We Believe

We Believe: Creeds, Catechisms, and Confessions of Faith gathers twenty historic statements of the Christian faith into a single volume, providing readers with a accessible reference to the most significant Protestant confessional documents.

Published by Ligonier Ministries, this book spans from the ecumenical creeds of the early church—including the Apostles’ Creed, the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, the Definition of Chalcedon, and the Athanasian Creed—through the major confessional writings of the Protestant Reformation and its heirs. The collection includes Lutheran documents such as Luther’s Small Catechism and the Augsburg Confession, as well as Reformed confessions and catechisms including the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, the Westminster Standards, and others.

An introduction explains the purpose and value of creeds and confessions, clarifying that the Protestant Reformers retained traditions faithful to Scripture while setting aside those that contradicted God’s Word. The volume is offered to help Christians understand both the distinctions and commonalities among different Protestant traditions, and to become better grounded in the faith as summarized in these time-tested documents.

Key Themes

• The role of creeds and confessions as faithful summaries of biblical teaching, subordinate to Scripture
• The doctrinal continuity between the ecumenical creeds and the confessions of the Reformation
• Central doctrines addressed across the documents, including the Trinity, the person and work of Christ, justification, and the sacraments
• The relationship between confessional faithfulness and sound Christian instruction

Featured Quotes

“While creeds and confessions do not take the place of Scripture and while they operate in submission to Scripture, time-tested creeds and confessions provide invaluable guidance to us as we seek to believe what God has revealed and only what God has revealed.”

“Even the statements ‘No creed but Christ’ or ‘No confession but the Bible’ are themselves creeds and confessions that communicate core convictions.”