Christian usage tends to apply the word creed preeminently to the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds (the so-called ecumenical symbols), to use dogma for specific ecclesiastical pronouncements, and to use confession of faith for the comprehensive manifestos of the Protestant Reformation. But the terminology remains fluid, and creed may be taken in a broad, generic sense to include any official codification of a belief, or the beliefs, of a religious community. Distinctions must then be made among the Christian creeds with respect to their functions, their degree of comprehensiveness, their authority, and their several authorizing bodies.

The various churches differ markedly on the status claimed for their respective pronouncements. Creeds may be invested with the authority of divine revelation. But at the opposite end of the scale, the entire notion of a normative, as distinct from a purely descriptive, statement of belief has often been rejected...