Kerygmatic Christ Research Articles

Персонализм в теологической антропологии Э. Бруннера и в софиологии прот. Сергия Булгакова

The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the personalist interpretation of the Christian kerygma in the dialectical theology of Protestantism (by E. Brunner) and in the Orthodox sophiological theology of the late S. Bulgakov. The author is interested in the problem of coherence of different forms of philosophical discourse, primarily metaphysical and non-metaphysical, within the framework of explication of the essence of Christianity. To what extent is the metaphysics of Plato and St. Gregory Palamas in the doctrine of Sophia by Rev. Sergei Bulgakov can coexist with the communicative, dialogic nature of the personality of F. Ebner and K. Jaspers? The article for the first time in Russian philosophical theology reconstructs the anthropology of E. Brunner, explores such concepts as "responsibility", "being-in-God", "being-in-decision" and others.The author compares E. Brunner's and K. Barth's conceptions of the Word of God. E. Brunner does not use metaphysics as the prerequisite for ontology. Being for him has a dialogical structure of the relationship (I and You) of man and God, the call to love and the response to love in the responsibility of man. Brunner defines human creation as 'creation in the Word of love'. "With this Word God addresses man, communicates himself to him, gives him life". The existential dimension of divine love is devoid of a cosmic dimension in the Swiss theologian and is not connected with the knowledge of the world in the natural sciences and metaphysics. He is indifferent to the objective aesthetics of the divine love kenosis. God for Brunner is understood primarily as love. It is the baseless mystery of God – the Word, eternally calling for a decision, responsibility, choice.E. Brunner's personalism looks more holistic, organic, thought out in its own way within the framework of modern philosophy. However, the extra-moral nature of human responsibility is not entirely obvious. It is difficult to imagine Christian love as an indicative and not an imperative. By the late S. Bulgakov, love belongs to the core of personality as activity. Absolute personality constitutes itself not as self-knowledge, but as active love. Love is not a property of the essence, but the essence itself. The Russian philosopher ontologizes love within the metaphysics of unity. S. Bulgakov interprets person's activitiestic principle and personality as a relationship from the perspective of rethinking the work-action of I. Fichte within the framework of the metaphysics of unity. It seems that without a radical transformation of ancient metaphysics (primarily Platonic and Aristotelian) a personalist interpretation of the Gospel becomes impossible.

НАРРАТИВНАЯ ТЕОЛОГИЯ Э. ЮНГЕЛЯ И ФИЛОСОФИЯ ИМЕНИ А.Ф. ЛОСЕВА

The article is concerned with an attempt to correlate the thinking of being and faith of Revelation in modern German evangelical theology and in Russian religious philosophy on the example of the work of E. Jungel and A.F. Losev. The author reveals the uniqueness of Jungel’s concept of the Word of God in comparison with the event nature of the Word of God by K. Barth. Jüngel’s narrative theory of the Gospel parable is comprehended in the article in the perspective of finding common ground and especially with the philosophy of symbolic reality, of the name by A. Losev. Jungel thinks through the event nature of Revelation as the Word of God proposed by K. Barth, using the fundamental ontology of M. Heidegger, He develops a theological hermeneutic ontology in which the event of the Word of God acquires the features of the Gospel narrative of the parable. As discursive theology, based on the idea of the metaphysical absolute, is destroyed from the German thinker’s point of view, narrative theology wins its positions. For the German theologian, the core of the Christian kerygma – the death of God – is organically linked to the tradition of nineteenth-century philosophical atheism and is revealed in it no less than in theology and religious philosophy. The Russian philosopher refers to Hegel’s dialectics and Husserl’s phenomenology in understanding the event of God’s Revelation. However, he tries to integrate them into the model of Neoplatonic metaphysics, from which, in his opinion, they were formed. Losev, to the extent that he is a metaphysician, proceeds in the concept of name, unlike Jungel, from the principle of the analogy of being rather than the analogy of belief. The name for the Russian philosopher is not a story, but an energy (force) that has an ontological nature. With him, the name reflects essence rather than describing an event. Losev goes back to Antiquity to reanimate Neoplatonic metaphysics by means of the concept of the symbol, burying in it Plato and the non-metaphysical forms of thinking of the Christian kerygma. Jungel’s theology funds the word-centrism of the Protestant cult and contributes to the explication of the new-modern image of Christianity in Protestantism. Losev, for his part, does not undertake to explicate beyond metaphysics the antique-medieval mystery nature of the Christian cult in Orthodoxy. He needs to convey in his philosophical and theological thought not only the verbal aspect of the event of Revelation. In order to express the aesthetic and mystical dimension of Revelation, the Russian philosopher engages the metaphysics of all-encompassing unity with the idea of an unchanging Absolute

Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith by Marvin R. Wilson

Reviewed by: Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith by Marvin R. Wilson Zev Garber marvin r. wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2021). Pp. xxiii + 443. Paper $29.99. In the context of our time, Pope John Paul II challenged members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission to help Catholics understand that the Hebrew Scriptures are essential to their faith (1997). Similarly, Evangelical Protestant Marvin R. Wilson asserts that the branches of Christianity and Christendom extend deeply to Hebrew roots, unknown to multitudes of Christian believers, practitioners, and seekers; and this presents distinctive challenges to Jews and Christians in their visions of one another. For example, when Jewish and Christian scholars interweave the narrative and teachings of Jesus into the cultural and social life of first-century Judaism in the land of Israel under the rule of Caesar, they pinpoint the evolving christology of the Jesus-believers, which conflicts with the viewpoints of the rabbis and the jurisdiction of Rome. Nonetheless, W. strongly maintains that the link between Judaism and Christianity is the common ancestry of the two faiths traced back to the covenant of ʾabrāhām (“the father of a multitude of nations,” Gen 17:4). The volume is divided into six parts accompanied by multiple chapter questions, indexes (author, word, subject, biblical and rabbinic sources) and selected bibliography. Part 1 speaks of the nature of Abraham’s spiritual children, encompassing the election of Israel under the rubric of the root and branches (Romans 9 and 11): where and why they (root/Jews; branches/gentiles) are similar and different; and the recognition that the Hebrew Bible is Jewish revelation birthed in an ancient Near Eastern environment, which suggests that, in order to understand the beliefs and practices of evolving Christianity, today’s gentile Christians must follow first-century apostles, disciples, and God-fearers who were immersed [End Page 148] in Jewish culture, languages, and thought. This process of re-Judaization requires immersion and learning of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Septuagint, the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic sources and commentaries, Josephus, and more. Part 2 treats selectively the history of the relationship between church and synagogue. Of particular interest are examples of disagreement between rabbinic halakah and the Jewish Christian groups that led to heresy and theological conflicts on the Jewish side, and anti-Jewish supersessionist readings on the Christian side. Nevertheless, Christians and Jews today who are committed to reading Scripture together are deeply motivated by an academic and reverential disposition toward rabbinic Judaism and the desire to correct the maligned image of Jews and Judaism that emerges from erroneous readings of the Gospel sources. From my perspective, anti-Judaism biases happen when historicity (Pharisaic kinship of Jesus, Peter, and Paul) is conflated with apologetic (“Give unto Caesar”) and polemic depictions (Jews are a deicidal and misanthropic people), as well as theological innovation (Christ replaces Torah as the ultimate teaching and Testament). Wilson cites other biblical and nonbiblical data as evidence for the parting of the way and the emergence of the church as the New Israel, such as Jewish defeat in the wars against Rome (66–70 c.e., 133–135 c.e.), leading to the destruction of the Second Temple and the fall of Jerusalem, respectively. Hellenization of Jewish Christianity (severance of Jesus and Jewish Christianity from Pharisaic Torah belief, practice, and ritual) and the insertion of christological reading into Hebrew Scriptures paved the way for centuries of Christian anti-Jewish teaching and anti-Semitic behavior, from the birth of gentile Christianity to the Shoah and beyond. W.’s position on the centuries-old separation is neither extreme skepticism nor full-faith acceptance but rather a centrist position, somewhat contrary to an ecclesiastical tradition that teaches that truth is bound to NT and early Christian kerygma (preaching) and didachē (apologetics). Exploring the place of Jesus in Second Temple Judaism means to apply drash (insightful interpretation) to peshat (plain meaning of the text). Why so? From my Jewish view, it is because Jesus the historical being, that is to say, the Jesus before the oral and written traditions, is transformed and transfigured into a...

