The Apostles’ Creed

I love the Apostles’ Creed. If you ask me for a one-paragraph statement of what I believe, most fundamentally, this is it. Not just what I believe about religion, but what I believe most fundamentally about everything; about life, existence, and all of reality.

I love the Apostles’ Creed. If you ask me for a one-paragraph statement of what I believe, most fundamentally, this is it. Not just what I believe about religion, but what I believe most fundamentally about everything; about life, existence, and all of reality. The Apostles’ Creed gets right to the core of the most fundamental truths of all of it. It’s not scripture but a distillation of the truths of scripture that directs us toward the scriptures. Cyril of Alexandria (375 – 444) said that this “synthesis of faith” was made to accord with “what was of the greatest importance from all the Scriptures, to present the one teaching of the faith in its entirety. And just as the mustard seed contains a great number of branches in a tiny grain, so too this summary of faith encompassed in a few words the whole knowledge of the true religion contained in the Old and New Testaments.” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. illum. 5, 12: PG 33, 521-524.) Here is the text of the Creed:

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth;
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic [universal] church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.
Amen.”

What’s fascinating to me about this is that it’s not only a set of propositions, though it is partially that. It’s also a story. The Gospel is a grand story and we find our stories by making it our own. On the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit filled the Apostles and gave them utterance Peter told this story:

“’Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it… His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear… Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.’ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 2:22-24,31-32,36-38)

This is the Gospel. This is the grand story. I love Peter’s transformation here. The Spirit converted him into a confident and valiant preacher of the Gospel. When it grips you it’s exhilarating, like the “rushing mighty wind” (Acts 2:2). Paul had this same confidence and zeal for the Gospel. As he wrote to the Romans: “I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” (Romans 1:15-16)

Let’s look at the Apostles’ Creed in detail.

I believe in God, the Father almighty

Belief in God is foundational to Christian faith. The rest of the Gospel story depends on this foundation. But it also works in the other direction because the Gospel story is the way God is revealed to us. There are rational reasons to believe and good arguments for the existence of God. Those are valuable for apologetics. But in the Bible, in liturgy, and in worship it’s in the story of the Gospel that we come to know who God is.

Scripture is emphatic that God is one. There is only one God. One reason for the emphasis of this in the Hebrew Bible is because the Israelites, like all other surrounding nations, very often were polytheists, worshiping gods other than the Lord, something pointed out by modern historians of ancient Israel. And it should be no surprise. Idolatry was the great struggle that the prophets railed against incessantly over the centuries. But on this point the Torah was emphatic:

 שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה ׀ אֶחָֽד ׃

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

The Shema was to pervade all life:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)

This was especially stressed in Second Isaiah’s writings:

“Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22)

When Jesus taught us how to pray he taught us to call God “Father”:

“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespesses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:9-13)

Jesus further emphasizes God’s nature as Father in his parables. I also love the way Jesus portrays the Father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son:

“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ (Luke 15:20-24)

Paul taught that the Holy Spirit leads us to call God “Father”:

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” (Romans 8:14-17)

Thinking of God as Father makes a big difference. I think we are meant to understand this in a loving, nurturing way. It’s worth noting too that scripture also portrays God in maternal ways.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands” (Isaiah 49:15-16)

“As one whom his mother comforts, So I will comfort you; And you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 66:13)

We are encouraged in scripture to think of God in this way, as a parent who cares for us, teaches us, disciplines us, and loves us, as parents do to their children.

Creator of heaven and earth

The Bible begins with God’s act of creation:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

There is much that is significant about God and among these things his role as creator is especially salient. Consider all that is. He is before all things. Even though creation doesn’t define God exactly it’s certainly significant among the ways that we understand him and think about who he is.

“You who laid the foundations of the earth, So that it should not be moved forever… O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions” (Psalm 104:5,24)

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord

We move now to distinctive Christian teaching. We believe not only in God the Father but also in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God’s son: 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

The Father declared Jesus’s sonship at his baptism:

“When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:16-17)

Furthermore, the Son, Jesus Christ, is the manifestation of God to us.

“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9)

“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” (John 1:18)

“He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9)

Christian faith is distinctive for this focus on the man Jesus. In fact, our faith is exceedingly Christocentric, i.e. centered on Christ. And you really can’t go wrong with that. Phillip Cary has called it a Christian “obsession” with Christ and I think that’s right, in the best possible way (The History of Christian Theology).

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary

Speaking of Jesus, one of the things I find most fascinating about our faith is the Incarnation, that being Christ became physically embodied. The Son became an embodied human being like us. I don’t think we even begin to understand the Incarnation until we’ve reflected on it enough to be astounded by it. And essential to this process was a mortal woman, Mary. 

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.’” (Matthew 1:18-21)

“Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’ And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.’” (Luke 1:34-35, 38)

The story of Mary is both miraculous and exemplary. Something I like to think about is how we can be like Mary in receiving and bearing Christ in ourselves, doing figuratively what she did literally. To say to God: “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

Suffered under Pontius Pilate

This statement explicitly situates Jesus in history. The story of God is not abstracted from our world. It takes place in time and space. This is the God who covenanted with Abraham, who led the Israelites out of Egypt. And it’s the story of the Son becoming a man in a specific place at a specific time.

Furthermore, Jesus suffered. This is another crucial aspect of the wonder of Incarnation. Jesus lived and died in complete solidarity with us, suffering not only pain, but also abject humiliation.

“Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.” (Matthew 27:27-31)

It’s certainly proper to reflect on this suffering and be moved by what Jesus was willing to suffer for our sakes. 

