This book makes plain that the man in the pulpit occupies a position of unrivaled significance in the life and destiny of his fellow man. It concerns the 'kerygma,' or, as Professor A. M. Hunter of King's College, Aberdeen, states in the Foreword, "the preached Gospel which the first heralds of Christ proclaimed to the great pagan world of their day, that Gospel which, after nineteen centuries, remains the Word from the Beyond for our human predicament. It tells what the Proclamation really was and how it runs, like a golden thread, through the whole New Testament."

Dr. Mounce introduces his study with a survey of related terms as they appear in classical Greek, proceeds to show the role of the herald in the life and culture of the Old Testament world through a careful investigation of the Septuagint, and, more importantly, gives a detailed analysis of the nature of preaching as it occurs in the New Testament itself. The closing chapter forcibly demonstrates that true Christian preaching has ever been and always should be the medium through which God contemporizes His historic self-disclosure in Christ, and offers man the opportunity to respond in faith.

As a study of the heart of the joyful message that the first heralds of Christianity proclaimed, this book breaks fresh ground for a new understanding of the vital significance of preaching.