Der irdische Jesus und die Praxisbedeutung der Christologie

Abstract As ›high Christology‹ often appears incompatible with church practice, the present essay ana­lyses the most prominent Christological concepts promulgated since H. S. Reimarus under the keywords of the ›historical Jesus‹ (D. F. Strauß), the ›kerygmatic Christ‹ (M. Kähler) and, most recently, the ›earthly Jesus‹ (J. Schröter), all promising to give orientation for the entirety of theological subjects and church practice (I.). In combination with theories of memory (as proposed by J. Assmann), especially the ›earthly Jesus‹ seems to be influential today but, in view of the problems of ›posttruth‹ (English ›word of the year‹ 2016), to which prominent theories of memory do not offer any effective remedy, also in need of correction (II.). Finally the essay reconstructs the concept of an ›earthly Jesus‹ as developed by Hans-Georg Geyer (1929-1999) of Göttingen, offering the task of theological ›commemoration‹ over against theories of (collective) memory (III.).

Zadania katechezy przygotowującej do sakramentu małżeństwa w świetle adhortacji „Amoris laetitia”

The present article is an attempt to answer Holy Father Francis’s plea expressed in the exhortation Amoris laetitia , calling to better prepare young people for receiving the sacrament of matrimony. The problem that is shown is the answer to the question about the most important task that preparation for entering into marriage should carry out, so that it would be most efficient, that is, it would bear fruit in the form of the consciousness of the importance of the sacrament, of accepting all its attributes, of receiving the sacrament in a valid and honest way, and then deepening the relations with God and with the spouse throughout the life. The most important tasks of preparation to the sacrament of matrimony that can be found in the exhortation Amoris laetitia and that are subjected to analysis in the article include: preaching the Christian kerygma, care for chastity, promoting marriage and family, showing the value of marital fertility and mystagogue for the sacrament of matrimony.

Justice and equality as a social ideas in the texts of the New Testament

The article of Koval Anatoliy «Justice and equality as a social ideas in the texts of the New Testament» aims to study social ideas in the texts of the New Testament. Selected group of texts (canonical Gospels and Epistles of Apostle Paul) are the two major traditions of the New Testament text and reflect, in our opinion, two relatively autonomous interpretation of Christian kerygma. Taken into consideration two social ideas: justice and equality. These concepts are discussed in the context of the intention of the authors of those texts and attempt to assess the degree of sociality these ideas.

Interpretations of the concept of faith in contemporary Protestant theology

The paper looks into the main logical interpretations of the phenomenon of faith in contemporary Protestant theology. The research methodology is based on the paradigmal analysis theory of theological knowledge of G. Kng and H. U. von Balthasar, which present-day co-developers are T. Rowland, F. Kerr, A. Kolodnyi, Y. Chernomorets, G. Khrystokin et al. The author draws a conclusion that contemporary Protestant theology interprets faith in a non-metaphysical and personalistic way. Thus, K. Bart perceives faith as a new way of living of an individual, that real mode of existence which existentialists distinguished from usual existence. That way of living becomes possible after an individual accepts his or her own condemnation acknowledged owing to propagation of Christian kerygma. Protestant theology of the late 20th-early 21st centuries interprets faith as commitment to the Community of God and acceptance of the biblical narrative (N. T. Wright). An alternative concept is interpretation of faith as intuitive knowledge (J. Milbank). In general, Protestant theologians describe faith as an occurrence which takes place during communication with God and as such, faith is not a result of activities of human abilities but a genuine gift from God, which the possessor can only accept and affirm.

<i>Pax Romana</i> as agtergrond van die Christelike <i>kerugma</i>

Pax Romana as background of the Christian kerygma: The concept ‘kingdom of God’ is fundamental to the kerygma on the salvific meaning of Jesus Christ in New Testament times. This article aims to explore the raison d’être why this concept had been such an important element in the kerygma. It argues that the Pax Romana as the primary ideology of the Roman Empire played a significant role. The Pax Romana advocated harmony with the gods, and subsequent heavenly peace and global stability and security in the inhabited world. However, the kerygma replaced the Pax Romana as an ideology with the apocalyptic-eschatological concept ‘kingdom of God’. According to apocalyptic eschatology, an end to the known world is expected. This end was considered to be a cataclysmic catastrophe awaiting in the future, albeit indeterminate to humankind. On the contrary, the church’s kerygma proclaimed that the kingdom of God was already present. An element of Jewish apocalyptism, however, remained in the Christian religion - yet adjusted. That is, although the kingdom of God was regarded already present, the idea of a second coming of Christ as Redeemer was upheld. The article demonstrates that the Christian kerygma on the realised kingdom of God had its origins in the expectation of an utopia, as envisaged in the Pax Romana as ideology.

