Kenosis as a Spirituality and an Ethic: The Church and Secularity

Abstract

In the latter half of the twentieth century, the kenotic conversation made a pronounced shift from ontological speculation about the Incarnation of Christ to discussion about kenosis as a metaphor for God’s self-emptying existence. The kenosis of God is manifest through the crucified Christ who is the standard for authentic human, Spirit-enlivened life. In Western secular culture, where a primary question centres on what it means to be the most genuine version of one’s self, kenosis offers an optimal way for the church to experience, articulate and embody a faithful and relevant response. David Tracy’s hermeneutic of mutually critical correlation offers a method for church-secular dialogue which assumes everybody is asking questions and seeking answers. People must listen to each other, not to the end of achieving a fictitious sociological neutrality, rather with the goal of intelligently upholding distinct points of view. To the question of authentic humanity, contemporary people have come up with some answers. Charles Taylor describes key ways that Western people understand genuine humanity in a “secularity three” culture of “authenticity.” Because the contemporary Western church is grounded in the same philosophical and historical milieu as the wider society, the church and culture are likely to view the situation and solutions in similar categories, providing common ground for conversation. Kenosis as a Christian spirituality and ethic, discovered through the work of German Reformed theologian Jürgen Moltmann, British Anglican W.H. Vanstone, and American Catholic Lucien Richard, offers a way for Christians to raise the conversation about genuine humanity such that it correlates with, expands on and even transforms common understandings.