Was crucified, died, and was buried

The crucifixion is undeniably a scandal. We worship a man who was crucified as a criminal. In crucifixion he was executed in the most humiliating and actually cursed way possible. The Torah says:

 “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.” (Deuteronomy 21:22-23)

This is embarrassing for Christians, but Paul leaned right into this and emphasized this point:

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’” (Galatians 3:13)

Paul didn’t try to explain away Jesus’ cursed manner of execution. Instead he explained that this was precisely the point. Jesus became a curse for us. Regarding this article of the Creed Pope Benedict XVI said in his Introduction to Christianity:

“What position is really occupied by the Cross within faith in Jesus as the Christ? That is the question with which this article of the Creed confronts us once again… It is the expression of the radical nature of the love that gives itself completely, of the process in which one is what one does and does what one is; it is the expression of a life that is completely being for others… Almost all religions center around the problem of expiation; they arise out of mans’ knowledge of his guilt before God and signify the attempt to remove this feeling of guilt, to surmount the guilt through conciliatory actions offered up to God… In the New Testament the situation is almost completely reversed. It is not man who goes to God with a compensatory gift, but God who comes to man, in order to give to him… Here we stand before the twist that Christianity put into the history of religion. The New Testament does not say that men conciliate God, as we really ought to expect, since, after all, it is they who have failed, not God. It says, on the contrary, that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’ (2 Cor 5:19). This is truly something new, something unheard of—the starting point of Christian existence and the center of New Testament theology of the Cross: God does not wait until the guilty come to be reconciled; he goes to meet them and reconciles them. Here we can see the true direction of the Incarnation, of the Cross. Accordingly, in the New Testament the Cross appears primarily as a movement from above to below. It stands there, not as the work of expiation that mankind offers to the wrathful God, but as the expression of that foolish love of God’s that gives itself away to the point of humiliation in order thus to save man; it is his approach to us, not the other way about. With this twist in the idea of expiation, and thus in the whole axis of religion, worship, too, man’s whole existence, acquires in Christianity a new direction. Worship follows in Christianity first of all in thankful acceptance of the divine deed of salvation. The essential form of Christian worship is therefore rightly called Eucharistia, thanksgiving.” (Introduction to Christianity, 161-162)

I think Benedict makes a very good point here about the radical inversion we see in the cross. This is truly something new. And how appropriate, since with Jesus “all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). No wonder people responded to Jesus with amazement and asked, “What is this? What new doctrine is this?” (Mark 1:27)

He descended into Hell

An Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday reads:

“Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. the earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him – He who is both their God and the son of Eve. . . ‘I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . . I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.’”

It is fundamental to Christ’s victory that he redeemed the dead from death. Christ descended into the realm of the dead but he didn’t stay there. He entered as conqueror and took the dead with him.

“’When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.’ Now this, ‘He ascended’—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?” (Ephesians 8-9)

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison.” (1 Peter 3:18-19)

“For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1 Peter 4:6)

“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25)

Where are our dead? What is to become of us when we die? The state of unembodied death is not a place that we want to remain. And the announcement of the Gospel is that we won’t be left there, but that the dead will hear his voice and live.

The third day he rose again from the dead

Easter morning was the event that started it all. Jesus had a following before but it was the empty tomb and his bodily appearance to his disciples that launched the revolution of Christianity throughout the world. This was what the apostles announced:

“Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. (Acts 10:40-41)

Here is one narration of that day:

“Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ‘He ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father almighty’” (Luke 24:1-7)

“Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you.’ But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, ‘Have you any food here?’ So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.” (Luke 24:36-43)

When Paul wrote of the significance of this event to the Corinthians he not only affirmed it with conviction but directed them to the many living witnesses who could affirm that they had seen the risen Lord.

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas [i.e. Peter], then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

He ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God, the Father almighty

Christ’s ascension was another event witnessed and testified of by many. 

“Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:9)

His seat at the right hand of the Father is a place of honor affirmed by Stephan just before his martyrdom.

“But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’” (Acts 7:55-56)

From thence He shall come again to judge the living and the dead

Among the announcements of the apostles to the world was that Jesus would come again and that when he returns he will judge all who have ever lived.

“And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.’” (Acts 1:10-11)

“Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.” (Acts 10:40-42)

“And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.” (Revelation 20:12)

I believe in the Holy Spirit

Also unique to the Christian faith is our belief in the Holy Spirit alongside the Father and the Son. Scripture doesn’t give too many details but they leave no doubt about the Spirit’s existence and divinity. The Holy Spirit is invoked in the rite of baptism itself:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19)

And the Spirit plays an active role throughout the history of the early Church:

“It came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him (Luke 3:21-22)

“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4)

“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.” (Acts 2:32-33)

Jesus also spoke of the Spirit’s mission directly, as recorded in the Gospel of John:

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you… These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:16-18,25-27)

The Holy Spirit testifies of Christ and brings the words of Christ to our remembrance. 

The holy catholic [universal] church, the communion of saints

Actually this is usually recited as, “The holy catholic church, the communion of saints”. Not only Roman Catholics profess the Creed or course. Christians of other denominations understand “catholic” here as small “c” catholic, in the sense of “universal”. For better or worse, there are multiple Christian denominations. But we still hold to one universal, catholic faith. Paul wrote in several instances about the importance of the unity of the Church.

