Dorothee Soelle’s Creed in Distinction to the Nicene Creed

Earlier this week, I criticized the Nicene creed for leaving out the teachings of Jesus. Fairly a lacuna, I might say! 

I like to recommend the next creed gifted to us by the late feminist theologian, Dorothee Soelle, who has written substantively on Meister Eckhart and on the Beguines. 

Discover how, not like the Nicene creed, it’s much less a few checklist of dogmas about Christ, however a name to motion in Jesus’ identify. An invite to observe and imitate Jesus, somewhat than argue over his nature. It’s a 21^st century creed that acknowledges evolution and democracy and accountability. This creed is born from a girl and mom, not from fourth-century bishops gathered below the attention of an Emperor.

Credo

I imagine in god
who didn’t create an immutable world
a factor incapable of change
who doesn’t govern based on everlasting legal guidelines
that stay inviolate
or based on a pure order
of wealthy and poor
of the skilled and the ignorant
of rulers and topics

I imagine in god
who willed battle in life
and needed us to vary the established order
by way of work
by way of our politics.

I imagine in jesus christ
who was proper when he
like every of us
simply one other particular person who couldn’t beat metropolis corridor
labored to vary the established order
and was destroyed

taking a look at him I see
how our intelligence is crippled
our creativeness stifled
our efforts wasted
as a result of we don’t reside as he did
day-after-day I’m afraid
that he died in useless
as a result of he’s buried in our church buildings
as a result of we’ve betrayed his revolution
in our obedience to authority
and our worry of it

I imagine in jesus christ
who rises many times in our lives
so that we are going to be free
from prejudice and vanity
from worry and hate
and keep it up his revolution
and make method for his kingdom

I imagine within the spirit
that jesus introduced into the world
within the brotherhood of all nations

I imagine it’s as much as us
what our earth turns into
a valley of tears hunger and tyranny
or a metropolis of god

I imagine in a simply peace
that may be achieved in the opportunity of a significant life
for all individuals

I imagine this world of god’s
has a future.

Amen.*

*Dorothee Soelle, Revolutionary Endurance, trans. Rita and Robert Kimber (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1977), pp. 22f.

Tailored from Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations, pp. 269-272.

See additionally, Matthew Fox, Chapter 5, “Liberated and Liberating Sisters: Meister Eckhart Meets Dorothee Soelle, the Beguines Mechtild of Magdeburg and Marguerite Porete, and Julian of Norwich,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Occasions, pp. 77-96.

Banner picture: “Sermon on the Mount.” Portray by Andrei Mironov. Wikimedia Commons

Queries for Contemplation

Do you discover many variations between this and the Nicene Creed? Do you discover it filling within the gaps which can be lacking from the previous?

Advisable Studying

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

As Matthew Fox notes, when an getting old Albert Einstein was requested if he had any regrets, he replied, “I want I had learn extra of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics characterize a wide-ranging sampling of those readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no religion. The visionaries quoted vary from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in disaster, and we’d like street maps that may floor us in knowledge, encourage us to motion, and assist us collect our skills in service of compassion and justice.  This revolutionary guide does simply that.  Matthew Fox takes a number of the most profound religious teachings of the West and interprets them into sensible each day mediations.  Examine and follow these teachings.  Take what’s on this guide and educate it to the youth as a result of the brand new era can not afford to undergo the spirit and moral illiteracy of the previous.” — Adam Bucko, religious activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Basis for Homeless Youth.

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time

Whereas Matthew Fox acknowledges that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers all through historical past, he additionally needs to introduce Eckhart to at the moment’s activists addressing modern crises. Towards that finish, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Wealthy, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and lots of others.
“Matthew Fox is probably the best author on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has efficiently bridged a niche between Eckhart as a shamanistic character and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith motion, to disclose simply how cosmic Eckhart actually is, and the way remarkably related to at the moment’s non secular disaster! ” — Steven Herrmann, Writer of Non secular Democracy: The Knowledge of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Ahead