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e. It virtually destroys the incarnation. Lutherans distinguish between the incarnatio and the
exinanitio. The Logos is the subject only of the former. He makes the human nature receptive
for the inhabitation of the fulness of the Godhead and communicates to it some of the divine
attributes. But by doing this He virtually abrogates the human nature by assimilating it to the
divine. Thus only the divine remains.
f. It also practically obliterates the distinction between the state of humiliation and the state of
exaltation. Brenz even says that these were not successive states, but states that co-existed
during the earthly life of Christ. To escape the difficulty here, the Lutherans brought in the
doctrine of the exinanitio, of which not the Logos but the God-man is the subject, to the effect
that He practically emptied Himself, or laid aside the divine attributes. Some spoke of a
constant but secret, and others of an intermittent use of them.
F. THE KENOSIS DOCTRINE IN VARIOUS FORMS.
About the middle of the nineteenth century a new form of Christology made its appearance in
the Kenotic theories. It found favor especially among the Lutherans, but also with some
Reformed theologians. It represents part of an attempt to bring the Lutheran and the Reformed
sections of the Church closer together. The advocates of this new view desired to do full justice
to the reality and integrity of the manhood of Christ, and to stress the magnitude of His self-
denial and self-sacrifice.
1. STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE.
The term “kenosis” is used in a two-fold sense in theology.
Originally it was used by Lutheran theologians to denote the self-limitation, not of the Logos,
but of the God-man, whereby He, in the interest of His humiliation, laid aside the actual use of
His divine attributes. In the teachings of the Kenoticists, however, it signalized the doctrine that
the Logos at the incarnation was denuded of His transitive or of all His attributes, was reduced
to a mere potentiality, and then, in union with the human nature, developed again into a
divine-human person. The main forms in which this doctrine were taught are the following:
a. The theory of Thomasius, Delitzsch and Crosby.
Thomasius distinguishes between the
absolute and essential attributes of God, such as absolute power, holiness, truth, and love, and
His relative attributes, which are not essential to the Godhead, such as omnipotence,
omnipresence, and omniscience; and maintains that the Logos while retaining His divine self-
consciousness, laid the latter aside, in order to take unto Himself veritable human nature.
b. The theory of Gess and H. W. Beecher.
This is far more thorough-going. La Touche speaks of
it as “incarnation by divine suicide.” The Logos so depotentiated Himself of all His divine
attributes that He literally ceased from His cosmic functions and His eternal consciousness
during the years of His earthly life. His consciousness became purely that of a human soul, and