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6)

“Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, ‘I am of Paul,’ or ‘I am of Apollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas,’ or ‘I am of Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:10-13)

Unity is key for Paul. But he also values diversity in the service of unity. The Church is the Body of Christ. And as a body it is an organic system with mutually interacting parts:

“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many… But now indeed there are many members, yet one body… But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-14,20,24-25)

The forgiveness of sins

I think that one of the most important affirmations of the Gospel is that it is possible for people to change. I believe this but I actually find it more difficult to believe than many of the supernatural and miraculous aspects of Christianity. And that’s just because of the competing evidence of experience. We really seem to get set in our ways. Is it really possible to change? I think that believing this demands about as much faith as anything. But this is the message of the Gospel: that we can become new creatures.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Let’s look at some examples from the Gospels:

“When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you.’ And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ‘Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, ‘Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins’—He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’ Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw anything like this!’” (Mark 2:5-12)

“Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, ‘This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ So he said, ‘Teacher, say it.’ ‘There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered and said, ‘I suppose the one whom he forgave more.’ And He said to him, ‘You have rightly judged.’ Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.’ Then He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ Then He said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.’” (John 7:36-50)

This great transformation is expressed ritually in baptism:

“Our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:6-11)

Baptism not only symbolizes death of the old self and rebirth as a new creature. It should also orient us in the way that we think about ourselves, as being dead to sin and alive in Christ.

The resurrection of the body

When I affirm the resurrection of the body it leads me to reflect on our nature as human beings. What are we? Critically, we are embodied, physical beings. When we die and our bodies decay we are no longer completely ourselves. We understand the intermediate state between death and resurrection to be one of peace for the righteous, but this immaterial aspect that is left of us is not complete. We can be ourselves fully only by being physically embodied. This is why resurrection is simply indispensable. The resurrection of our bodies is not just a nice-to-have. It’s absolutely essential to the continuation of our identities as human beings. Paul explained this very clearly:

“And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20)

“So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

Resurrection changes everything. I think of history in terms of two major epochs: the fourteen billion years before Christ’s resurrection and the couple thousand years after it. The universe changed fundamentally with Christ’s resurrection. Death is no longer absolute. And that changes everything.

And the life everlasting

I can think of no greater affirmation of the goodness of personal existence than the hope for life everlasting. In this way we say, “Yes. Life is good. I want it to last forever.” Maybe this seems obvious but we might ask, would life get boring eventually and actually become unbearable? If you’ve seen the show The Good Place this is a problem they deal with. I think this doubt is quite astute and I actually don’t think it’s really possible for us to comprehend how everlasting life would be endlessly joyful and engaging. But I believe this is what we affirm with our faith in everlasting life. A few thoughts on this. Jesus talked about everlasting life as living water. He said to a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well:

“Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13-14)

Working with this metaphor of the fountain of water, I think Gregory of Nyssa (335-395) had an important insight:

“The person who has drawn near to the fountain will marvel at that limitless supply of water that ever gushes out and flows from it, yet he would not say that he has seen all of the water. (For how can he see the water that is still concealed in earth’s bosom? The fact is that even if he remains for a long time at the gushing spring, he is always just beginning to contemplate the water, for the water never stops in its everlasting flow nor does it ever cease beginning to gush forth.) In the same way, the person who looks toward that divine and infinite Beauty glimpses something that is always being discovered as more novel and more surprising than what has already been grasped, and for that reason she marvels at that which is always being manifested, but she never comes to a halt in her desire to see, since what she looks forward to is in every possible way more splendid and more divine than what she has seen.” (Homilies on the Song of Songs, Homily 11)

I imagine here the wonder that a young child has at everything because everything is new. In Gregory of Nyssa’s metaphor this is what it’s like to look upon the divine and infinite Beauty. It’s always new, always surprising and novel.

The most important scripture pertaining to everlasting life is also the most well-known verse of the entire Bible:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

This verse’s fame is well-deserved. This is the Gospel, that the gift of life, everlasting life, is possible through God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

Of course there is a lot more to Christian faith than what is in the Apostles’ Creed. But I like Cyril of Alexandria’s metaphor of the “great number of branches in a tiny grain”. The scriptures are interconnected in such a way that you can pick up at any point and quickly find yourself immersed in its vast network. Each of the scriptures here is part of a story and each story is part of a larger story. Reading these stories is the project of a lifetime of study. But the Apostles’ Creed distills the message so as to be able “to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). It says what all of this is about and what God is about. And it’s what I believe most fundamentally about everything; about life, existence, and all of reality.

First Contacts in Star Trek

Rick and Todd discuss first contacts in Star Trek. The first contact of Vulcans coming to Earth and first contacts of Federation humans with other species in the galaxy. We discuss the Prime Directive and other Federation policies. We discuss contacts with the Malcorians, the Prophets of the Wormhole, and Species 10-C. What different reactions do species have at contact? What kinds of challenges might arise from differences in language and ways of perceiving reality?

Point-of-View Invariance and Noether’s Theorem

Noether’s theorem is an important theorem that relates invariance of space-time transformations to the laws of conservation: space-translation invariance to the conservation of linear momentum, space-rotation invariance to the conservation of angular momentum, and time-translation invariance to the conservation of energy. The models of physics are point-of-view invariant: physical models cannot depend on any particular position in space or moment in time.

A video version of this episode showing the equations is available on YouTube.

Where do the laws of physics come from? This question is the subtitle of Victor Stenger’s 2006 book Comprehensible Cosmos. I think this question is one version of the more general guiding question of my whole intellectual life: why are things the way they are? Stenger has a very interesting response to this question, which is based on what he calls principle of point-of-view invariance “The models of physics cannot depend on any particular point of view.”

The path from this principle to the laws of physics goes through an important theorem known as Noether’s Theorem. This theorem was developed by Emmy Noether in 1918. Put briefly, the theorem says that symmetries in a system generate conserved quantities. Anyone who’s studied (and remembers) physics will know of the conservation of momentum, conservation of angular momentum, and the conservation of energy. These conservation laws are absolutely foundational. And what’s remarkable is that there’s a reason for them. These conservation laws come from symmetries. The conservation of momentum, angular momentum, and energy come from symmetries of translation, rotation, and time.