Luce Irigaray and the Advent of the Divine: From the Metaphysical to the Symbolic to the Eschatological

This article attempts to provide a theoretical context conducive to a fruitful encounter between Irigaray and Christian theology. It does so through the critique of metaphysics and the turn to the symbolic, leading finally to a recovery of the eschatological. Irigaray makes this transition through two related gestures. Through her concept of the sensible transcendental Irigaray seeks a re-enchantment of the world that is grounded in the symbolic. Through her notion of the double syntax, grounded in the incommensurability of women and men, Irigaray establishes the priority of both dialogue and the ‘other’ for the constitution of subjectivity. Finally, this leads Irigaray to challenge theology to rethink the importance of the eschatological dimension of the Christian kerygma.

Historicity and theology, and the quest for historical Jesus<Sup>1<Sup>

The issue of history and historicity is reviewed in this article. The efforts of New Historicism is brought to bear on this question in an effort to find a way out of the impasse created by the modernist demand for objectivity and the postmodern resignation to radical relativism. The possibility of historiography is explored in conjunction with the pragmatic approach and leads to the conclusion that a kind of historical knowledge is attainable which can be described as useful even if not perfect. The author concurs with Crossan and his working definition of history as the past reconstructed interactively by the present through argued evidence in public discourse. The intersubjective nature of any historical enterprise leads the author to the conclusion that the search for the historical Jesus can only be done in the dialectical approach of a both ... and: both the historical Jesus and the kerygmatic Christ

The continued importance of Jesus

The different aspects of the influential nature of Jesus' life were handed down only after his death by those who met God on the basis of the traditions with regard to Jesus. The historical Jesus is therefore to be distinguished from the kerygmatic Christ. This article aims at arguing that Jesus' call upon God as 'Abba' can be regarded as a dialectic material link between the historical Jesus and the kerygmatic Christ. It is also shown that this dialectic has divergently been articulated in the New Testament writings and thereafter as time has changed. Today the historical Jesus' message of the allinclusiveness and already-presence of God's domain is to be taken seriously by the church in pursuing the kerygma in the New Testament. However, the category 'kerygmatic Christ' seems to be increasingly loosing its explanatory and heuristic power in the secular and postmodem religious age.

Jesus deur die oe van In Marxis: In gesprek met Milan Macovec

Jesus through the eyes of a Marxist: In conversation with Milan Machovec. Milan Machovec makes a contribution to our knowledge of Jesus by looking at the evidence about him through a Marxist lens. In his book 'A Marxist looks at Jesus', he attemps to understand, from a positive, yet still Marxist viewpoint, the essence of Jesus' message. He makes a radical, unbridgeable distinction between the Jesus of history and the kerygmatic Christ, between what he calls the 'image of the man Jesus of Nazareth' and the 'dogmatized image of Jesus Christ'. Machovec represents a Marxism that is somehow 'different'. He insists that genuine Marxist atheism is not a counter-dogma, not simply atheism turned upside down, but a matter of critical method.

Christologie: Die historiese Jesus en die kerugmatiese Christus by Walter Schmithals

Christology: The historical Jesus and the kerygmatic Christ according to Walter Schmithals This article shows how and why Walter Schmithals undertook to regard the kerygmatic Christ rather than the historical Jesus as the foundation for Christrian theology. In agreement with the first origins of Christian dogma and the dogmatic tradition of the Reformation of the church, he maintains the scriptural witness regarding Jesus Christ. He does so in a manner which deserves respect in the historical-critical approach to the Bible.

Gerhardus Marthinus Maritz Pelser, hoogleraar 1972-1989

Gerhardus Marthinus Maritz Pelser, professor 1972-1989 It is the aim of this article to discuss the essentials of the work of Gert Pelser. This is done under five headings: The historical Jesus and the kerygmatic Christ; Rudolf Bultmann; the canon; diachronic and synchronic readings of texts; biblical theology and dogmatic theology. This is done to shed light on Pelser’s standpoints, and thus to show his expectations of a New Testament scholar. The conclusion is that he has not yet reached a complete awareness of the impact of his own work.

