Why the Athanasian Creed Still Matters Today
Ordained Minister, M.Div.
April 18, 2026
2 min read
The Athanasian Creed was written roughly fifteen centuries ago, in a world very different from our own. It uses philosophical language that sounds foreign to modern ears. It contains damnatory clauses that many contemporary Christians find uncomfortable. Yet the questions it answers — Who is God? Who is Jesus? — are exactly the questions the Church and the world are still arguing about today.
The Heresies It Refutes Are Still Alive
Every heresy the Athanasian Creed was written to counter is alive in some form today. Modalism — the idea that Father, Son, and Spirit are three modes of one being — appears in some Oneness Pentecostal theology and in casual Christian speech that treats the Persons as interchangeable. Arianism — that Christ is a created being inferior to the Father — is the explicit teaching of Jehovah’s Witnesses and echoes in progressive Christian circles that reduce Jesus to a great moral teacher. The creed’s precision is not antique. It is targeted.
The Damnatory Clauses: Uncomfortable but Honest
The creed's opening and closing statements — that those who do not hold this faith faithfully 'shall perish everlastingly' and 'cannot be saved' — are often cited as reasons to set the creed aside. But these clauses only say what the Gospel itself implies: that who Jesus is matters for salvation. If Christ is not truly God, there is no atonement. If He is not truly Man, He cannot represent us. The creed’s sober warnings are not harsh add-ons — they flow from the stakes of the doctrines themselves.
A Creed for the Whole Church
The Athanasian Creed is used in Lutheran, Anglican, and Roman Catholic traditions, and its content is affirmed by virtually every orthodox Protestant denomination even where the text is not formally recited. It is one of the rare documents that spans the breadth of the Church — a shared inheritance from the ancient faith that unites Christians across centuries and traditions.
In an age of theological confusion, shallow spirituality, and a culture that treats all religious claims as equally valid, the Athanasian Creed stands as a clear, unapologetic declaration: this is who God is. This is who Jesus Christ is. 'This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.' Fifteen hundred years have not made those words less true.