Stenger puts it this way: “In any space-time model possessing time-translation invariance, energy must be conserved. In any space-time model possessing space-translation invariance, linear momentum must be conserved. In any space-time model possessing space-rotation invariance, angular momentum must be conserved. Thus, the conservation principles follow from point-of-view invariance. If you wish to build a model using space and time as a framework, and you formulate that model so as to be space-time symmetric, then that model will automatically contain what are usually regarded as the three most important ‘laws’ of physics, the three conservation principles.”

To me this is quite remarkable. But maybe I’m just easily impressed. So I went online to see how others view all this. I looked up on Quora responses to the question: “What is the significance of Noether’s theorem?” Here are some of the responses:

“I think it is almost the thing that makes sense of physics. Physics is based on a large number of conservation rules – conservation of energy, momentum etc. Without Noether’s Theorem, all you can say is that they are conserved – they are just givens. With the Theorem, you can say that they arise from the symmetries of the space we live in. [In] a space which did not have these symmetries… these conservations would be so different from the space we know as to be unrecognizable. It derives the otherwise arbitrary conservation rules from intuitively understood symmetries. Brilliant.” (Alec Cawley)

“Most of fundamental physics could be interpreted as positing a symmetry, then handing that symmetry off to Ms. Noether and asking her to tell us what the resulting physics is. In other words, without Noether’s Theorem, there wouldn’t be most of modern physics.” (Brent Follin, PhD in Theoretical Cosmology)

And my favorite.

“It’s a matter of life and death! Being a Physics student, the Noether’s theorem is extremely important with everything I do. If it were falsified, the whole structure of modern physics would crumble!” (Abhijeet Borkar, PhD in Physics (Astrophysics))

So it’s a pretty big deal. Hopefully that sparks some interest. Now let’s dig into it and see how it works.

Invariance and Transformations

First, let’s revisit this idea of point-of-view invariance. One of the first things you do in a physics problem is define your coordinates. If you’re on the surface of the Earth you usually set one axis pointing up from the center of the Earth. This is what we’re used to thinking of as “up”. That’s because in our everyday experience there pragmatically is an obvious coordinate system to use. There’s an up and a down. But that’s because we reference our everyday experience relative to Earth, which we’re living on. But we know, at least since the Copernican revolution, that this coordinate system isn’t absolute. The Earth isn’t the center of the universe, even if it is the center of our lived experience. But it’s not just that. There is no center of the universe at all. There’s no absolute up or down.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t use coordinates. Of course we do. We have to. But it does mean that the coordinate system we use is not absolute. We’ll usually use one that makes things easy for our calculations. But the system we represent in one coordinate system can also be represented in a different coordinate system.

This is easy to see with vectors. Let’s represent a vector on an x-y Cartesian coordinate system. The vector will start from the origin (0,0) and go out to point (4,3). What’s the magnitude of this vector? We calculate that by the equation:

√((x2 – x1)^2 + (y2 – y1)^2)

And plugging in our  values:

√((4 – 0)^2 + (3 – 0)^2) = √((4)^2 + (3)^2) = √(16+ 9) = √(25) = 5

The magnitude of this vector is 5.

Now let’s change the coordinate system shifting it 2 to the right and 7 up. Now this same vector starts at (-2,-7) and goes out to (2,-4). What’s the magnitude?

√((-2 – 2)^2 + (-7 – -4)^2) = √((-4)^2 + (3)^2) = √(16+ 9) = √(25) = 5

The magnitude is still 5.

Now let’s go back to the first coordinate system and rotate it 30 degrees counter-clockwise. 30 degrees in radians is π/6 radians. We make this transformation using the rotation matrix

R = [[cos θ,-sin θ], [sin θ, cos θ]]

And multiply R by our vector [[x],[y]].

The result is

Rv = [[x cos θ – y sin θ], [x sin θ + y cos θ]]

Rv = [[3/2 * √(3) – 2], [3/2 * 2 x √(3)]]

Rv = [0.598], [4.964]]

For our transformation θ is π/6 radians. Our new vector coordinates are (0,0) and approximately (0.598,4.964). Now the moment of truth, after all of that. What’s the magnitude? It’s

√((0.598- 0)^2 + (4.964 – 0)^2) = √((0.598)^2 + (4.964)^2) = √(0.358 + 24.642) = √(25) = 5

The magnitude is still 5.

When we look at this visually, it’s actually not surprising. The vector stays the same in all these cases. It’s just the coordinate system that’s moving around. This is the basic idea of invariance. And I think it gives a general sense about how something can remain constant if it doesn’t depend on these coordinate system transformations.

The Lagrangian

Before getting to Noether’s Theorem itself, we need to talk about the Lagrangian because Noether’s Theorem is expressed in terms of it. The Lagrangian is a function that describes the state of a system and is equal to the difference between the total kinetic energy, T, and the total potential energy, V, of a system.

L = T – V

The Lagrangian is used in Lagrangian mechanics and is a different way of looking at systems than Newtonian mechanics. Instead of looking at forces, as in Newtonian mechanics, in Lagrangian mechanics we’re looking at energies. The Lagrangian is a function of spatial coordinates and their derivatives with respect to time. Spatial coordinates could be the familiar Cartesian x,y,z coordinates but it’s customary to generalize these with a single variable. For example, q. For multiple spatial coordinates we can just number them off, q = {q1, q2,…, qn]. The time derivative of q is, q̇. The time derivative of a spatial coordinate is velocity.

So some of the familiar quantities from Newtonian mechanics will be expressed differently in Lagrangian mechanics. Most notably, momentum. In Newtonian mechanics we express momentum as mass times velocity.

p = mv

To express this in terms of a Lagrangian let’s change v to q̇. So,

p = mq̇

Now the Lagrangian is the difference between kinetic energy and potential energy.

