Program / Course 21: Liturgical Theology / Lesson 1.3
What you will learn
- Explain the Latin phrase lex orandi, lex credendi and its usual origin.
- Describe two directions of influence between worship and doctrine, with historical examples.
- Summarize how Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed and free-church writers use the idea.
- Recognize the limits of the principle and the cautions that churches have attached to it.
The big idea
The phrase lex orandi, lex credendi is usually translated as the law of praying is the law of believing. It says that the way the church prays and the way it believes belong together. Worship expresses doctrine, and it also helps to form it. In the other direction, doctrine tests and corrects worship. Every tradition accepts some form of this link. They differ on which direction has priority and on who has authority to settle a disagreement.
Key terms
- Lex orandi, lex credendi
- A Latin phrase, often shortened from a longer sentence, meaning that the rule of prayer sets the rule of belief. It is often extended to include lex vivendi, the rule of living.
- Doctrine
- The teaching of a church on what is to be believed about God, Christ, the church and salvation.
- Doxology
- A short formula of praise to God, such as Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
- Prosper of Aquitaine
- A fifth-century lay theologian and defender of Augustine, to whom the phrase is usually traced.
- Arianism
- A fourth-century teaching that the Son is a creature and not fully God. The Council of Nicaea in 325 rejected it.
- Creed
- A short, authoritative statement of the faith, used in teaching and worship.
- Confession
- A longer statement of doctrine adopted by a church, common in Lutheran and Reformed traditions.
Background
The usual source of the phrase is a collection of statements attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine, written in the fifth century in the controversy over grace. Prosper argues that the prayers which priests offer in every church, asking God to convert unbelievers and to give faith to the faithless, show that grace is God’s gift and not human merit. The usual wording is that the rule of supplication should establish the rule of belief. The exact original wording and its meaning are discussed by scholars, so students should check an edition before quoting it.
The phrase has been used in several ways. Some writers read it as saying that worship produces doctrine. Others read it as saying that worship is evidence of what the church already believes. A third group stresses that doctrine corrects worship when worship goes wrong. This lesson describes each of these and shows why none of them is the whole story.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Worship shapes belief
The early church prayed to Christ and baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19) before it had a developed doctrine of the Trinity. Believers sang hymns to Christ (see Philippians 2:5-11 and Colossians 1:15-20, which many scholars regard as early hymn-like passages). That practice formed the soil in which the doctrine of Christ’s divinity grew. Basil of Caesarea, in his work On the Holy Spirit, argued from the church’s own doxologies and baptismal practice that the Spirit is worshiped with the Father and the Son.
Prosper’s argument is of the same kind. If the church prays for God to give faith, then it believes that faith is God’s gift. For many Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican writers this is the center of the principle: the church’s inherited prayer is a witness to its faith.
Step 2: Belief shapes worship
The influence also runs the other way. The Nicene Creed was written to settle a doctrinal dispute and then entered the liturgy, where it is still said or sung in most historic churches. Reformers in the sixteenth century argued that some practices expressed false doctrine and had to be changed. Lutherans removed the idea that the Mass is a sacrifice offered by the priest for the living and the dead. Reformed Christians removed images and many ceremonies. Catholics replied at the Council of Trent that the Mass is a true sacrifice, and that the Reformers had misunderstood it. In each case doctrine was used to judge worship.
Step 3: The cautions
Pope Pius XII, in the encyclical Mediator Dei (1947), warned against reading the phrase as if liturgy alone could define doctrine. He taught that the church’s teaching authority, not the liturgy by itself, determines doctrine, and that the liturgy is a witness to the faith. Orthodox writers also speak of worship as part of the one tradition and not as an independent authority. Protestants often add that Scripture judges worship, so what a church prays can be corrected by what the Bible teaches. A further caution applies to all traditions: popular hymns or songs may teach theology that the church has never examined, which is why hymn texts need to be read as carefully as creeds.
Step 4: Singing as teaching
In churches that do not use set prayers, hymns and songs carry much of the teaching. John and Charles Wesley’s hymns taught Methodist doctrine to people who did not read theology. Lutherans have long treated the chorale as a teacher of the faith. Many Pentecostal and evangelical churches shape belief through worship songs. For these churches the principle works through music and testimony more than through a prayer book.
Step 5: Using the principle alone
A person who prays alone can apply the idea by noticing what their own prayers assume. Do they thank God for grace? Do they ask for forgiveness? Do they address Christ? A person may also test their private prayers against the creeds and Scripture. What cannot be done alone is to settle a disputed question for the whole church: that belongs, in Catholic and Orthodox understanding, to bishops and councils, and in many Protestant churches to confessions, synods or congregations.
- What does this prayer or hymn assume about God?
- Is that assumption supported by Scripture and by the creeds?
- Does the church’s teaching explain why the prayer is used, or only repeat it?
- Was this practice changed in response to a doctrinal dispute, and which one?
- Who has authority to say whether the worship or the doctrine should change?
- Which of my own regular prayers or songs teach me something I have not examined?
