In my two previous posts on evangelization, I focused on our need to both proclaim the gospel and to witness to it in our very lives. I discussed its ontological nature, in that evangelization, goes to who the Church is as Church. I also discussed that for evangelization to be effective in our world that real, true, and visible unity among God’s people is essential and I made an argument for ecumenism as a necessary means to evangelize.
In this post, I thought it might be helpful to examine the word “evangelization” and what exactly it means. Evangelization in its original Greek means to bring or announce good news, to preach or proclaim as glad tidings. In its nonbiblical, Graeco-Roman usage it described the public proclamation of significant events such as an announcement of the Emperor Augustus’ birthday, “the birthday of the god [=emperor] was for the world the beginning of joyful tidings (evangelia) which have been proclaimed on his account.” 1 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [now Pope Benedict XVI] explores this meaning of “gospel” showing how it relates to the kingdom that Jesus ushers in:
Alongside [an] Old Testament root is a non-Jewish one, a sort of political theology typical of the great kingdoms of the Orient, of the Hellenistic kingdoms and finally of the Roman Imperium. In this context, ‘gospel’ means the news of a new ruler’s accession to the throne. His actions are ‘glad tidings’. He ushers in–this is the constant refrain of the proclamation–a new and better time; he gives peace, justice and well-being; his existence and action are ‘gospel’, a renewal of the world and of history. In short, the term is an assertion that utopia has been realized, and in this sense it is reminiscent of this century’s utopian gospels of salvation, with their announcement of a new man and a new society. The gospel of Jesus Christ radically transforms this political theology. The new ‘kingdom’ comes, not from this or that ruler, this or that ideology, but only from God himself. 2
In the Bible the term appears in the context of a joyful or important message delivered by a designated messenger, for example Isaiah 61:1-2, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prinsoners, to announce a year of favor for the Lord….” This is the verse Jesus read in the synagogue in Luke 4:18-19 referring to Himself. Continuing, Luke 4:43 says, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God because for this purpose I have been sent.” Matthew in his Gospel used the term only once, “…and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” When the angels of the Lord appeared to the Shepherds in the fields, the Shepherds were filled with fear, and the angel said, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For today…a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.”
The noun form of the word in the Latin Vulgate is evangelion which is translated as “gospel.” This noun form appears in the Gospel of Mark (see 1:1, 1:14, 15; 8:35; 10:29; 13:10; 14:9) and most especially in Paul (see 1 Thess 1:2-9; 1 Cor 15:1-11; 1 Cor 1:17-25; Rom 1:1,9, 16-17; 10:14-21; 15:14-21). The noun form describes the content of the messge. It is a retelling of the Christ-event: that is the meaning of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The four Gospels are so named because they are proclamations or announcements of the Christ-event. But Paul uses both the verb form (proclamation) and the noun form (content): “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.” (1 Cor 1:17)
In the documents of the Second Vatican Council evangelization had this dual meaing: proclamation of the gospel and its content. Evangelization can be defined simply as proclaiming the Christ-event. It is an announced message or, put another way, the proclaimed gospel.
- John R. Donahue, S.J. and Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., The Gospel of Mark of Sacra Pagina, vol. 2 (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2002), 14. [↩]
- Joseph Cardinal Ratizinger, “Evangelization, Catechesis and Catechism,” Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism: Sidelights on the Catholicism of the Catholic Church, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997), 39. [↩]
Good stuff, Jason. I particularly enjoyed the Ratzinger citation. Often when people use the word gospel they think primarily of a message of individual salvation. However, while this is certainly part of the gospel, if we limit it to this, we’ve missed the big picture. As the Ratzinger quote brings into sharp focus, the message is about the ascention of a new ruler (this time a new cosmic ruler, the God-man Jesus Christ). And his very existence and actions are the stuff of the gospel; indeed he is the gospel. The apostles understood this well. If you asked them “What is the gospel?” I think the first thing they would have said would have been something like this: Jesus lived, died, was entombed, rose again, ascended and is now Lord of all. This is the core, the foundation. The rest, the fact that we can find salvation in him, is kind of a wonderful by-product.
I also appreciate Ratzinger’s comparison of the gospel and the pseudo-gospels of men (i.e. all of the abortive attempts to bring about utopia on earth and created a new kind of man). One of the great ironies of history is that this dream of all men has to be given to us and cannot be built through our own social / political engineering. We’ve seen all too clearly how the experiments of men end. And yet we can’t seem to learn from our mistakes.
Josh, I am glad you liked it! I would be interested in your further thought regarding salvation as a by-product. I am not sure I agree that the salavation piece was in some way a secondary message or almost like an afterthought of their sharing the message and meaning of Christ and his life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. In my mind the facts related to the Christ-event and the meaning and message of it seem tied together. I may be misunderstanding and would be interested to read your thought further on this.
Jason,
I think my choice of words may have been somewhat misleading. I agree that the message of salvation for the individual is bound up inseparably with the Christ-event and is not an afterthought. In fact, I love the way that the Bible actually identifies the believer so closely with Christ that it says that when he died we died, when he rose we rose, and that we are currently seated with him in the heavenly places. My point was more to the order of things. In other words, the life, death, resurrection and current reign of Christ are central and logically prior to the salvation of man.
However, I will say that I think that it is important to make sure that our gospel is God-centered and not man-centered. I would say that many historical presentations of the gospel are far too focused on man and make it really all about him. In the final analysis, the chief end is the glory of God. However, we can take great joy in the fact that the glory of God is most fully displayed in his grace towards us. So, happily, the two are inseparable.
Josh,
Thank you for the clarification! We are on the same page.
Jason
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