L = T – V

Kinetic energy is

T = 1/2 mv^2

Or

T = 1/2 m q̇^2

So we can rewrite the Lagrangian as

L = 1/2 mq̇^2 – V

Now taking the derivative with respect to q̇

δL/δq̇ = mq̇

And mq̇ = p, so

p = δL/δq̇

And that’s the equation for momentum in terms of the Lagrangian.

p = δL/δq̇

So momentum is the derivative of the Lagrangian with respect to velocity. Also the derivative of the kinetic energy with respect to velocity.

The Hamiltonian

Another function I want to go over before moving on to Noether, and that’s the Hamiltonian function. The Hamiltonian is similar to the Lagrangian, except that it’s the sum of kinetic energy and potential instead of the difference between them.

H = T + V

The Hamiltonian is the total energy of the system. And we can express this in terms of the Lagrangian. Since L = T – V we can express the potential energy as

V = T – L

Substituting this into the Hamiltonian

H = T + V

H = T + (T – L)

H = 2T – L

H = 2(1/2 mq̇^2) – L

H = (mq̇)q̇ – L

Since p = mq̇

H = pq̇ – L

And since also p = δL/δq̇

H = (δL/δq̇)q̇ – L

This is the expression for the total energy in terms of the Lagrangian.

H = (δL/δq̇)q̇ – L

The Lagrange-Euler Equation of Motion

One more equation we should introduce before getting into Noether’s theorem is the Lagrange-Euler equation, also called the equation of motion. This has the form

d/dt (δL/δq̇) = δL/δq

What is this equation saying? Let’s translate this out of the Lagrangian form into the more familiar Newtonian quantities. An equivalent form of this equation is:

dp/dt = -δV/δq = F

d(mv)/dt = F

ma = F

This is Newton’s second law. It’s just expressed in a different form with the Lagrangian, which again is:

d/dt (δL/δq̇) = δL/δq

We’ll be plugging this equation into a lot of things in the foregoing so it’s important.

Noether’s Theorem

Now, let’s move to Noether’s theorem. We’ll look at Noether’s theorem for the conservation of momentum, the conservation of angular momentum, and for the conservation of energy.

We start with the Lagrangian as a function of position, q, and velocity, q̇.

L(q, q̇)

What we’re going to do is apply the following transformation on q and q̇.

q → q(s)

q̇ → q̇(s)

If our Lagrangian has symmetry it should not change under this transformation to s. Expressed mathematically this means

d/ds L(q(s), q̇(s)) = 0

Let’s propose that under this transformation that there is a conserved quantity, C, of the following form:

C = (δL/δq̇)(δq/δs)

And since it is a conserved quantity it does not change over time. That is

dC/dt = 0

And here’s the proof for that. Take the proposed conserved quantity C and take the time derivative of it.

C = (δL/δq̇)(δq/δs)

dC/dt = d/dt ((δL/δq̇)(δq/δs))

Since we have two variables, q and q̇, we need to apply the product rule:

dC/dt = d/dt (δL/δq̇) * (δq/δs) + (δL/δq̇) * (δq̇/δs)

Now, recall the Euler-Lagrange equation of motion.

d/dt (δL/δq̇) = δL/δq

We’re going to plug that in here to get.

dC/dt = (δL/δq)(δq/δs) + (δL/δq̇)(δq̇/δs)

What do we have here? The right hand side of this equation is what we get when we apply the chain rule to the derivative of the Lagrangian with respect to s.

d/ds L(q(s), q̇(s)) = (δL/δq)(δq/δs) + (δL/δq̇)(δq̇/δs)

And this is equal to 0. So

dC/dt = (δL/δq)(δq/δs) + (δL/δq̇)(δq̇/δs) = d/ds L(q(s), q̇(s)) = 0

And

dC/dt = 0

So what’s been proved here is that if the Lagrangian, L, does not change with respect to transformation, s, than the conserved quantity, C, doesn’t either.

That’s Noether’s Theorem. Now let’s look at some applications, examples of conserved quantities that result from different symmetries.

Conservation of Linear Momentum

To get the conservation of linear momentum we’re going to say that the Lagrangian is symmetric under continuous translations in space. Our spatial coordinates are

q = {q1, q2,…, qn].

And we’ll apply the transformation

q → q(s)

where

q(s) = q + s

So we’re just sliding our coordinate system over by an interval, s.

The conserved quantity C is

C = (δL/δq̇)(δq/δs)

Taking the derivative of q with respect to s

δq/δs = δ/δs (q + s) = 1

So C becomes

C = (δL/δq̇) = p

Which is momentum. So when we apply the spatial transformation

q à q(s)

The conserved quantity, C, is momentum, p. In other words, the conservation of momentum results from symmetry in space. To give some interpretation, this means that the system has no dependence on where it is in space. It’s not being acted upon by any external forces. If there were an external force then it would depend on it’s location in space.

Recall that force is equal to

F = ma

F = m(dv/dt)

F = d/dt (mv)

F = dp/dt

Force is equal to the rate of change in momentum with respect to time. So clearly if there is a non-zero external force acting on the system momentum is not constant.

If there is an applied force external to the system, like with a spring, then momentum is obviously not conserved. And with such forces location makes a difference. With a spring it matters how much the spring is stretched. So momentum is not conserved in such cases where there’s not symmetry in space for that system. But in systems that do have symmetry in space, momentum is conserved.

Conservation of Angular Momentum

To get the conservation of angular momentum we’re going to say that the Lagrangian is symmetric under continuous rotations in space.

