Although few ponder the routine act, many millions of American Christians do something radical when they recite the creed, says New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson. In a country that praises individualism, worshippers are expressing solidarity with a community's collective wisdom rather than personal opinions, Johnson explains. And in a culture that prizes novelty, they are reciting a formula that originated 1,788 years ago (for the Apostles' Creed, often used by Protestants) or 1,678 years ago (for the similar but longer Nicene Creed, part of Roman Catholic and Orthodox worship). Johnson, a one-time Benedictine monk, is now a lay Catholic...