KERYGMA – Encyclopedic Dictionary of Bible and Theology

The concept of kerygma (in Greek message) is identified with that of Gospel, good news, announcement, message of salvation. But the synthetic term has prevailed in pastoral terminology as a verbal expression of a theological attempt to overcome the meaning that has been given to Christian doctrine since the Middle Ages. It is insisted in current times that Christ did not come to set up a system of thought or a rule of life. He came to announce a message of salvation.

That is why the original term of the New Testament is unearthed: the noun “kerygma”, which appears 8 times in the biblical writings (another three the equivalent “kerix” appears): or the verb “kerisso” which appears 62 times. Noun and verb are equivalent to “proclamation”, “preaching”, “announcement” “communication” and “exaltation”.

It is the one used when it is said that “Jesus began to preach and say: Convert” (Mt. 4.17) or when he said “It is necessary that the New News be “proclaimed” to all nations.” (Mk. 13.10) Saint Paul said it when he wrote: “The good news must be proclaimed to all nations” (1 Cor. 1.21) and it is curious to note that the term never appears in John’s writings.

It is also the essential term in the evangelizing mission entrusted by Jesus to his disciples, when he said: “Go and proclaim the Good News to all nations” (Mk. 16.15). “And the Apostles went out to preach everywhere and the Lord cooperated with them, confirming the word with the signs that accompanied it.” (Mk. 16.20)

1. Kerygma is life

Consequently, the concept and term of “kerygma”, or “kerygmatizing”, intends to highlight a dynamic element of the missionary action of the Church, since it focuses on the compromising vision of the message of Jesus. In a broad sense it can be understood as a configuration of a way of thinking, feeling and living in the light of the Gospel. Pro does not only have the passive sense of “message” that is delivered, but the dynamic one of “message that is lived”.

That is why the concept of kerygma is identified or associated with that of “mystery”, that of “path” and that of “life”. The mystery is the revealed reality, the path is the process to reach it, life is the fruit and the result.

The idea of ​​mystery is abundantly repeated in St. John and St. Paul (28 times “mysterion” appears). “To you it has been given to know the “mysteries” of the Kingdom.” (Mt. 13.11; Mc. 4.11; Lk. 8. 10). Because “the Gospel is the revelation of a mystery kept secret for eternal ages, but made manifest in the present.” (Rom. 16.25). “The mystery was communicated to me by revelation.” (Eph. 3. 3.) And “by the word I make known the mystery of the Gospel”. (Eph. 6.19).

The association to the idea of ​​”path” appears more than a hundred times in reference to what must be followed to find salvation. And, comparing the message as a way to salvation, New Testament allusions are multiplied up to 46 times, especially in Paul’s writings (14 times): “I persecuted this way to death…” (Acts 24. 4) and however “I worship God according to the Way, which they call a sect” (Acts 24. 22)

Mystery and path lead to the idea of ​​life. It is important to discover that Jesus himself presents himself as “truth, way and life” (Jn. 14.6). But this idea of ​​life, that Jesus himself is promoter, since he declares himself the bread of life, and says that “in him is life”, becomes a permanent theme, especially in the way John speaks: ( Jn. 11.25; 6.35), this is using the term 132 times, among the 321 that “life” (“zoe or zao” and “bios”) appears, in the New Testament.

These data clearly say what can be found in the concept of “kerygma” and how to place it biblically in a good Christian explanation.

2. Confident Kerygma
However, the concept of kerygma does not simply have the meaning of a stable and permanent mystery, but rather a message of salvation delivered to envoys (apostles) so that they can circulate it among men. The apostolic dimension is irresistibly associated with the kerygmatic entity, which is the message, the path and the offer contained in good news.

That is why the pastoral claim of the kerygma belongs to its very essence. And the words “mission”, “evangelization”, “catechesis”, “preaching”, “catechumenate”, “commitment” and the like are associated with what kerygma means.

The Church establishes, however, certain levels of commitment and duty in the proclamation of the kerygma, from those who have received it by the direct will of Jesus, such as the Primate and the Bishops, successors of Peter and the apostles, to those who are associated to them.

The missionary dimension and action in the Church are involved in the strength of the message entrusted to her by Jesus. But it is not a simple theoretical teaching. It is first of all his very human and divine reality. The Christian mystery is none other than “the person of Jesus Christ who died and rose again”. Christianity is not a teaching that came from Jesus, but Jesus himself made a mystery of faith. The Christian does not believe “in Jesus”, but believes “in Jesus”. It is the very mystery of the Incarnate Word that is the object of faith, not the teachings that Jesus offered and communicated to his followers.

