Professional Christianity

by Clay Smith

Straighten up that tie, follower of Jesus, cause you’re about to go… pro, Actually, it’s more like dust off that 1700-year-old credal statement, follower of Jesus, because by professional, I really mean professing. That is, I hope to convince you of the goodness of professing the faith by Confessions (overviews), Creeds (statements), and Catechisms (Q&A) today.

Mere Christianity, Not Christian Merism

Already, for some, objections bubble. Why be denominationally specific? Good instincts, question asker! We shouldn’t delight in accentuating differences in the household of God. 

Maybe you prefer C.S. Lewis’s term: a “mere” Christian. However, it’s worth noting that Lewis himself was an Anglican. He also happened to say this in Mere Christianity: “I hope no reader will suppose that ‘mere’ Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions–as if a man could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else. [Mere Christianity] is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals” (“Preface,” XV). Perhaps we are more merely Christian, not by refraining from entering our rooms, but by recognizing the validity of the faith of those in the rooms next door and befriending those we pass along the way.

Why Profess?

You may also have heard–and/or nodded along–that there ought to be “no creed but Christ.” This statement leaves us in an odd puzzle. Since it’s not a biblical phrase, it must be nothing other than a faith statement, or… a creed. To spare us all the infinite regress which begins “no ‘no creed but Christ’ but Christ,” here are three reasons for robust professions of faith:

• The Fire: One Mind. Surely, one reason is because the need for theological articulation inevitably arises from everyone who calls on Jesus’s name. Which Jesus? Who was he? What does it do to call on him? These questions remain though we banish every profession in church history. The reason for a more substantive profession is to find careful, timeless articulations as our answers. 
• The Chair: One Voice. Like “no creed but Christ,” every profession seeks to be embraced, shared, and repeated so that Christian agreement, coherence, unity can be found. There’s no such thing as a view from nowhere; there’s no such thing as unity consisting in nothing; and there shouldn’t be as many professions as Christians. Common professions let us profess a common faith.
• The Meal: One House. Sola Scriptura (another profession, by the way) doesn’t have to mean Solo Scriptura (me and my Bible-ism). Like the Ethiopian eunuch with Philip (Acts 8:30-31) we might just benefit from fellow faith travelers, and we needn’t let small things like centuries prevent us. The faith of Augustine & Anselm, Calvin & Luther, Lewis & Billy Graham is yours. Come and get it!

Further reading: Reformed Confessionalism: Blessings of the Faith, D. Blair Smith, (P&R Publishing, 2025).