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Divine kenosis

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The Christian doctrine of Christ’s self-emptying, often invoked in devotional or mystical poetry

Detailed Definition
Divine kenosis is a theological-poetic concept derived from Christian doctrine (Philippians 2:7), describing God’s self-emptying or voluntary relinquishment of divine attributes to assume human form; in poetry, it manifests as imagery of humility, sacrifice, or vulnerability, where the sacred is portrayed through limitation rather than omnipotence, emphasizing empathy and incarnation.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Philippians 2:6–7, Christ “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant”; George Herbert’s “The Sacrifice” depicts Christ’s voluntary humiliation; Hopkins’s “The Windhover” alludes to kenosis in “the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!” followed by sacrifice; R.S. Thomas’s “Via Negativa” explores divine absence as self-emptying
Additional Notes
Divine kenosis (from Greek “emptying”) is Christ’s self-humiliation in Philippians 2; central to Christian mystical poetry; often expressed through paradox (power in weakness); related to self-emptying imagery and kenotic figures
Also Known As
Christological emptying incarnational humility theological self-effacement divine self-limitation Kenosis
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