Doctrine · Creeds
The Athanasian Creed
Quicumque vult — Symbolum Athanasianum
The West's most precise — and most contested — Trinitarian and Christological symbol, framed by the warning clauses that kept it out of American Methodism.
In brief — every phrase, the quick answer →
The Warning Clauses
Whoever wishes to be saved must above all hold the catholic faith, which unless one keeps whole and undefiled he shall without doubt perish eternally.The Trinity
Now the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit; but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated; the Father immeasurable, the Son immeasurable, the Holy Spirit immeasurable;the Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal;and yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal; as also not three uncreated, nor three immeasurable, but one uncreated and one immeasurable;so likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, the Holy Spirit almighty; and yet not three almighties, but one almighty;so the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; and yet not three Gods, but one God;so likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, the Holy Spirit Lord; and yet not three Lords, but one Lord.For as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge each person severally to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say there are three Gods, or three Lords.The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten; the Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten; the Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, not made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding.So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.And in this Trinity none is before or after another; none is greater or less than another; but the whole three persons are coeternal together and coequal.So that in all things, as has been said above, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore who would be saved, let him thus think of the Trinity.The Incarnation
Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe faithfully the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man; God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds, and man, of the substance of his mother, born in the world; perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and human flesh subsisting;equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood;who, although he is God and man, yet he is not two, but one Christ; one, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person; for as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead, ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of the Father God Almighty, from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead; at whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works;Visual weight reflects how contested the phrase is across the tradition: highly contested moderately contested well-settled