Continued importance of Jesus

Abstract

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 all-inclusiveness 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 postmodern religious age.