Stephen of Ramlah and the Christian Kerygma in Arabic in Ninth-Century Palestine

In the period of time between the Islamic conquest and the coming of the crusaders to Palestine in 1099, Christian pilgrims from East and West continued to visit the Holy Land, and particularly Jerusalem, by the licence of the Islamic government. Among the western visitors during this period at least half a dozen of them published accounts of their journeys. However, these accounts tell one virtually nothing about the life of the local Church, beyond the occasional list of shrines, churches, monasteries and the number of personnel assigned to them. As one modern scholar has remarked, ‘In the Patriarchate of Jerusalem the indigenous element is always half-hidden behind the crowds of pilgrims of every nationality…In the Holy City the resident aliens often outnumbered the Christian natives of Jerusalem, but in Palestine taken as a whole, the Syrians must always have been a majority.’

From Proclamation to Narrative

Previous articleNext article No AccessFrom Proclamation to NarrativePaul RicoeurPaul Ricoeur Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 64, Number 4Oct., 1984Norman Perrin, 1920-1976 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/487170 Views: 11Total views on this site Citations: 13Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1984 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Hendrikus Nayuf, John Christianto Simon Pohon Keramat dan Pohon Pengetahuan: Studi Etno-Teologi tentang Atoni Pah Meto dan Kejadian 2:16-17, DUNAMIS: Jurnal Teologi dan Pendidikan Kristiani 5, no.22 (Apr 2021): 440–459.https://doi.org/10.30648/dun.v5i2.396 Introduction, (Jan 2019): 1–23.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002116-001 Voices of God, (Jan 2019): 27–43.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002116-002 Race, Gender, and Christian Diaspora, (Jan 2019): 44–64.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002116-003 Women and the Afro-Brazilian Pentecostal War in Mozambique, (Jan 2019): 67–88.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002116-004 “Dressed as Becometh Holiness”, (Jan 2019): 89–105.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002116-005 West African and Caribbean Women Evangelists, (Jan 2019): 109–127.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002116-006 “The Kingdom in the Midst”, (Jan 2019): 128–148.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002116-007 A Critical Approach to Concepts of “Power” and “Agency” in Ghana’s Charismatic (or Neo-Pentecostal) Churches, (Jan 2019): 151–179.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002116-008 Bless Us with Children, (Jan 2019): 180–196.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002116-009 References, (Jan 2019): 197–220.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002116-010 석종준 An Attempt to Overcome “Hermeneutics of Jesus” of Modern Orthodoxy through Paul Ricoeur’s Narrative Theory, Korean Jounal of Systematic Theology null, no.3030 (Sep 2011): 199–246.https://doi.org/10.21650/ksst..30.201109.199 Bibliography, (): 197–206.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822372974-010

