Description:
Dr. Keefe's English translation of Text 4 from the Latin which appears in her Explanationes Symboli Aevi Carolini (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012), 19. The translation includes notes and brief commentary. Dr. Keefe left both in draft form and may have intended to update or add certain portions prior to publication. The text has been checked and edited by Katie Benjamin, Divinity Archive Fellow. Text 4 is a confession of faith in two forms, collective ("We believe") and individual ("I believe"). Dr. Keefe finds it interesting that this text does not argue from Scripture but from reason. She writes, "God is not three because of Mt. 28, 19 (“Go, baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the HS”), or because of the dove and the voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, but God is three by the logic of their names: you cannot have a Father without a Son, or a Son without a Father, or a Spirit that does not belong to someone." The brevity of Text 4 further leads Dr. Keefe to suggest that it was meant for memorization, perhaps by one who had to make an oral profession of faith, and perhaps even who had to do so in order to be ordained.
