Symbol of Faith

(creed), a brief statement of Christian dogmas, the unconditional acknowledgment of which the church prescribes for every Christian. According to church tradition, the symbol of faith was composed by the Apostles, but it was actually formulated by the ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325. It was revised between 362 and 374 (the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed). Various currents in Christianity, including the Monophysites and the Nestorians, had their own symbols of faith. By the mid-seventh century the Western Christian church, especially the Spanish church, added the filioque to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed. This addition, which was rejected by the Byzantine church, was one of the reasons leading to the schism between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.