Liuwe Westra: Creating a Theological Difference: The Myth of Two Grammatical Constructions with Latin Credo

The theological difference between ‘believing in God' and ‘believing the Church' is presented as a real and significant one in most dogmatic handbooks. However, this difference was only invented in the fourth century. Latin sources show, that the Church (just as Forgiveness and Resurrection) was originally taught the catechumens as something to believe in the same way as they were taught to believe in the Triune God. Thus, the fourth century appears to be an important turning point in patristic ecclesiology.