The folly of preaching the cruciform God

Abstract

This chapter engages with Johan Cilliers’ claim, made along with Charles Campbell, that “The gospel is foolish ness. Preaching is folly. Preachers are fools†(Campbell and Cilliers, 2012:1–2) from the perspective of the work of Michael Gorman1 on the cruciform God (2001, 2003, 2009, 2015). The chapter will specifically focus on the kenosis of Christ (Phil 2:6–8) since, while all preaching should be Trinitarian, because God is the redeeming God, preaching that focusses on his works of salvation, according to Cilliers (2004:20–21), will always be Christological. It is for this reason that Paul himself declares that he wants to preach about nothing else than Christ, and specifically about him being Christ crucified. The reflection on the meaning of Jesus’ kenosis and crucifixion according to Gorman, will be undertaken in order to respond to Cilliers’(2018:433–437) question of how preaching can help the church fulfil her missional calling within South African society.