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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 act of emptying or self-emptying, particularly in religious poetry where it refers to Christ's renunciation of divine attributes; it represents humility, sacrifice, and the radical vulnerability of divine love.

Detailed Definition
Kenosis in poetry denotes a rhetorical or thematic emptying—of self, voice, or meaning—often to convey humility, spiritual surrender, or existential void; drawing from theological concepts, it appears in devotional or minimalist verse where absence becomes a site of revelation or silence.
Example
Example in poetry:
Kenosis: In R.S. Thomas’s religious poetry, kenosis (self-emptying) appears as the poet relinquishes ego to approach divine silence, as in “The Absence” where God’s void is embraced.
Additional Notes
Kenosis: Self-emptying, especially Christ’s humility (Phil. 2:7); in poetry, signifies humility, erasure, or surrender—e.g., in devotional lyrics or minimalist poetics (George Herbert’s “The Collar”).
Also Known As
Self-emptying Divine kenosis Humiliation doctrine Voluntary limitation
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