Against the background of the ongoing attractiveness of kenoticism, this paper attempts to clarify the questions that give rise to kenotic theories and the question which it raises by distinguishing three stages of the development of kenotic theologising: a) the debate between the Lutheran theologians of Gießen and Tübingen on the life of the incarnate Lord at the turn of the 16th and 17th century, the resurgence of kenotic Christologies in the 19th century in Germany, Scandinavia, Scotland and England, focusing on the act of Incarnation, and, lastly, the development of kenotic Trinitarian theologies in the works of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Jürgen Moltmann. The paper contrast these views with Thomas Aquinas’ and Martin Luther’s interpretation of the kenosis-Passage from Philippians 2. Both avoid the interpretation of the ‘self-emptying’ as a surrender of divine attributes and recast the understanding of kenosis as a form of Trinitarian self-giving. The conclusion raises the question whether modern forms of kenoticism presuppose a metaphysical dualism between the Infinite and the finite, the eternal and the historical, which both Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther, tried to overcome, each in his own way.
The Strange Persistence of Kenoticism: Disputed Questions
There is hardly a passage in the Bible that has attracted so much theological attention over the centuries than a few verses from Paul’s letter to the Philippians:
Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ:
Who being in the form (morphé) of God,
Did not consider equality with God
Something to be grasped, but emptied (ekénosen) himself
Taking the form of a servant,
Being made in human likeness
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled himself
And became obedient to death – even to death on the cross!
(Phil 2,6–8, NIV corr.)
The verb form ekénosen gave the name to the theological conundrum that has been associated with this passage at least since the 16th century. It has been claimed that theological reflection on the self-emptying of Christ or God «has become a vibrant, and indeed, dominant strain in modern theology».1
The focus on kenosis as constitutive for what we have to say about Christ and about God transcends denominational and confessional boundaries and presents itself as a truly ecumenical phenomenon.
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