We apply the transformation.

q → q(s)

In which case s is some angle of rotation. This is a two-dimensional case where q is represented by the matrix

[[q1],[q2]]

We make this transformation using the rotation matrix

R = [[cos s,-sin s], [sin s, cos s]]

And multiply R by our matrix [[q1],[q2]]

The result is

Rq = [[cos s,-sin s], [sin s, cos s]] * [[q1],[q2]]

For very small values of s near 0

sin(s) ≈ s

cos(s) ≈ 1

That’s from Taylor’s series expansion to the first order. This makes the rotation matrix is equal to

[[1, -s], [s, 1]]

So the transformation is

[[1, -s], [s, 1]] * [[q1],[q2]]

The result of this transformation is that

q1 → q1 – s * q2

q2 → q2 + s * q1

For reasons that will be clear shortly, let’s differentiate these.

dq1/ds = -q2

dq2/ds = q1

Now let’s bring in our conserved quantity, C

C = (δL/δq̇)(δq/δs)

And since

q = {q1,q1}

C = (δL/δq̇1)(δq1/δs) + (δL/δq̇2)(δq2/δs)

Or in terms of momentum, p

C = p1 * (δq1/δs) + p2 * (δq2/δs)

The derivatives in this equation are equal to the derivatives we just calculated for q1(s) and q2(s). So, plugging those in:

C = q1 * p2 – q2 * p1

And this is equal to the cross product

C = q x p

Which is angular momentum L. Angular momentum is equal to the cross product of linear momentum and the position vector. So

C = L

The conserved quantity, C, is angular momentum, L. In other words angular momentum results from symmetry of rotation. To give some interpretation again, this is the condition in which the system has no external rotational forces, i.e. torque. To use the example of a spring again, if this were a system where we’re winding up a torsion spring then angular position very much matters. The tighter we wind it up the higher the torque. In that kind of system angular momentum is not conserved. But in the absence of that kind of torque, angular position and rotation don’t matter. So angular momentum is conserved.

Conservation of Energy

To get the conservation of energy we’re going to say that the Lagrangian is symmetric in time. So we have our Lagrangian

L(q, q̇)

And we’re going to say that it doesn’t change with time

dL/dt = 0

Let’s see what follows from this. First let’s to the derivative of the Lagrangian with respect to time. To do this we apply the chain rule.

dL/dt = (δL/δq)(δq/δt) + (δL/δq̇)(δq̇/ δt) + δL/δt

We already set δL/δt to 0 so that goes away. And Let’s simplify δq/δt to q̇ and δq̇/ δt to q̈.

dL/dt = (δL/δq) * q̇ + (δL/δq̇)* q̈

Recall from the Euler Lagrange equation that

δL/δq = d/dt (δL/δq̇)

And we can plug this in to get

dL/dt = d/dt (δL/δq̇) * q̇ + (δL/δq̇)* q̈

This is actually a result of the following application of the product rule:

d/dt (q̇ * (δL/δq̇)) = d/dt (δL/δq̇) * q̇ + (δL/δq̇)* q̈

So we can plug that in to get this more compact result:

dL/dt = d/dt (q̇ * (δL/δq̇))

Rearranging we get:

0 = d/dt (q̇ * (δL/δq̇) – L)

Maybe this looks familiar. Recall that the Hamiltonian, which is equal to the sum of kinetic and potential energy has the following form, expressed in terms of the Lagrangian.

H = (δL/δq̇)q̇ – L

So we can plug this into our equation to get

d/dt (H) = 0

Let’s go ahead express this in terms of kinetic energy, T, and potential energy, V.

H = T + V

d/dt (T + V) = 0

So from our starting condition

dL/dt = 0

We get

d/dt (T + V) = 0

If we set the condition where the Lagrangian doesn’t change with time then the total energy is conserved. This is the Noether symmetry-conservation relation.

What would it be like if things weren’t this way? Under time symmetry things like the gravitational constant and the masses of fundamental particles are constant across time. What if they weren’t? An object elevated above the Earth’s surface has potential energy

V = mgh

Where m is mass, g is acceleration due to gravity, and h is height. Acceleration due to gravity is a function of the gravitational constant G.

g = – GM/r^2

Where M is the mass of the gravitational field source, like the Earth, and r is the distance from the center of the Earth. For the elevated object in our example, none of these values is changing. But what if we could change the gravitational constant G? Say we increase it. Now acceleration due to gravity, g, is higher and potential energy, V, is higher. We’ve created energy from nowhere.

Or another example. At one moment in time you throw a ball up into the air with a certain velocity. So it starts off with a kinetic energy that gets converted to potential energy as it goes up into the sky. But then right as it reaches its highest point you turn the gravitational constant, G, way up and the ball slams to the ground at a much faster velocity than you started with. Again, we’ve created energy from nowhere.

But that doesn’t happen because the laws of physics don’t change over time.

Philosophical reflections

If you were to create a universe how would you do it? I don’t know how to create a universe but if I did my inclination would be to make it as self-designing as possible. Set a few basic rules and let things develop from there. This seems to be the most efficient and elegant way to configure things. I think what makes Noether’s Theorem so marvelous is that we get a great deal of purchase from a rather simple principle: symmetry.

This reminds me a little of what Immanuel Kant tried to do in his moral philosophy. In his 1785 Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals he proposed that all moral principles could be derived from one master principle, called the categorical imperative, which was the following:

“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.”

This is also known as the principle of universalizability. This reminds me of Noether’s Theorem in two ways. First, it’s a simple principle from which others can be derived. Second, it’s a principle of universalizability. We could say that Kant is making his ethics point-of-view invariant. I should act only according to a maxim that could be a universal law, that is not only applicable to me, but to anyone. That’s what it means for it to be universalizable.

