KEN081S, ke-norisis (Greek, an •emptying, a depletion), the self-renunciation and self-lim itation of the Son of God manifested in the in carnation. Even in very early Christian times there were at least three distinct views held as to the relation of the God-Christ to the man Christ. These views were influenced by the Jewish conception of a traditional Christ, the Egyptian doctrine of the incarnation of Osiris, son of the great sun god, Ra, and the specula tions of the Romans, Greeks and Persians as to the nature of their own gods which strangely mingled human with divine attributes. From Egypt, Rome and the Eastern Empire came views of the Kenosis, influenced by local tradi tions and the early training and education of the contestants, in the days when Christian the ology and dogma were in the making. The mys-: tery of the self-emptying of the divine manner of being that took place at the incarnation of the second person of the trinity; the laying aside of the eternal and the assumption of a time form of existence formed an ever-fruitful sub ject of speculation in an age long given to specu lation as to the manner of being of things di vine. Christianity introduced a new feature in the speculation, that of the self-abasement of the God-Christ, a feature upon whith the Chris tians laid great stress, no doubt owing to the strong character of Paul and some of the earlier fathers who linked the historical Christ firmly With the Jewish traditional Christ. This link ing of the two created a wide field for specula tion as the subject was viewed from the Jewish or the Christian point of view or it was influ enced by the traditions and philosophical, specu lations of the scholars of the Eastern and the Western Empires and the mythological concep tions of the new converts to Christianity • in Egypt and froni among the Germanic and other races of Europe and southwestern Asia. The relation of the incarnate God to his own self abasement in the assumption of humanity and the occultation of his own divinity; the restric tions, pains and penalties to which he submitted during his earthly life; and the exhibition of his divine power on noted occasions like the resur rection, ascension and transfiguration, intro duced a new element into the religious specula tion of the early centuries of Christianity, an element that proved very attractive to the mysti cal, speculative spirit of the age with which Paul seems to have been well acquainted, Speculation, concerned itself as to what extent the God-Christ laid aside his divine form of existence, dignity and glory .on becoming in
carnate; and •as to how much of the divine es sence he divested himself of in the kenosis. Some speculative theologians maintained that the kenosis consisted in the simple laying aside the attributes of divine glory and the divine form of existence. Others held that with these went the divine power which could not be a co dweller with incarnation; and that Christ's infra,. des were performed not by power that he had retained from his divine existence, but through the power that came to him from God the father. Other theologians went the extreme limit and upheld the doctrine that, at the in carnation, the Son of God completely emptied himself the divine essence, thus altogether suspending the union and the divine function ing of the trinity during his incarnate existence upon earth. Between these three more or less distinct views of the relation of Christ to his incarnation, there were various different shades of opinion, most of them influenced by the speculative thought of the age and the popular and the priestly doctrine of a paganism still vigorous in many strongholds. The Eastern Western churches held different views of the Kenosis; and the opinions of the early church fathers did not agree with those who followed Augustine whose personality, so thoroughly im pressed on his contemporaries, was destined to powerfully influence all future Christian thought.