The Historical Jesus: Some Outstanding Issues

THE HISTORICAL JESUS: SOME OUTSTANDING ISSUES EDWARD SCHILLEBEECKX'S treatment of the historical Jesus is perhaps the best part of his two-volume work on Christology. Here, as nowhere else, he shows himself to have thoroughly mastered the very complicated discussions that have gone on amongst New Testament scholars during the past generation, a mastery all the more remarkable since he is a systematic theologian with an expertise in a field which is not only different, but often on quite a different wavelength from New Testament study. Of course he is not infallible, and he has sometimes backed the wrong horse, as for instance when he follows Theodore Weeden's interpretation of the disciples' role in Mark, or when he reduces resurrection appearances to the level of conversion experiences, thus confounding effect with cause.1 But he has been amply criticized for these misjudgments, and the present contribution will honor him not by a critical review of his work, but by further discussion of some of the issues he has raised. I Jesus and the Kerygma What is the relevance of the historical Jesus to New Testament theology and Christology? There are at least four possible views. At one extreme there is the view that it is at once irrelevant and impossible to "ask hack to" the historical Jesus. It is irreleva.nt because the earliest Christian kerygma is a procla1 See the criticism of R. E. Brown in his review of Schillebeeckx's two volumes in OBQ 42 (1980), 420-21. Brown speaks of Schillebeeckx's "unfortunate fascination for the Perrin-Weeden approach to Mark" (p. 421). 368 TBE HISTORICAL JEStTS: SOME OUTSTANDING ISSUES $69 mation of the resurrected Christ, not of the earthly Jesus, and impossible because we have no traditions which reach back with certainty over the gulf created by the Easter event between the pre- and post-Easter Jesus.2 At the other extreme is the view that the Easter traditions are valueless and that the pre-Easter traditions are not only of great historical value, but are our sole source even for postEaster faith in the resurrected Christ.3 Occupying the middle ground between these two extremes are two other views. One is that while the basis for Christian faith lies in the Christ as preached in the post-Easter kerygma, the pre-Easter Jesus is the essential presupposition and legitimation of the kerygma.4 The other view is that the historical Jesus compromises the fundamental revelation. Yet Easter is necessary to assure the continuance after the death of Jesus of Jesus's initial offer of salvation.5 As a result of Easter, we can say, "Die Sa,che Jesu geht weiter" (W. Marxsen). But Easter does not add anything to the salvation already ofiered in Jesus's lifetime. It merely extends it. 0£ all the views, Schillebeeckx's comes closest to the last mentioned.6 Is he right in his choice? In the present writer's opinion, the last of these views does not square with the earliest kerygma, at least insofar as it is accessible to us in the Pauline epistles and in the kerygmatic speeches of Acts.7 The 2 The classic exposition of this line of thought is W. Schmithals, Das Evangelium naoh Markus (Giitersloh: Mohn, 1979). s This discussion has taken place almost entirely in German. It began with R. Pesch, "Zur Entstehung des Glaubens an die Auferstehung Jesu. Ein Beitrag zur Diskussion," ThQ 153 (1973), 201-228. For a report in English on the discussion see J. P. Galvin, "Resurrection as Theologia Crucis Jesu: The Foundational Christology of Rudolf Pesch," ThSt 38 (1977), 513-25. 4 This is the line followed by the right wing post-Bultmannians. See e.g., F. Hahn, Historioal Investigation and New Testament Faith (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983) . 5 This is the line followed by the left wing post-Bultmannians, see e.g., H. Braun, Jesus (Stuttgart: Kreuz, 1969). 6 Schillebeeckx speaks of Easter as entailing a "renewed offer of salvation in Jesus" (Jesus, 390). 1 The proposal has been made, apparently independently, by R. F. Collins, Introduotion to the New Testament (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983) $70 REGINALD lI. FULLElt Pauline kerygma is focused upon...

The Problem of the Relation between the Historical Jesus and the Kerygmatic Christ and Heidegger's Understanding of Language

The Problem of the Relation between the Historical Jesus and the Kerygmatic Christ and Heidegger's Understanding of Language

Was Jesus Really Obedient unto Death?

In this essay I want to take off from a few sentences in Rudolf Bultmann's lecture, entitled in its English translation Primitive Christian Kerygma and the Historical Jesus, I delivered in response to his associates who had resumed the quest for the historical Jesus. The sentences in question occur in Section III of the lecture, in which Bultmann deals with what he deems to be abortive attempts to assimilate the activity of Jesus to the kerygma. Although he believes that certain features of Jesus' activity can be known-such as that he performed exorcisms, took up with outcasts, castigated Jewish legalism, attracted a small group of followers, and exhibited a consciousness of authority in relation to the eschatological message he preached-any effort to reconstruct a portrait ofJesus must fail, according to Bultmann, because we can know nothing about how Jesus understood his own death. Theories that he went to Jerusalem to confront people with the message of the imminent appearing of the kingdom of God, and in so doing laid his life on the line, are all only assumptions for which there is no real evidence, as the passion narratives, though primitive, are entirely kerygmatic in nature. Bultmann says: is certain is merely that he was crucified by the Romans, and thus suffered the death of a political criminal. This death can scarcely be understood as an inherent and necessary consequence of his activity; rather it took place because his activity was misconstrued as a political activity. In that case it would have been-historically speaking-a meaningless fate. We cannot tell whether or how Jesus found meaning in it. We may not veil from ourselves the possibility that he suffered a collapse.2 It is especially the last sentence that I want to examine. What does it mean to say that Jesus may have suffered a collapse ? What sort of possibility

Sharing the Suffering of God in the Life of the World

“Now after a quarter of a century of existentialist biblical interpretation and the ethics of radical obedience to the kerygmatic Christ, we are beginning to work our way back into a postliberal, postexistentialist appreciation of the words and deeds of Jesus as resources for decisionmaking by Christians. This sermon is an attempt to listen to this text in this way.”