Kenosis

Kenosis Creativity Architecture locates and explores creativity’s grounding in the ancient concept of kenosis, the “emptying” that allows creativity to happen; that makes appearance possible. It concretises that grounding through architecture—a primal expression of human creativity—critically examining, for the first time, kenotic instantiations evidenced in four iconic, international projects; works by Kahn, Pei, Ando, and Libeskind. Then, in a final turn, the potentiality of architecture’s own emptying is probed. Architect and author Randall Lindstrom draws on Western and Eastern philosophy, including that of Heidegger, Levinas, Derrida, Vattimo, Nishida, and Nishitani, as well as on the theology of Christianity, Judaism, and aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Every chapter expands the argument that, if responsiveness to our world is taken seriously—if proper and sustainable responses are to be realised—then a deeper understanding of creativity, and so kenosis, is essential. This book opens-up a way of thinking about creativity and humanity’s readiness to be creative. It thereby presents a crucial enquiry—at the nexus of architecture, philosophy, and theology—for researchers, graduate and postgraduate students, and practitioners alike.

The perennial questions surrounding human identity and meaning have never before been so acute. How we define ourselves is crucial since it determines our conception of society, ethics, sexuality—in short, our very notion of the “good.” The traditional Christian teaching of “deification” powerfully addresses this theme by revealing the sacred dignity and purpose of all created life, and providing a comprehensive vision of reality that extends from the individual to the cosmos. Hans Urs von Balthasar is a valuable guide in elucidating the church’s teaching on this vital subject. Following the patristic tradition, he focuses his attention on Jesus Christ, whose kenotic descent in his incarnation and passion reveals both the loving character of God and the perfection of humanity. Christ is the “concrete analogy of being” who in his two natures as God and man unites heaven and earth. It is the Trinity, however, that brings to fruition the fullness of the meaning of theosis in Balthasar’s theology. The community of divine persons eternally deifies the cosmos by embracing and transforming it into the paradigm of all reality—the imago trinitatis—overcoming the distance between the created and uncreated while maintaining and honoring their difference.

How should we attempt to understand the relationship between theology and science in the twenty-first century? In this book, I will attempt to answer this question by examining several previous attempts to classify this relationship. I also develop my personal view of the relation, thereafter discussing some Catholic contributions to this project, and then revisit some of my previously published material, highlighting the role of panentheism therein, and noting an emergent implication from the literature: the resultant possibilities for God—an implication that creates space for a broadly relational perspective of the process of emergence. These movements allow me to argue that kenosis and emergence can add to the discussion of understanding the theology and science relationship. Herein, I advocate a monistic process-based view of the overlapping relationship between theology and science.

This dissertation is a study of kenosis spirituality aimed at determining how the spiritual formation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) can be effectively infused with a more profound and genuine understanding of kenosis spirituality. Employing a communication-oriented method involving three interconnected and progressive steps, namely, an analysis of syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and concentrating on the role of the text-immanent reader, this study conducts an in-depth textual analysis of five key texts. These have been chosen from the Bible, the Eastern and the Western monastic traditions, the early writings of the CMI, and the Indian Christian Ashram to ascertain a deeper understanding of kenosis spirituality. The study subsequently considers how to introduce insights regarding kenosis into the CMI's spiritual formation. Pratheesh Michael Pulickal, from Kerala, India, a Catholic priest of the Syro-Malabar rite, belongs to the CMI Congregation.

The self-emptying of Christ, proclaimed in the letter to the Philippians 2:7, remains a much-debated topic in modern theology and exegesis. This book brings the insights of Greek Christianity to the understanding of kenosis to illustrate that new dimensions of the topic open up when it is examined in the historical era of early Christianity.

This collection of essays, by a team of Christian philosophers, theologians, and biblical scholars, explores the viability of a kenotic account of the incarnation. Such an account is inspired by Paul's lyrical claims in Philippians 2:6-11 that Christ Jesus, though God in nature, 'emptied himself' or 'made himself nothing' by becoming human. The biblical support for such a view can be found throughout the four gospels and the book of Hebrews, as well as in other places. A kenotic account takes seriously the possibility that Christ, in becoming incarnate, temporarily divested himself of such properties as omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. Several of the contributors argue that this view is fully orthodox, and that it has great strengths in giving us a picture of a God who is willing to become completely vulnerable for the sake of human beings, and one that is completely consistent with the very human portrait of Jesus in the New Testament. The proponents of kenotic Christology argue that the philosophical accounts of God's nature that have led to rejection of this theory ought themselves to be subjected to criticism in light of the biblical data. Some essays test the theory by raising critical questions and arguing that traditional accounts of the incarnation can achieve the goals of kenotic theories as well as kenotic theories can. The book also explores the implications of a kenotic view of the incarnation for philosophical theology in general and the doctrine of the Trinity in particular, and it concludes with essays that examine the validity of the ideal of kenosis for women, and a challenge to traditional Christology to take a kenotic theory seriously. Book jacket.

The orthodox doctrine of the incarnation affirms that Christ is both truly divine and truly human. This, however, raises the question of how these two natures can co-exist in the one, united person of Christ without undermining the integrity of either nature. Kenotic theologians address this problem by arguing that Christ 'emptied' himself of his divine attributes or prerogatives in order to become a human being. David R. Law contends that a type of kenotic Christology is present in Kierkegaard's works, developed independently of the Christologies of contemporary kenotic theologians. Like many of the classic kenotic theologians of the 19th century, Kierkegaard argues that Christ underwent limitation on becoming a human being. Where he differs from his contemporaries is in emphasizing the radical nature of this limitation and in bringing out its existential consequences. The aim of Kierkegaard's Christology is not to provide a rationally satisfying theory of the incarnation, but to highlight the existential challenge with which Christ confronts each human being. Kierkegaard advances 'existential kenoticism', a form of kenotic Christology which extends the notion of the kenosis of Christ to the Christian believer, who is called upon to live a life of kenotic discipleship in which the believer follows Christ's example of lowly, humble, and suffering service. Kierkegaard thus shifts the problem of kenosis from the intellectual problem of working out how divinity and humanity can be united in Christ's Person to the existential problem of discipleship.

Despite his vast importance to twentieth-century theology, Jurgen Moltmann's Christology has yet to receive the same level of in-depth exploration as other topics in his thought. Samuel Youngs addresses this lacuna, providing the first exhaustive analysis of Moltmann's doctrine of Christ, including its key developments and controversial elements. Youngs argues that Moltmann's doctrine of Christ is best understood as a unique variation of kenotic Christology. This vision of Christ encapsulates not only a series of vibrant ethical and eschatological points, but also serves Moltmann's overarching theological goal of empowering a church that lives and ministers "under the cross." Part I highlights key facets of Moltmann's theological method before unfolding the range of diverse themes that characterize his Christology. Part II explores Moltmann's use of the "kenosis hymn" of Philippians 2, before interrogating Moltmann's relationship to christological tradition. Part III engages in an original systematization of Moltmann's Christology, centered on the theme of manifold, relational kenosis.