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The church's coming into being as the church, although clearly one event rather than two, nonetheless had two distinguishable phases. The first phase that began with the community forming in response to the call experienced through Jesus' own word and ministry, when certain persons accepted this call and began to "follow" him as his disciples, lasted until the shattering events of his arrest and crucifixion only a short time later. Characteristic of this first phase, as evidenced by the Jesus-kerygma originating during it, is that, while it was explicitly theological, it was only implicitly christological. This, of course, is why it is reasonable to infer from the same evidence that Jesus himself had not advanced any explicit christological claim. But be this as it may, the evidence provided by the Jesus-kerygma allows no doubt that any christology that the community of response may have had already during this first phase of its coming into being was not explicit, but merely implied – -- namely, by its "that" precisely as kerygma, its "what" consisting entirely in traditions concerning what Jesus himself had thought, said, and done.

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But now if the Christ-kerygma, in its earliest instances, at least, originated during this second phase of the one event of the church's explicitly coming into being, then it clearly evidences this one event no less directly or immediately than the earliest instances of the Jesus-kerygma. Although what the Christ-kerygma directly or immediately evidences is the second phase of the event, as distinct from the first, it is still the one event of the church's coming into being explicitly as such that it clearly evidences. But then, not only the Jesus-kerygma, but also the Christ-kerygma can be said to meet the necessary condition of being formally apostolic – -- namely, that it, too, be, in its way, original and originating and therefore constitutive Christian witness. And because, or insofar as, it is formally apostolic, the Christ-kerygma, no less than the Jesus-kerygma, is an integral part of the real canon of the church, as we today, with our ways and means of identifying that canon, have been given to identify it.

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