Kairos
Kairos is the ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. It is currently used in theology to describe the qualitative form of time. In rhetoric Kairos is used to refer "to a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved." ( E. C. White Kaironomia p13)
Kairos in theology
Kairos refers to the time which cannot be measured, the perfect time, the qualitative time, the perfect moment, the "now", the being.
It differs from chronos (kronos), which is the time that can be measured for example in seconds, minutes, hours, days.
Many churches and private schools (namely Catholic Christian ones) have "Kairos Spiritual Retreats." In this sense, "kairos" is adapted to mean "God's time," as per the Bible.
Kairos in rhetoric
Kairos is very important in Aristolte's scheme of rhetoric. Kairos is, for Aristotle, the time and space context in which the proof will be delivered. Kairos stands alongside other contextual elements of rhetoric: The Audience which is the psychological and emotional makeup of those who will receive the proof; and, To Prepon which is the style with which the orator clothes their proof.
Compare the use of Kairos in rhetoric to the use of Kairosis in literary aesthetics.
Resources for the concept Kairos
- For the origins of the use of Kairos
- R. B. Onians, The Origins of European Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951), pp 343-49
- For a discussion of Kairos in rhetoric
- E. C. White Kaironomia: on the will to invent (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1987)
