Date of Award
Fall 1998
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
First Advisor
Masson, Robert
Second Advisor
Dabney, D. Lyle
Third Advisor
Hinze, Bradford
Abstract
One of the strangest -- and most strangely beautiful - statements in all of Scripture is that "Christ Jesus ... through he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of human beings" (Ph 2:5-7). The image of Christ "emptying himself' exercises a powerful fascination on the imaginations of Christians. It seems to express in a particularly moving way something that is at the very heart of their faith. Jurgen Moltrnann claims that the "fundamental idea of Christianity" is "the kenosis of Christ in which the kenosis of God is revealed" (GUL, 118). His statement indicates that kenosis is not merely a christological issue, but a theological one, and a significant one at that: the metaphor of kenosis is a vehicle for key ideas and affirmations about what God is like...