Information AboutKenosis |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT KENOSIS | |
| christology | |
| literary concepts | |
| greek loanwords | |
| eastern orthodoxy | |
| eastern catholicism | |
| carmelite spirituality | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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As an ancient Greek word, κένωσις ''kénōsis'' means an "emptying", from κενός ''kenós'' "empty". The word is mainly used, however, in a 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 . 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 ), 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 Novel s. EXTERNAL LINKS
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