KENOSIS

The incarnation is described as a humiliation or emptying (Greek κενόω) in Phil 2.7. The whole passage (2.5–11) is important because it is one of the great Christological texts of the New Testament and because it has been cited in support of a modern theory on the Incarnation known as kenoticism.

In Phil 2.5–11 Paul is probably quoting a hymn sung in the Palestinian Churches. As L. Cerfaux has shown, the movements of the third and fourth strophes (v. 7b and v. 9) are patterned on the Deutero-Isaian picture of the suffering and glorified Servant of the Lord (Is ch. 53; see suffering servant, songs of). The words "every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord [κύριος]" is a brief act of faith like Rom 10.9 and 1 Cor 12.3 (see lord, the). Despite a wide variation in the interpretation of individual words and phrases, the mainstream of patristic exegesis is unanimous in seeing in this text a scriptural proof of the divinity of Christ, of His real and complete humanity, and of the unity of His Person.

The modern kenotic theory of the Incarnation began with Evangelical theologians in Germany in the 19th century. It was taken up by some Anglicans and Russian Orthodox. Common to all the types of kenotic theology is the thesis that the divine Word relinquished some or all of His divinity in becoming man: that He surrendered His omnipotence, His divine omniscience, His omnipresence; that He lost consciousness of His divinity; or even that He ceased to be God from the moment of the Incarnation until the Resurrection. For the kenotic school of theology there is no other way of reconciling a really human experience in Our Lord with belief in His divinity.

P. Henry's brilliant and exhaustive evaluation of kenotic theology makes the following points: the whole weight of impartial scholarship is against the kenotic interpretation of Phil 2.5–11; in all of Christian antiquity there is no trace of kenoticism in interpreting this passage; it is metaphysically impossible for God to change. On the other hand, a positive refutation of kenoticism must reckon with the questions it has raised. Was the human condition in all its fullness (e.g., the agony of decision) experienced by Our Lord? If so, what is to be said about such traditional theological assertions as that of Christ's foreknowledge?

See Also: jesus christ (in theology).

Bibliography: p. henry, Dictionnaire de la Bible, suppl. ed. l. pirot, et al. (Paris 1928–) 5:7–161. a. gaudel, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant, 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables générales 1951–) 8.2:2339–49. f. loofs, j. hastings, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion & Ethics, 13 v. (Edinburgh 1908–27) 7:680–687. l. cerfaux, Christ in the Theology of St. Paul, tr. g. webb and a. walker (New York 1959). c. gore, The Incarnation of the Son of God (Bampton Lectures; London 1891). d. g. dawe, "A Fresh Look at the Kenotic Christologies," Scottish Journal of Theology 15 (1962) 337–349.

[j. m. carmody]