Kenosis
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Kenosis is a Greek word for emptiness, which is used as a theological term.
As an ancient Greek word, κένωσις kénōsis means an "emptying", from κενός kenós "empty".
The word is mainly used, however, in a Christian theological context, for example Philippians 2:7, "Jesus made himself nothing (ἐκένωσε ekénōse) ..." (NIV) or "...he emptied himself..." (NRSV), using the verb form κενόω kenóō "to empty".
Kenosis is similar to the Buddhist practice of Shunyata.
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Kenosis in Christology
In Christian theology, Kenosis is the concept of the 'self-emptying' of God. It is used both as an explanation of the incarnation, and an indication of the nature of God's activity and condescension.
A natural dilemma arises when Christian theology posits a God outside of time and space, who enters into time and space to become human incarnate. The doctrine of Kenosis attempts to explain what God chose to give up in terms of his divine attributes in order to assume human nature. Since the incarnate Jesus is simultaneously fully human and fully divine, Kenosis holds that these changes were temporarily assumed by God in his incarnation, and that when Jesus ascended back into heaven following the resurrection, God fully reassumed all of his original attributes.
Specifically it refers to attributes of God that would be incompatible with becoming fully human. For example, God's omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience as well as his atemporality. Theologians who support this doctrine often appeal to a reading of Philippians 2:5-8. Critics of Kenosis theology argue that the context of Philippians 2:5-8 is referring to Jesus voluntarily taking the form of a servant to conceal his divine glory (revealed temporarily in the Transfiguration), as opposed to forsaking his divine attributes.
Kenotic Christology focuses on certain passages in the Gospels where Jesus does not allow himself to be called good, and evidence that he was not omniscient concerning the date of the Second Advent. It became a central issue in the Protestant debates of the sixteenth century, and was revived in the nineteenth century to reinterpret classical doctrines of the incarnation.
Eastern Orthodox mysticism
The idea that God is self-emptying. He poured out himself to create the cosmos and the universe, and everything within it. Therefore, it is our duty to pour out ourselves. (This is similar to C.S. Lewis's statement in Mere Christianity that a painter pours his ideas out in his work, and yet remains quite a distinct being from his painting.) In so doing, we become deified like God. Another term for this process is theosis. However, theosis never concerns becoming like God in nature or essence, which is pantheism; instead, it concerns becoming united to God through his Energies, one example of which being the Uncreated Energy of grace.
The kenotic ethic
The kenotic ethic is the ethic of Jesus, considered as the ethic of sacrifice. The Phillipians passage urges believers to imitate Christ's self-emptying. In this interpretation, Paul was not primarily putting forth a theory about God in this passage, rather he was using God's humility exhibited in the incarnation event as a call for Christians to be similarly subservient to others.
Kenosis in literary aesthetics
Kenosis is the affect (feeling) experienced by the reader of lyric or poetry forms. It is the experience of the emptying of the ego-personality of the reader into the immediate sensory manipulation of poetics. In this sense, kenosis inflicts an experience of timelessness upon the reader. Compare with catharsis which is the affect created by drama and kairosis which is the affect created by novels.
External links
- http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2004/06/24_scienceandhope/
- George Ellis interview - from NPR
- Kenosis.info - anti-Kenosis essays