Jesus Creed » Doctrinal Statements and the Emerging Movement: "First, the faith of early Christians emerged out of the “story” of the faith as articulated in the New Testament (which sees itself as the fulfillment of the Old Testament), out of the witness and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and out of the intellectual and creedal options available in the cultures where the Christians lived. In other words, the faith was shaped by the story line of the New Testament. The NT was its script — and, if you read it aright, there are several “scripts” within that NT. The “story” of the Bible, we must remind ourselves, was never simply a creed. The authors of the Bible did not articulate a systematic theology. Each author of the NT was more than happy to articulate theology starting all over again with new images — just move from Kingdom with Jesus, to Paul’s various metaphors (justification isn’t alone; “church” is everywhere), to Peter’s images, to the author of Hebrews (priestly images are explored), to John (who doesn’t use a central theological image so much as the image of Life, etc.). In other words, there was no sense of getting a foundation and building on it. Instead, it was the gospel itself giving birth to a variety of images — shaped by local context."