In Comprehensible Cosmos Victor Stenger also proposed a principle of universalizability, but for physics. “The models of physics cannot depend on any particular point of view.” That’s the principle of point-of-view invariance. Stenger says of this principle:

“Physics is formulated in such a way to assure, as best as possible, that it not depend on any particular point of view or reference frame. This helps make possible, but does not guarantee, that physical models faithfully describe an objective reality, whatever that may be… When we insist that our models be the same for all points of view, then the most important laws of physics, as we know them, appear naturally. The great conservation principles of energy and momentum (linear and angular) are required in any model that is based on space and time, formulated to be independent of the specific coordinate system used to represent a given set of data. Other conservation principles arise when we introduce additional, more abstract dimensions. The dynamical forces that account for the interactions between bodies will be seen as theoretical constructs introduced into the theory to preserve that theory’s independence of point of view.”

Sort of like Kant’s principle of universalizability, point-of-view invariance keeps us honest. Repeatability of experiments by multiple observers, holding constant only those factors relevant to the experiment, is what ought to finally convince others of the validity of our observations. It won’t do much good if I have a singular experience that only I observe that, in other words, is not universalizable, not point-of-view invariant, but rather strictly tied to me and my point of view. That’s not to say that we don’t have private, subjective experiences that are real. They’re just phenomena of a different nature. Here’s more from Stenger on this point:

“So, where does point-of-view invariance come from? It comes simply from the apparent existence of an objective reality—independent of its detailed structure. Indeed, the success of point-of-view invariance can be said to provide evidence for the existence of an objective reality. Our dreams are not point-of-view invariant. If the Universe were all in our heads, our models would not be point-of-view invariant. Point-of-view invariance generally is used to predict what an observer in a second reference frame will measure given the measurements made in the first reference frame.”

I think that’s well put. And that line that “Our dreams are not point-of-view invariant” is one I think about a lot.

Noether’s Theorem is absolutely foundational. It’s been said that Noether’s theorem is second only to the Pythagorean theorem in its importance for modern physics. It’s remarkable that just one, compact principle can produce so much of what we observe in the world.

Reference Material

Baez, J. (2020b, February 17). Noether’s Theorem in a Nutshell. University of California, Riverside. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/noether.html

Branson, J. (2012, October 21). Recalling Lagrangian Mechanics. University of California San Diego. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://hepweb.ucsd.edu/ph110b/110b_notes/node86.html

Greene, B. (2020, May 11). Your Daily Equation #25: Noether’s Amazing Theorem: Symmetry and Conservation. YouTube. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7Q5mQA_74o&t=428s

Khan, G. J. H. What Is Noether’s Theorem? Ohio State University. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://math.osu.edu/sites/math.osu.edu/files/Noether_Theorem.pdf

Stenger, V. J. (2006). The comprehensible cosmos: Where do the laws of physics come from? Prometheus Books.

Washburn, B. (2018, March 13). Introduction to Noether’s Theorem and Conservation Principles. YouTube. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxxUEHD8OZM&t=827s

Unknowns and Knowing God

Christianity has many unknowns, which makes possible many differing beliefs. This can be discouraging. There are limits in the extent of our reasoning, something Immanuel Kant explored in his theory of antinomies. And there are limits in the answers resolvable in scripture, in response to which Pseudo-Dionysius admonished that theology must remain within the bounds of revelation. But the unknowns need not stop us from knowing God. Key is to persist in way of holiness and nurture a life with the Holy Spirit.

Anyone familiar with a religion will have noticed that there are a lot of disagreements. Every religion has multiple versions even if they share common origins and common sacred texts. Christianity is replete with unknowns, which makes possible multiple interpretations as different people try to fill in the gaps. These differences are not only over minor matters but concern even the most fundamental doctrines like the nature of God, Jesus Christ, and the process of salvation. With so much underdetermined how is it possible to know God and follow him? I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I don’t know of any way to answer all the unknowns. But I do think that even with many unknowns it is nevertheless possible to know God and to follow him. The unknowns don’t need to be a cause for despair.

My original working title for this episode was “theological antinomies and apophatic theology”. I’ll explain what those terms mean in short order. But I scrapped that title for a few reasons. For one thing, it’s kind of alienating and pretentious. And I also don’t really want to endorse apophatic theology wholesale. Still it’s the title that got the wheels turning. And that was by putting two important thinkers into imaginary dialogue with each other: Pseudo-Dionysius and Immanuel Kant. The reason for doing that was to think through how to persist in the joyful celebration of the ideas of Christianity even in light of the many unknowns that remain unresolved.

Pseudo-Dionysius was a philosopher and Christian theologian in the 5th or 6th century. He’s called Pseudo-Dionysius because in his texts he takes on the persona of Dionysius the Areopagite, a 1st century disciple of Paul. He wasn’t that Dionysius, so we just call him Pseudo-Dionysius. The texts I’ve been reading are On the Divine Names and The Mystical Theology. These are very significant works in the history of Christian philosophy. His theology is a standard case of apophatic theology. Apophatic theology is also called “negative theology”. Rather than make statements about the way things are it makes statements about the way things are not.

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who lived from 1724 – 1804. Kant’s greatest work was his 1781 Critique of Pure Reason. In the Critique Kant came up with a  very interesting model for the way that the mind works and how we reason. What’s most relevant in it to my topic here is his notion of antinomies. An antinomy is a contradiction between beliefs or conclusions that are each in themselves reasonable. Kant proposed that it is part of our human nature to try to understand things beyond the limits of what reason can establish. And so our reasoning eventually leads us into antinomies. Kant’s antinomies had to do with the finitude or infinitude of time and space, the existence of fundamental, indivisible substances, causality versus spontaneity, and the existence of necessary being. Those all have some overlap with theological ideas but I don’t want to focus on Kant’s particular antinomies but rather this general idea that as we continue reasoning about things we eventually run into antinomies that, for one reason or another, we’re not able to resolve.