The Church has always understood it this way. For example, John Paul II recalled it when he said that “evangelization must always contain, as the basis, center and at the same time the culmination of its dynamism, a clear proclamation that in Jesus Christ, salvation is offered to all men, as a gift of the grace and mercy of God” (Redent. mysterium 44).

The identity in message and person of Christ flows from the New Testament, we find that the kerygma is: “The act of proclaiming and the very content of the proclaimed message.”

For practical reasons, it is recalled that the direct object of the verb “proclaim” or the content of the kerygma is none other than:

– The Gospel or news of salvation (1 Thess. 2.9; Gal. 2. 2; Mc. 1.14; Mt. 4.23).

– Christ Jesus himself, Word of the Father (1 Cor. 1.23; 2 Cor. 20.25).

– The Kingdom of God or triumph of good over evil (Lk. 8. 1; Acts 20.25)

– The life, passion, death and resurrection of Christ, eternal God and true man united to God. (Mt. 4.23; 9.35).

These four expressions are repeated in the evangelical texts and in the apostolic letters. They are the primitive ways of thinking and speaking and they will remain stable throughout Christian history. They persistently address all listeners, engaging them and urging them to accept and act accordingly.

3. Kerygma and History
Throughout the centuries the followers of Jesus have continued to employ the same mindsets. They are kerygmatic schemes

– The kerygma is already present in the earthly life of the Savior: It proclaims the Kingdom of God. He sends to proclaim the followers of him. He announces that he will stay with them until the end.

– But the life of the kerygma, its strength, is prolonged in the life and work of the Apostles and of the entire Christian community spread throughout the universe. There is a mysterious and life-giving attunement in all places and times.

– The Christian community finds the strength to act in the certainty that Jesus remains in it and the firm persuasion that it is Jesus who gives meaning to its messenger action.

In the way “the kerygma” is presented in the New Testament, it contains: “a schematic compendium of the life, death and exaltation of Christ”: It is the History of salvation in its phase of fulfillment; in the same way, that the History of the Chosen People was the phase of announcement and hope.

There is, therefore, in Christianity a historical component, which is decisive in evangelization, in celebration, in the formation of consciences and in the promotion of life experiences.

Christ inserted himself into history through the incarnation and continues in it through the faith of his followers. Incarnation, evangelization, passion and death, redemption, resurrection, exaltation are the milestones or levels of the kerygma. Even the last act not yet completed, the parousia and the last coming of the Lord, are future kerygma, not anamnesis of the past or epiclesis of the present.

For this reason, the messengers of all times make the kerygma the axis of their action, of the proclamation they carry out. And that proclamation focuses on cores and basic structures:

– The Kingdom of God is still alive because it is never fully realized in the world.

– The Gospel is an offer, not only History, not Theology and less Ethical Philosophy.

– Christ is still alive and risen and is the soul of the Kerygma and the center of the proclamation.

– The Word of God is life for the person, not just doctrine for the mind.

– The kerygma lives on through the Spirit that Christ himself has sent.

– The messenger is a mediator, not an inventor, and his first virtue is fidelity.

– The kerygma is for the Church its reason for being and the end of its life and activity.

4. The forms of the kerygma
The kerygma has some well-defined features: – It is a story of the presence of God in the midst of men. It is a reflection of the revelation whose core is found in the Paschal mystery and whose garments are all the providential acts that God has wanted to carry out: decree of salvation, election of a people, messengers who announced hope, fulfillment of promises, permanence in the world. eschatological reference.

– It presupposes the Word of God (God speaks to man) and it presupposes the Holy Scripture (God has inspired written reference texts).

– Salvation, redemption, forgiveness, justification, recovered divine friendship, are a way of expressing the salvific action of God towards men.

– Without the Trinitarian reference, without the leading role of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Christian kerygma is not understood. In that Trinitarian reference is the most incomprehensible or the most mysterious of the Christian kerygma.

– For this reason, the kerygma calls for a global and unitary, Trinitarian presentation. It is the divine role that requires avoiding polarization. Spiritualisms reduced to spiritisms, Christology reduced to anthropology, or biblical pursuits that do not go beyond archaeology, make it impossible to understand the Christian kerygma. The salvific action of God in the past, present and future needs the historical and the human, but it is not reduced to it. Continue to encourage in her the mystery of mercy and the reality of its supreme transcendence.

5. Kerygmatic catechesis
The one that is based on an experiential vision of the Christian message (kerygma) and tries to overcome the simple presentation of the doctrine (dogma)

1. Kerygmatic theology

The fact that certain recent theological and pastoral currents have once again revived the patristic efforts to give primacy to the kerygma over religious philosophy is a benefit to better understand what the kerygma…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.