Creeds
in Encyclopaedia of Judaism OnlineSearch for other papers by Alan J. Avery-Peck in
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(11,944 words)
Formal statements of fundamental belief, or articles of faith, do not exist in Judaism in the same way in which they exist in Christianity and Islam. While, especially beginning in the medieval period, Jewish philosophers made many attempts to reduce the content of Judaism to a short statement of dogma, such creeds lacked the backing of a supreme ecclesiastical body, which does not exist in Judaism. Thus, while certain of these statements have been incorporated into the Jewish liturgy and function for many as encapsulations of Jewish belief, the popularity and importance of specific creedal statements always have been a function of the fame and credentials of their authors. No attempts have been made, or can be made, to impose acceptance of any creed as an obligation incumbent upon all Jews or even as a precondition of conversion into the Jewish community. Judaism, as a result, has yielded no articles of faith comparable to the three great creeds of the Catholic Church—the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed—or to the Muslim Kalimat As-Shahadat , the first of the five pillars of Islam, which it is a duty for every believer to recite at least once in his or her lifetime. By contrast, despite the interest of medieval Jewish philosophers in systematizing Jewish belief, Judaism offers no defining doctrines or obligatory articles of faith.
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Creeds
in Encyclopaedia of Judaism OnlineSearch for other papers by Alan J. Avery-Peck in
Current site
Google Scholar
(11,944 words)