kenosis
/kɪˈnəʊsɪs
/noun [mass noun]
(In Christian theology) the renunciation of the divine nature, at least in part, by Christ in the Incarnation.Herbert appeals to the imagery of divine kenosis....
- For Bulgakov, kenosis, the divine self-diminution, is the core revelation of who God is.
- Theology has typically confined the concept of kenosis to the incarnation of the Son.
Derivatives
kenotic
- If, at the same time, we understand divine judgment as kenotic and eschatological, we will be driven to deny that anything we understand by judgment might represent it.
- The divine judgment is unexpected, kenotic, eschatological, and apophatically affirmed and denied.
- This in no way means that God is powerless, as some critics of kenotic theology have complained.
Origin
Late 19th century: from Greek kenōsis 'an emptying', from kenoein 'to empty', from kenos 'empty', with biblical allusion (Phil. 2:7) to Greek heauton ekenōse, literally 'emptied himself'.