Examples
Doxology and the Spirit
In the fourth century some Christians objected to singing glory to the Father with the Son and with the Holy Spirit. Basil defended the wording by pointing to baptism in the three names and to the church’s custom of prayer. Later churches adopted the form, which is now familiar from the Gloria Patri. The case shows worship supporting doctrine.
Prayers for unbelievers
Prosper pointed to prayers offered in churches for the conversion of unbelievers and the strengthening of believers as evidence that grace is a gift from God. This is the classic use of the phrase: a prayer in use shows what the church holds.
A hymn that needs checking
A congregation sings a hymn whose verse says that Christ left the Father’s side and lost his glory when he came to earth. Careful teachers might ask whether this fits the creeds, which say that the Son is fully God and did not cease to be God. A hymn can be loved and still need to be read against doctrine. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
The liturgy is a primary witness to the faith, and the principle affirms that the church prays what it believes. The Catechism also says that the liturgy is itself a locus theologicus, a place where theology is found. But the magisterium, the church’s teaching office, has the final word on doctrine.
Orthodox
Worship is the living form of the church’s tradition. Orthodox theologians often say that the way to know Orthodox doctrine is to attend the services and read the hymns, since the hymns carry the dogmas of the councils. Doctrine and worship are not separate authorities but one life.
Anglican
The Book of Common Prayer has served as a central doctrinal witness, with the creeds, the Articles and Scripture. Anglican writers speak of Scripture, tradition and reason in the church’s life, and prayer is one place where the faith is held.
Lutheran and Reformed
Both place confessions of faith and Scripture above the practice of worship. Worship should be reformed when it contradicts Scripture. At the same time, Lutherans hold that liturgy, hymns and catechism teach the faith, and Reformed churches have long taught through psalm singing and preaching.
Free-church and evangelical
Many stress that doctrine is derived from Scripture alone, and worship should follow. Yet many also recognize that songs and sermons shape belief deeply, and they pay close attention to the words of songs for that reason.
Why it matters
Whatever a person believes about worship, they are shaped by it. Those who pray often use words they did not write, sing songs they did not choose and take on ideas through repeated gestures. Learning to ask what a practice teaches helps students judge any form of worship, whether ancient or new, and understand why the churches have argued so fiercely over how to pray.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Lex orandi, lex credendi means that whatever is prayed is true.
Correction: The churches that use the phrase deny this. Doctrine and Scripture also correct worship, and Pius XII explicitly warned against that reading.
Misunderstanding: Protestants reject the principle.
Correction: They do not reject the link. They place Scripture over both prayer and doctrine, but Lutheran chorales, Reformed psalm singing and Methodist hymnody all show worship teaching belief.
Misunderstanding: The phrase is a quotation from the early church in exactly that form.
Correction: The short Latin form is a later summary. The original sentence is usually traced to Prosper of Aquitaine and has a longer wording. Check the source before quoting.
Misunderstanding: Private prayer has no relation to the church’s belief.
Correction: Every tradition teaches that private prayer is shaped by the Lord’s Prayer, the Psalms, the creeds and the church’s teaching, and should be tested by them.
Knowledge check
What does lex orandi, lex credendi mean, and who is it usually attributed to?
It means that the law or rule of praying and the law or rule of believing are linked. It is usually traced to Prosper of Aquitaine in the fifth century, whose longer sentence said that the rule of supplication establishes the rule of belief. The exact wording is debated.
Give one example of worship shaping doctrine and one of doctrine shaping worship.
Worship shaping doctrine: early prayers and hymns to Christ and baptism in the three names helped form the doctrine of the Trinity. Doctrine shaping worship: the Nicene Creed was written to settle a dispute and then entered the liturgy, and the Reformers changed practices that they judged to contradict Scripture.
What caution did Pius XII add to the principle?
In Mediator Dei (1947) he taught that the liturgy does not by itself define doctrine. The church’s teaching authority does, and the liturgy bears witness to the faith. Reading the principle the other way, he held, would be an error.
How can a person apply the idea in private prayer?
By noticing what their prayers assume about God and checking those assumptions against Scripture and the creeds. Settling disputed doctrine for the whole church is not done alone.
Think it through
- What do the prayers or songs you know best teach about God?
- Which direction of influence, worship to doctrine or doctrine to worship, seems more important to you, and why?
- Who should have authority to change a form of worship?
- Is there a hymn or prayer you love that you think needs correction?
Independent assignment
Read one prayer for its doctrine
In your own notebook, write 350 to 500 words. Choose one set prayer, hymn or creed. List every statement it makes about God, Christ, the church or salvation. Then note which Scripture passages support each statement. Finally, describe one change that a different tradition might want and why. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit (De Spiritu Sancto) Read the passages on doxology and the argument from the church’s practice.
- Council of Nicaea (325) and Council of Constantinople (381), The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Read the creed as a doctrinal statement that became a liturgical text.
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Look up the paragraphs on the liturgy as a source of the church’s faith.
- John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions See how the Methodist movement joined preaching, hymns and doctrine.
- Philippians 2:5 A passage often read as an early hymn about Christ.
- Colossians 1:15 Christ as the image of the invisible God.
- Matthew 28:19 Baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.