Rudolfa Bultmanna koncepcja kerygmatu pierwotnego Kościoła a pojęcie τὸ κήρυγμα w Nowym Testamencie

Dominik Tomasz Tomczyk

Chrześcijańska Akademia Teologiczna
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0023-9153

Abstract

The paper analyses the concept of kerygma in the early Church in the interpretation of Rudolf Bultmann and attempts to define the kerygma in the light of New Testament texts using the historical-critical method as well as the linguistic and semantic analysis of the Greek noun τὸ κήρυγμα. Bultmann’s writings have been analysed using the method of critical analysis in comparison to Paul’s letters.
For this purpose, the paper has been divided into two parts. In the first part, main tenets of the early Christian kerygma according to Bultmann, on the basis of the Theologie des Neuen Testaments monography 19808) have been presented. The author also discusses the issue of salvation in Jesus’s teachings, the identity of Jesus as understood by Bultmann, addresses the idea of “dehistorification” of God and man as well Christ’s messianic cognisance. For the German Biblicist, it is the Christ of Faith proclaimed in the post-Easter kerygma of the early Christian community that matters, as opposed to the Jesus of History.
In the second part, the author’s own interpretation of the term kerygma based on key writings of Apostle Paul (Rom. 16:25; 1 Cor 1:21; 2:4; 15:14; Tit. 1:3) has been shown. Kerygma is the proclamation of Jesus Christ, who was crucified and resurrected. Jesus is the promised Messiah foretold by Old Testament prophets rather than the post-Easter interpretation of the Christ of Faith and the kerygma as understood by Bultmann. Continuity of the proclaimed kerygma of Jesus and about Jesus can be seen through the Gospel taught by Paul and other apostles.
The studies have led to the following theological conclusion: the “Christ of Faith” and the kerygma cannot be separated from “the Jesus of History” just like the resurrection of Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his passion and death. The word of the Gospel proclaimed is the kerygma of Christ himself, thus confirming the continuity of “the Jesus of History” and “the Christ of Faith”

Keywords:

Rudolf Bultmann, New Testament theology, kḗrygma, the early church, “the Jesus of History”, “the Christ of Faith”, demythologizing the New Testamen