신경의 그리스도론적 구조에 대한 신학적 고찰 - ‘사도신경’과 성사성을 중심으로

Abstract

The early Christian faith was rooted in the connection between faith, confession and baptism. To be accepted into the faith community, one first had to learn about the faith itself, and then confess his faith. The creed’s purpose was to confess one’s faith when being baptized during the earlier days of the Church. The creed originally took the form of successive questions and answers and later transformed into its modern-day format via the teachings of apostles and theological arguments. Amongst the many various versions of the creed, this paper focuses on the creed of the Western Church - the Apostles’ Creed. First, after observing the structure and the developmental processes concerning confessions of faith, the paper will take a deeper dive into the structure and characteristics of the Apostles’ Creed. The purpose of this paper is not to dissect each phrase or the theological contents embedded in each paragraph of the Apostles’ Creed. Instead, the focus will be on the underlying fundamentals of the Apostles’ Creed, especially regarding its structure through the Christian lens. Thus, the paper will provide evidence that Jesus Christ is always present at the beginning and center of confessions of faith and approach the crux of the Christian faith and Church through the creed’s most important elements, its Christian characteristics. Therefore, the essence and purpose of the paper is sacramentality, in other words, the sacrificial characteristics of faith or the reciprocity between faith and sacraments. The main theme and aspects in examining this relationship are undoubtedly the relationship between Jesus Christ and faith, as well as the relationship between Jesus Christ and sacraments. And by understanding and conducting research on these relationships, the paper aims to observe the ecclesiastical characteristics of the Church and the sacramental characteristics, or in other words, sacramentality, embodied by the Church. We participate in the mystery of God through special means where Jesus Christ exists throughout the sacraments of the Church. The structure of sacraments in faith is inseparable with whom the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. He himself is the sacrament, and the Church receives all of its glory through Him, and the sacrament comes into being when glory is bestowed upon the Church for the salvation of the world. The Church reaches its essence when the existence of Christ comes into being through the sacrament.