the Creed. Drawing from recent work in group ontology, I explore three recent accounts of group belief (summative accounts, joint commitment accounts, and functionalist accounts) and consider the potential of applying these to the group belief contained in the Creed.

Original language	English
Journal	European Journal for Philosophy of Religion
Volume	13
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.24204/EJPR.2021.3234
Publication status	Published - 1 Oct 2021

Keywords

Creeds
Group belief
Joint commitment

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10.24204/EJPR.2021.3234

Cockayne_2020_EJPR_Creedsgroupbelief_AAM
Copyright © 2021 European Journal for Philosophy of Religion. . This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.2021.3234
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Cite this

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We believe: group belief and the liturgical use of Creeds

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Keywords

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