“Lex orandi, lex credendi” is a Latin theological expression which basically means “the rule of prayer is the rule of belief.”  In more colloquial terms, we might say, “You show me how you worship and I’ll tell you what you believe.”  The rule of prayer has shaped the development of the Christian theological tradition through its existence.  A particularly prominent example is found in the fourth century in Athanasius’s appeal to the worship practices of the Christian community as part of his refutation of the Arian heresy.  Essentially, the Arians were maintaining that the Son was a highly exalted creature, but certainly not God.  One strand of Athanasius’s argument against the Arians consisted of drawing attention to the fact that the Christian community had worshipped Jesus from its earliest days.  If Jesus was only a creature then for the first three centuries of its existence the church was nothing more than a collection of idolaters!  Lex orandi, lex credendi. Continue reading Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi and Divine Impassibility →