Expositio super symbolum Nicenum
Alan of Lille (1120–1202)
A commentary on the Nicene Creed by Alan.
Prologus I: Expositio super symbolum Nicenum.
Caput I: Credo in unum Deum.
I believe in one God.
The symbol elegantly takes its beginning from faith, because faith is the foundation of all the virtues. Hence it is said: "First faith, under a doubtful lot, seeks the field of battle, about to fight."1 And in another symbol it is said: "Whosoever wishes to be saved," etc.
Now it is one thing to believe in God, another to believe God, another to believe to God. To believe in God is to tend toward God by faith and charity; which belongs only to the just. Hence he who is in mortal sin seems to lie when he says "I believe in God." But because he who utters the symbol in the Church does not speak in his own person, but in the person of the Church, those words are judged to be not his, but the Church's. Or we may say that "I believe in God" is sometimes taken broadly, and the sense is: I believe in God, that is, I have faith concerning God, whether formed or unformed.
To believe God is to believe that God exists. To believe to God is to believe his words. Evil men, therefore, and demons believe God and believe to God, but they do not believe in God.2 By this that it says "I believe," the heresy of those is refuted who say that nothing is to be believed, but that all things happen by chance. By this that it says "in God," the error of the pagans is refuted, who believed in a creature, not in God.
But he alone is to be believed who is running or seeing, who, as the efficient cause of all things, runs through each thing by effecting it, and who knows both past and future things to be present in the bosom of his providence. Hence in Greek he is called theos, which is interpreted "running" or "seeing." Or theos is interpreted "fear." Hence he is also called deus, because man is especially said to fear him.
Therefore the term of oneness is added, namely "one," so that the plurality of gods might be excluded against the heretics who assert that there are several gods. Now this name "God" can be taken personally here, so that it stands for the Father, or it can be taken generally, so that no descent is made to any one of the persons.