Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 29:1 (Spring 2025)
Article: Between Two Creeds: Cyril Of Jerusalem’s Theology Of The Father And The Son
Author: Jonathan N. Cleland

Between Two Creeds: Cyril Of Jerusalem’s Theology Of The Father And The Son1

Jonathan N. Cleland

Jonathan N. Cleland is an adjunct professor at Heritage College and Seminary, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. He earned his PhD from Knox College at the University of Toronto. He is Director of NEXT (Young Adult) Ministries at Grandview Church, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, and a Sessional Teaching Fellow at Ryle Seminary, Ottawa and Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Cleland is married to Laura, and they have two children.

The debates that ensued around the Creed of the Nicaea in the fourth century are well documented and well known.2 One dubious figure from this period is Cyril of Jerusalem (313–386).3 Cyril is a theologian who, as Lewis Ayers put it, “is difficult to place in the standard categories of the fourth century.”4 The key debate around Cyril concerned the use of the term homoousios employed at the Council of Nicaea. Some have argued that Cyril was initially against this term. Edward Yarnold argues that this does not need to be the case, even though it is true that this is not a word that Cyril used in his writings.5 While earlier in his career he is labelled by Socrates of Constantinople and Sozomen as a subscriber of homoiousian theology (whether fairly so or not), it is clear he aligned himself fully with pro-Nicene theology by the time of the Council of Constantinople.6

Cyril’s major work is known as the Catechetical Lectures.7 These lectures were penned around 350, the same period in which he was appointed as bishop of Jerusalem.8 The dating of these works is important. With Nicaea written in 325 and the Nicaea-Constantinopolitan Creed written in 381, the Catechetical Lectures are placed approximately in the middle of these two creeds. Considering Cyril’s theology of this time, a topic to engage with concerns his relation to these two creeds.

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The creed that Cyril expounds throughout his Catechetical Lectures has been termed the Creed of Jerusalem. While the text of this Creed is not extant, Stephenson has looked to reconstruct it based on Cyril’s citations of it throughout his lectures.9 When one compares the Creed of Jerusalem with the Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople, one sees the many ...