Frances Young demonstrates how and why the two most familiar Christian creeds - the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed - came into being. She describes how creeds originated in instruction before baptism and have their roots in the New Testament itself. She then shows how the rise of Gnosticism and a tendency towards fragmentation in the church made a clear statement of faith necessary; outlines the various controversies that led to particular words and phrases being included in the creeds as we now have them; and describes the construction of the great Christian doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation. This is a book that enables the creeds to come alive again, in the challenging and demanding contexts of contemporary life, and provides a reliable guide to the core of Christian confession and affirmation.