The Creed of Christ: An Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer

by Gerald Heard

In The Creed of Christ, Gerald Heard masterfully examines the Lord's Prayer, which he describes as, the real creed of Christianity. Heard interprets Christ's supplication as the key to unfolding an entirely new way of The task is nothing less than the shift of the whole being, the entire consciousness, until it alters from self-consciousness toâ? ¦God-consciousness. This supreme quest first calls for the transcendence of I must start, before anything else, by clearing myself out of the way. Heard then reaffirms Christ's rousing words that the Kingdom is found within Our Lord evidently held that the Kingdomâ? ¦is already here, around us, within us. A modern spiritual classic, The Creed of Christ challenges all seekers to grow spiritually. Gerald Heard beckons us to enter the very heart of religious experience, leading to pulsating union with God.

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Gerald Heard, born in London on October 6, 1889, of Irish ancestry, was educated in England, taking honors in history and studying theology at the University of Cambridge. Following Cambridge, he worked for Lord Robson of Jesmond and later for Sir Horace Plunkett, founder of the Irish Agriculture Cooperative movement. Heard began lecturing from 1926 to 1929 at Oxford University's Board of Extra Mural Studies. In 1927 he began lecturing for South Place Ethical Society. From 1929 to 1930 he edited "The Realist," a monthly journal of scientific humanism whose sponsors included H.G. Wells, Julian Huxley, and Aldous Huxley. In 1929 he published The Ascent of Humanity, an essay on the philosophy of history that received the prestigious Hertz Prize by the British Academy. From 1930 to 1934 he served as the BBC's first science commentator, and from 1932 to 1942 he was a council member of the Society for Psychical Research.

In 1937 Gerald Heard came to the United States, accompanied by Aldous Huxley, after having been offered the chair of historical anthropology at Duke University. After delivering some lectures at Duke, Heard gave up the post and soon settled in California where from 1941 to 1942 he founded and oversaw the building of Trabuco College, a large facility where comparative-religion studies and practices flourished under Heard's visionary direction. Trabuco College, 30 years ahead of its time, was discontinued in 1947, and the vast properties were subsequently donated to the Vedanta Society of Southern California.

During the 1950s, Heard's main activities were writing and lecturing, along with an occasional television and radio appearance. His broad philosophical themes and scintillating oratorical style influenced many people and attracted a legion of interested persons. But chiefly he maintained a regular discipline of meditation for many years, as the core of his mature beliefs centered around the intentional evolution of consciousness.

A prolific writer, Heard penned some thirty-eight books, the most important of which are his pioneering academic works documenting the evolution of consciousness, including The Ascent of Humanity (1929), The Social Substance of Religion (1931), The Source of Civilization (1935), Pain, Sex and Time (1939), and his last book, The Five Ages of Man (1964). He also wrote several popular devotional books, including The Creed of Christ (1940) and Training for the Life of the Spirit (1941-42). Under the name H. F. Heard (H. F. for Henry FitzGerald, his given name), he wrote a number of mysteries and fantasies, including A Taste for Honey (1941) and The Great Fog and Other Weird Tales (1944). Following five years of illness, Gerald Heard peacefully passed away at his home in Santa Monica, California, on August 14, 1971.

Reviews

[Brian Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent writer, and that seems, to me, an understatement. Possibly, to say his writing is beautiful would be more accurate.

For the late Heard, the "creed" is the "Our Father," or "Lord's Prayer." The Prayer provides, for him, the means of transcending self-consciousness to God-Consciousness. The self, as in much mysticism, must be replaced by the Divine, or self-consciousness with Spirit-consciousness. A spiritual understanding of the Prayer, often demoted to a consensual ego, or self, interpretation, is a conceptual map detailing the ladder of this ascension, and, thereby, one can truly make a difference in helping the world transcend its present, collective problems, these stemming from a consciousness from which they cannot find resolution.

If one is looking for a devotional, inspirational study of the Prayer, or a conservative treatment of it, this is not it. This work is scholarly in tone, and the author writes more as a philosopher than a theologian.

[Jeffrey N. Hora · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very engaging interpretation on the Lord's Prayer. While Heard uses some language that I reinterpret through my own experience, he still writes much that makes me pay a much more clarified attention to the Prayer, especially since so many repeat it almost unthinkingly in their own practices and liturgies.

A very good read!