Between celebration and expectation
The Kingdom of God occupies a central place in the Gospels. But why does it seem so little present in the rest of the New Testament? Could the Kingdom have been replaced by the Church or by justification? But what then becomes of Jesus' message in the Christian life? And what is the relationship between the Kingdom and the Church?
These are some of the questions addressed in this book. One might think that the Kingdom of God is not present outside the Gospels, but the author shows that this is only an impression and that a careful reading of Acts and the Epistles points us in another direction. The Kingdom of God constitutes the backdrop of the apostolic proclamation and the life of the early Churches. The entire New Testament rests on a fundamental conviction: the Reign of God has manifested itself in Jesus. The Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus is therefore neither abolished nor replaced; it continues to inhabit the disciples of Jesus, who translate, explain, and develop it in light of the new social, cultural, and religious realities in which the nascent Christian communities find themselves. This rereading of the New Testament leads today's Church to celebrate what has already come to pass and to await what is yet to come.