Dionysius wasn’t addressing the same problem of antinomies that Kant was but I think his thought is applicable to it. Here’s my basic idea. Christians devote themselves to God in many ways; through obedience, sacrifice, prayer, song, art, service, love, and through study. Theology is a rational study of God and of the religion. But since it is a rational activity it’s susceptible to the kinds of antinomies that Kant talked about. As we push further and further in our thinking about God and religion we reach limits that are intrinsic to the reasoning process itself. Also in the case of theology we come up against the limits of the finitude of revelation, in at least two ways. First, the scriptures just don’t answer all the questions we want to ask. And second, different parts of the scriptures lead us to different answers. You might say that the scriptures themselves contain antinomies.

One classic example of this is in regards to the godhood of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the theological topic of the Trinity. Take the following ideas:

The Father is God.
The Son is God.
The Holy Spirit is God.
The Father is not the Son.
The Son is not the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not the Father.
There is only one God.

We can find scriptures to support all of those. But it’s pretty apparent that this just doesn’t all fit together very nicely. There’s something unusual going on here. There’s been a lot of theology on this topic and I think a lot of it has been quite productive, even if indirectly. For example, the philosopher Joseph Koterski made the case that the philosophical concept of a “person” as understood in natural law theory arose in large part over the intellectual effort to make sense of this Trinitarian puzzle (Koterski, Natural Law and Human Nature. 2002). And that’s useful. Still, I can’t say that any theology has ever resolved the puzzle. And to be fair, it’s usually understood to be a holy mystery anyway, one that we can’t resolve, which is a bit like a Kantian antinomy.

Dionysius’s apophatic approach was to forebear from theorizing and even to deny any particular positive theological formulations. It reminds me a bit of twentieth century deconstruction, though it’s of course rather different in its underlying motivations. Dionysius had a keen sense of the way many religious ideas go beyond our capabilities to understand through our reason. And that was one reason for his apophatic approach. But he was also especially sensitive to our reliance on scripture. For example, here’s a passage from the opening paragraph of On The Divine Names:

“And here also let us set before our minds the scriptural rule that in speaking about God we should declare the Truth, not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the power which the Spirit stirred up in the Sacred Writers, whereby, in a manner surpassing speech and knowledge, we embrace those truths which, in like manner, surpass them, in that Union which exceeds our faculty, and exercise of discursive, and of intuitive reason.”

So that’s the first motivation, that these truths exceed our faculty and exercise of discursive and intuitive reason. Continuing on:

“We must not then dare to speak, or indeed to form any conception, of the hidden super-essential Godhead, except those things that are revealed to us from the Holy Scriptures.”

And there’s the kicker. I think that’s the even bigger issue for Dionysius. He is very sensitive to our dependence on revelation.

We might ask here, was Dionysius always true to his own standards? In my assessment he was not. He actually made a lot of positive assertions in his writings that were not based in revealed scripture but rather in Neoplatonist philosophy. That’s not to say those assertions were wrong. They might be correct. I find Neoplatonism rather compelling and attractive. But I also think it tends to make God look too impersonal and inaccessible, which is exactly the opposite of what a life with the Holy Spirit presupposes. So he wasn’t perfect or perfectly consistent. But I find him an interesting and valuable thinker. And his standards were good ones.

One more passage from Dionysius:

“For a super-essential understanding of It is proper to Unknowing, which lieth in the Super-Essence Thereof surpassing Discourse, Intuition and Being; acknowledging which truth let us lift up our eyes towards the steep height, so far as the effluent light of the Divine Scriptures grants its aid, and, as we strive to ascend unto those Supernal Rays, let us gird ourselves for the task with holiness and the reverent fear of God. For, if we may safely trust the wise and infallible Scriptures, Divine things are revealed unto each created spirit in proportion to its powers, and in this measure is perception granted through the workings of the Divine goodness, the which in just care for our preservation divinely tempereth unto finite measure the infinitude of things which pass man’s understanding.” (On The Divine Names 1:1)

This is great stuff. I think this is consummate theology right here. Dionysius is exceedingly astute and a gifted philosopher and that’s wonderful, but even more important to his success as a theologian is his piety, his humility, and his reverence for God. I think that makes a huge difference. It’s one thing for an intelligent person to be able to expertly articulate the fine details of a theological theory. But in the words of Paul, if he doesn’t have the pure love of Christ it’s like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1).

It’s important not to claim to know more than we do. It’s alright, actually admirable to acknowledge the unknowns, the limits of our knowledge. It’s an act of reverence for God to acknowledge that we are dependent on his revealed word and that he has chosen not to reveal answers to all of our theological and doctrinal questions. But what is critical in the life of faith is to know God in a personal way. Something I consider indispensable and irreplaceable in religious life is direct communication with the Spirit. It’s crucial to remember that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are persons and that we come to know persons through personal encounters. Our personal encounters with people don’t give us exhaustive knowledge about them in every possible detail. In my relationships with human beings there’s a ton of information that I don’t know about them. It would certainly be valuable to know more about them in that manner. But ultimately that’s not what it means to have a personal relationship.

The Holy Spirit is the indispensable gift in the life of a Christian. Jesus said:

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you… These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:15-18.25-27) A life with the Holy Spirit is a life of keeping the commandments and of prayer. The Holy Spirit is sent to bring the words of Christ to remembrance and to give peace. This is a life of a personal relationship with God.