kerygma and catechesis, in Christian theology, respectively, the initial proclamation of the gospel message and the oral instruction given before baptism to those who have accepted the message. Kerygma refers primarily to the preaching of the Apostles as recorded in the New Testament. Their message was that Jesus Christ, in fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament, was sent by God, preached the coming of the Kingdom of God, died, was buried, rose from the dead, and was raised to the right hand of God in heaven. To those who accepted this proclamation, the reward was deliverance from sin, or salvation. Acceptance into the church required conversion—that is, a turning away from a life of sin. Early Christian catechesis was concerned primarily with exhorting those preparing for baptism to follow the way of “life” as opposed to that of “death”; it was distinguished from the more doctrinal instruction that followed one’s baptism. Catechesis was usually accompanied by self-denial and exorcism (an attempt to expel the devil from the potential convert).
The mode of teaching, geared to the general absence of literacy, was characterized by the use of formalized expressions (some of which are preserved in the New Testament). As the practice of infant baptism became more common in subsequent centuries, the relation between instruction and baptism became less obvious. Once an important duty of bishops, instruction was more often left to the parents or parish priests. The emphasis given to the use of the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer as mnemonic devices, as well as the frequent use of numbered lists (seven being a favourite number), is indicative of the rote nature of the instruction during the early medieval period. In the East, the connection between the liturgy and practical instruction had never been lost; this was not the case in the West, where only a minority understood Latin, the language of liturgy and theology.
In the 16th century, the Protestant reform re-emphasized the preached word; both Protestants and Catholics began to make extensive use of written manuals called catechisms (e.g., Luther’s Small Catechism). By the 19th century the term catechetics referred to all religious education outside of that found in the liturgy and preaching. Twentieth-century developments reflected an appreciation of trends in the psychology of learning and pedagogy, as well as the renewal in the theology of the sacraments and in biblical scholarship. In reaction to the abstract catechesis of recent centuries, some have called for a “kerygmatic theology” concerned more with the saving work of Jesus Christ than with scientific, speculative theology. Although this distinction has not been generally accepted, there has been a renewed appreciation of the view of the Christian message as an event to be experienced rather than ideas to be studied. The effect of this movement was to reorientate religious education to a return to the kerygma and catechesis of the New Testament church.