This book, written by a team of Christian philosophers, theologians, and biblical scholars, explores the viability of a kenotic account of the incarnation. It is an attempt to make sense of the traditional Christian claim that Jesus of Nazareth was both human and divine by developing the idea that to become human God the Son temporarily emptied himself of some of his divine attributes. Such a view of Jesus does full justice to the very human portraits of him found in the gospels, and it shows the depths of a divine love that is willing fully to embrace the human condition.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Understanding Jesus the Christ as Human and Divine; 2. The New Testament and Kenosis Christology; 3. The Odyssey of Christ: A Novel Context for Philippians 2: 6-11; 4. Nineteenth-Century Kenotic Christology: The Waxing, Waning, and Weighing of a Quest for a Coherent Orthodoxy; 5. Is Kenosis Orthodox?; 6. A Kenotic Christological Method for Understanding the Divine Attributes; 7. Trinity and Kenosis; 8. Kenotic Christology and the Nature of God; 9. 'He descended into hell': The Depths of God's Self-Emptying Love on Holy Saturday in the Thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar; 10. Does Kenosis Rest on a Mistake? Three Kenotic Models in Patristic Exegesis; 11. The Logic of Assumption; 12. Kenosis and Feminist Theory; 13. Conclusion: The Promise of Kenosis

Author Biography

C. Stephen Evans is University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, Baylor University.