Creeds as Anti-Personnel Lines

The recent excommunication of Tissa Balasuriya raised the question of the propriety of requiring Christians to subscribe to credal statements specially composed to meet their case. In this article the author reflects on two credal statements imposed on Nestorius and Berengarius. Both have been regarded as notorious heretics, and the credal statements tendered to them had significant subsequent influence. An examination of the effect of the two credal statements may suggest appropriate questions to put to the more recent use of such statements.