Thursday, July 4, 2024

Wolfram Kinzig on how the reciting the creed had "magical" properties among early Christians such as Ambrose of Milan

  

One of the areas in which the changes in the creed’s Sitz im Leben is most obvious to see is late antique and early medieval magic. The creed always had tended to assume a function comparable to the baptismal formula itself, through its use in the context of the baptismal liturgy (especially where it was combined in some way with the rite of ApĆ³taxis) and in the act of baptism itself. As a result, it also easily mutated into a kind of sacrament of the word: it might be understood as conveying the baptismal grace simply by means of being recited. Such an understanding of the creed was strengthened by the fact that, as we saw in previous chapters, Christians were always told not to write it down and—especially with regard to [the Nicene creed]—not to alter it in any way, lest one would risk being anathematized. The miraculous character of the creed later took on a life of its own: the creed virtually morphed into a magical formula with an apotropaic character.

 

The view that the credal formula possessed such miraculous powers is well documented in our sources. For Ambrose revisiting the creed helped against ‘stupefactions of the soul and body’, ‘the temptation of the adversary who is never silent’, and even ‘some trembling of the body, [or] weakness of the stomach’—an admonition which was later alluded to by Bede. (Ambrose, Explanatio symboli 9 [FaFo § 656b]; Bede, Epistula ad Egbertum 5 [§ 584]) Caesarius of Arles told his flock to use the creed as substitute for the vulgar love songs that were popular among the peasant population. Instead of these songs, Christians were supposed to recite the creed, the Lord’s Prayer, some antiphons, and Psalm 50 or 90 (51 and 91 in the Hebrew Bible) in order to protect one’s soul from the devil. (Cf. Caesarius, Sermo 6, 3 [FaFo § 656b]) The confession this protected against evil of various kinds, especially the machinations of the devil. (Wolfram Kinzig, A History of Early Christian Creeds [De Gruyter Textbook; Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2024], 540-41)